Walruses have traversed the Arctic for millennia, gregarious pinnipeds that rest en masse on drifting pack ice, diving to feed on crabs, clams and other seafloor delicacies. Icy platforms also serve as safe birthing and nursery grounds. But as the far north rapidly warms and sea ice disappears, some herds now huddle on overcrowded shorelines, with deadly consequences for young calves: Because more disturbances occur on shore than at sea, calves are regularly trampled during panicked stampedes by the 1-ton-plus adults. Climate-driven changes are affecting other wildlife across this land of snow and ice. On the Arctic tundra, lemmings now struggle to eat, nest and move during the eight winter months they live beneath the snow, as they endure “weather whiplash,” with ever more severe fluctuations in temperature, snow and rain, says ecologist Dorothee Ehrich, at the Climate Ecological Observatory for Arctic Tundra with Norway’s Arctic University. As warming escalates, animals are on the move, bringing new diseases north. In December, officials reported that H5N1 avian flu infected and killed a polar bear — a global first. This highly infectious strain has circulated internationally since 2021, jumping between species, and has reached the polar region. It’s just one example of new pathogens there, raising serious concern because isolated Arctic species have little immunity to disease. Walruses have a diverse diet, feeding on dozens of genera of marine organisms, but the species prefers bivalve mollusks for which it forages by diving and grazing along the shallow sea bottom. Image © Steve…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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