Other Arctic Animals At Far Higher Risk Than Bears From Thinning Ice Pack - Times-Dispatch

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CHARLOTTESVILLE The polar bear has become the furry face of climate change in the Arctic. The bear is deserving, but other animals -- particularly the walrus and a living sausage called the ribbon seal -- are in even worse peril, a University of Virginia researcher says. "Polar bears are very familiar to people," said G. Carleton Ray, "but actually they are not as endangered as these seals and walruses."

Ray, 79, has been studying animals in the Bering Sea region since the late 1950s. His wife and fellow marine ecologist, Jerry McCormick-Ray, 64, has been working there since the early 1980s. She concentrates on clams -- the favorite dish of the walrus -- and other small animals living on the sea floor. Scientists say global warming is particularly apparent in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, where research indicates floes of sea ice are increasingly melting away.

Polar bears, walruses and ribbon seals use sea ice as platforms for reproducing and feeding. If the ice disappears, doesn't remain long enough or becomes too thin, the animals' numbers could drop drastically as the parents don't adequately reproduce and abandoned youngsters starve.

Polar bears could potentially persist in much lower numbers on land, Ray said. "The point is, these guys are totally dependent on the sea ice," he said of the seals and walruses. "That's it."

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