Alligator attacks will be next

Some news from CNN-

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea may be turning to cannibalism because longer seasons without ice keep them from getting to their natural food, a new study by American and Canadian scientists has found.

The study reviewed three examples of polar bears preying on each other from January to April 2004 north of Alaska and western Canada, including the first-ever reported killing of a female in a den shortly after it gave birth.

Polar bears feed primarily on ringed seals and use sea ice for feeding, mating and giving birth.

Polar bears kill each other for population regulation, dominance, and reproductive advantage, the study said. Killing for food seems to be less common, said the study's principal author, Steven Amstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center.

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Environmentalists contend shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century.

The Center for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree, California, in February 2005 petitioned the federal government to list polar bears as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Cannibalism demonstrates the effect on bears, said Kassie Siegal, lead author of the petition.

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Deborah Williams of Alaska Conservation Solutions, a group aimed at pursuing solutions for climate change, said the study represents the "bloody fingerprints" of global warming.

Hat tip- Right Wing Nation

TFM has stayed out of the global warming debate. Both sides of the blogosphere are good at citing their own experts, but how many of them have studied it independently? My guess is not many. I'm not trained or educated enough to, and citing other's opinions as my own just isn't the way I prefer to blog.

Cannibalistic polar bears? Almost as unbelievable as 3 hurricanes hitting my hometown in 13 months or pythons imploding in the Everglades. Rembember you heard it hear first about alligator attacks and global warming. I'm just waiting for the headline.

Open Post- Third World County, Bright & Early,