Polar bears are eating each other:

"During 24 years of research on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and 34 years in northwestern Canada, we have not seen other incidents of polar bears stalking, killing, and eating other polar bears," the scientists said.

Environmentalists contend shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century.

It's George Bush's fault of course. If only we'd signed on to Kyoto.

Actually, while it helps emphasize the surprise of the researchers, the fact that they haven't seen it in such a short period of time tells us nothing about how common it is historically. And in any event, the American Geophysical Union says that we can't definitively blame it on SUVs.

Sorry, Al.

Well, since Polar Bears and Black Bears are mating with each other, maybe it's really Mulatto Bears that are killing the Polar Bears, or vice-versa... It's Racism, I tells ya!

I'm with you, Rand. The fact that they're "just now" seeing this behaviour doesn't mean it's increased, it just means that they finally got around to seeing it happen. And, perhaps the "shrinking polar ice" also means that researchers and bears will be closer to each other, since the bears can't roam as freely anymore...

If polar bears eat seals and the polar ice shrinks, wouldn't the seals be easier to catch on the smaller amount of ice and wouldn't the fish be uneffected?

Perhaps instead of blaming shrinking ice and global warming they should blame Canada for baby seal hunting.

Maybe polar bear meat tastes better than seal and fish? Maybe we're watching bear gang warfare and just interpretting it through our primitive primate worldview.

Polar bears kill other bears for population regulation, dominance and reproductive advantage, the paper said. The most common might be the killing of cubs by a male polar bear to interrupt a female's lactation cycle, said principal author Steven Amstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center.

Killing for food seems to be less common, he said Monday.

"During 24 years of research on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and 34 years in northwestern Canada, we have not seen other incidents of polar bears stalking, killing and eating other polar bears," the scientists said.

Well I guess the and is the key word. Because otherwise, it seems to be well acknowledged that Polar Bears often stalk and kill other polar bears. Grizzly Bears have long been known to be cannibals, and that's not automatically linked to global warming. Other than stories of survival at seas, reports of human cannibalism rarely had anything to do with lack of other food sources, and most of those cases predated the internal combustion engine.

I've always heard that male polar bears can eat young polar bears if the mother can't protect them.

The artricle doesn't say how close together these kills ocurred. Could all the kills be attributed to one male?

The article says that the male fell through the roof of the den. They didn't find the male, so there could have been a fight between the new mother, protecting the cubs, and the male.

Environmentalists contend shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century.

Environmentalists would blame a flat tire in rush-hour traffic on global warming.

Every time I turn around, there's another mortal threat to bears.

(Just what is it about bears, anyway?)

I'm sure it's all Bush's fault.

I hate it when bears turn on each other.

Shoudn't there be some sort of ursine solidarity?