Plastic waste makes up one-quarter of polar bears’ diet as climate change pushes them closer to human settlements, Russian scientists have said while warning that the plastic risks killing the animals.
Polar bears have been forced to scavenge for food on land as climate change damages their sea-ice habitats. The animals have increasingly come into contact with people, and images of them wandering into cities in Siberia and rummaging through garbage in the Russian Arctic made international headlines this year.
This increasing contact allowed scientists to examine the gut and excrement contents of polar bears that eat out of garbage dumps, Ivan Mizin, deputy director of the Russian Arctic national park, told Interfax on Tuesday.
Read more at https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/26/polar-bears-diet-is-25-plastic-russian-scientists-say-a68322
