A polar bear has been killed by bird flu as the highly contagious H5N1 virus spreads into the most remote parts of the planet.
The death was confirmed in December by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. “This is the first polar bear case reported, for anywhere,” Dr Bob Gerlach, Alaska’s state veterinarian, told the Alaska Beacon.
It was found near Utqiagvik, one of the northernmost communities in Alaska, two years after this latest strain was detected in North America. Gerlach said it was likely the bear was scavenging on the carcasses of infected birds.
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The current outbreak of the highly infectious variant of H5N1 – which started in 2021 – is estimated to have killed millions of wild birds. Globally, thousands of mammals have also died of the virus, including black bears and brown bears. Bald eagles, foxes and kittiwakes are among the species to have died of the virus in Alaska in recent months.
The bird is sick, bird dies, bear eats bird, bear dies.
It shows that this particular influenza strain can infect both bears and birds.
Wash your hands, stay home if you’re sick, don’t eat birds that have died from influenza.
Ok, but… polar bears eat birds?
Polar bears aren’t picky where their calories come from and they need a lot of them.
Also we should take into account the lack of sea ice which means the bears can’t hunt marine food sources.
Yes, pretty much anything that is available.
https://polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears-changing-arctic/polar-bear-facts/diet-prey/
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If only AI summaries were half as good as this.
And if you’re a bot… fucking bravo.