Heartbreaking photos show emaciated and starving grizzly bears desperately searching for fish although dwindling salmon populations in Canada, just a month before the animals will burrow for warm hibernation.
A mother bear is hunting salmon with her two cubs. However, they clearly show a thin face and body, and the skeletal and muscular lines are evident in their fur due to their low weight.
Commercial fishermen in British Columbia have called this year their worst salmon season in nearly 50 years.
Experts say human activity like salmon farming, which pollutes water and leads to fish disease, and climate change, which warms water temperatures, has contributed to declining fish populations reduce.
The grieving images stand in stark contrast to the bears preparing for winter by gnawing on food elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Katmai National Park in Alaska is hosting Fat Bear Week 2019 from October 2-8, where fans vote for photos of their favorite chunky bears at the park.
Canadian grizzly bears are the latest victims of a warming climate.
A report released by the Canadian Oceans and Fisheries Foundation warns that Canada’s climate is warming twice as fast as the global average and is starting to impact wild salmon populations severely.
‘Heat waves in warmer seas, rivers and lakes, food web changes, increased floods and droughts, as well as other freshwater habitat changes are all affecting salmon,’ the report said.
