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August 20, 2008 5:22:09 PM CDT

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Canada Declares Polar Bears 'At Risk'

Posted Apr 26, 08 1:07 PM CDT in Science & Health,  World 

(Newser) – Canada has classified polar bears as a species of “special concern” requiring legislative protection, the BBC reports. While the panel of experts stopped short of declaring the bears endangered, it said that melting ice and hunting problems had put the bears in jeopardy. Canada is home to 15,000 bears, and the summer sea ice they prowl may be completely gone by 2014.

“Based on the best available information at hand, there was insufficient reason to think that the polar bear was at imminent risk of extinction,” said the panel’s chairman, explaining the decision to keep the bears off the endangered list. “That’s not to say that it’s not in trouble. A special concern species is a species at risk.” Canada’s environment minister must accept the report but needn't act on it immediately.

Source BBC

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A polar bear and her two cubs in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada on. Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007.   (AP Photo/ The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)
A mother polar bear stretches with her cubs behind her in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada in this Nov. 4, 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward, File)
A polar bear mother and her two cubs in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, in this Nov. 6, 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,Jonathan Hayward)
A polar bear looks in the window of a tundra buggy as tourists photograph him near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada in this Nov. 2, 2006 file photo.   (AP Photo/Jonathan Hayward, File)
A polar bear cub kisses his mother in Wapusk National Park on the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007.   (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)
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climate change  • environment  • Canada  • animal  • endangered species  • Arctic  • polar bear


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