Polar Bears to Join Species at Risk List

Overhunting, melting Arctic ice threaten the habitats and livelihoods of Canada's 15,000 polar bears.

The federal government will soon list polar bears as a “species at risk” due to shrinking Arctic ice and overhunting in the north. The massive mammals will be marked as a species of special concern, one level above “threatened” and two above “endangered.” The listing comes on the advice of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, a group that advises the government on threats facing animals across the country. About 15,000 polar bears live in one of 13 different subpopulations across Canada's North. Four of those groups' territories have become threatened in recent years by melting ice and a lack of food, which often leads to the bears wandering to human settlements to avoid starvation.