Extreme Arctic melt pushes thousands of walruses ashore
Posted on 13. Sep, 2010 by Allen Smith in Buzz
The alarming pace of Arctic warming is pushing the wildlife there to the edge, triggering mass starvation and death.
Warming temperatures in the high Arctic regions are transforming snowfalls to freezing rains that forces the otherwise wildlife to move elsewhere and creating hard life for these animals.
According to US Geological Survey lack of sea ice is pushing several thousands of walruses ashore in the Chukchi area of northwest Alaska. The numbers were estimated to tens of thousands by USGS biologist Anthony Fischbach, so they are almost shoulder brushing at the shore. It is also worrying the Arctic biologists that the mass camping could result in stampede of female walruses and the calves, in the northwest Alaska.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to alter the flight direction to prevent spooking of the wildlife at the shores which may cause stampede and killing of the animals.
Sea ice from the Chukchi has almost disappeared this summer which surprised the scientists as there was lots of floating sea ice during the winter according to Mark Serreze, Director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Global warming caused lot of changes in the Arctic landscape and wildlife there is becoming victim.
The massive push of walruses to the shore isn’t uncommon and it has happened earlier in 2007 as well as 2009 but what move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States. But it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009.
