Due to the climate change, polar bears are forced to turn on each other for survival. Male polar bears are attacking females and cubs while mother bears are eating their babies. Also, industrial companies were moving into the area—forcing polar bears out of their natural hunting bases. 

According to the researcher, the rise of cannibalism could also be due to the increase in human activity in the Arctic who were there to witness the events. 

Mordvintsev stated, “Cases of cannibalism among polar bears are a long-established fact, but we’re worried that such cases used to be found rarely while now they are recorded quite often.”

“We state that cannibalism in polar bears is increasing.”

Ice levels in the Arctic decreased by at least 40% over the last 25 years, causing the lack of food source and cannibalism within the area. 

Naturally, polar bears use sea ice to hunt their prey, but with the lack of ice they are forced to stay in the shore wherein food is scarce. 

Humans who are setting up shops in the bears’ habitat for fossil fuel extraction are also to be blamed. 

“This winter the area from the Gulf of Ob to the Barents Sea, where polar bears used to hunt, is now a busy route for ships carrying LNG (liquefied natural gas),” Mordvintsev said.

“The Gulf of Ob was always a hunting ground for the polar bear. Now it has broken ice all year round,” he continued, linking this change to active gas extraction on the huge Yamal peninsula bordering the Gulf of Ob, and the launch of an Arctic LNG plant.