Polar Bears No Longer Top Predators In The North

Killer whales may be coming to take the crown as the top predator of the North, taking the title away from the polar bears.

In a report by Vice, the sight of a killer whale is not rare in Churchill, Manitoba, these days. Because the lack of sea ice allowed them to move into the bay, the town's polar bear capital seems to be making large changes in their landscape as their numbers decline, thanks to climate change.

Steve Ferguson from the Fisheries and Oceans Canada told CBC that they are "seeing a lot more killer whale activity in Hudson Bay and they are a top predator." He also added that these creatures are magnificent and interesting, and highly efficient. "They appear to be eating other whales and seals and, I would imagine, if we lose our sea ice they will replace polar bears as that top predator."

It is not like orcas actually live like Free Willy after all. These marine animals are more closely related to dolphins, but they kill whales that are considerably larger than they are, thus their original name -- "whale killers."

Due to the fact that the Arctic is warming up twice as fast as the rest of the planet, The New York Times noted that the ice cover has been retreating at an accelerated pace, which does not bode well for polar bears, that, despite being called the largest of the bear subspecies, rely on the ice to survive. Steve Amstrup of the Polar Bears International stated that, "as the sea ice goes, so goes the polar bear."

The effect of climate change is not clear-cut for polar bears, but out of 19 subpopulations of polar bears in five countries, three populations are already falling in number, while six are stable. The increasing temperatures are also causing the orcas to move further into the Hudson Bay, causing the drastic change in the Arctic food chain.