Polar bears exposed to diseases as climate crisis further warms Arctic, warns new study

face a growing risk of contracting viruses, bacteria and parasites that they were less likely to encounter just 30 years ago as a result of research has revealed.

Not only is the species threatened by rising temperatures melting their habitat, a new study has also provided clues about how polar bear disease could also be linked to ice loss.

Scientists examined blood samples from bears in the Chukchi Sea - between Alaska and and tested for six different pathogens in total - viruses, bacteria or parasites.

Wildlife biologist Dr Karyn Rode from the US Geological Survey said it was difficult to determine how the bears physical health was impacted but it showed that something was changing in the Arctic ecosystem.The study covered three decades, Dr Rode said, “when there had been a substantial loss of sea ice and there’s been increased land use in [this population of polar bears].

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“So we wanted to know if exposure had changed - particularly for some of these pathogens that we think are primarily land-oriented.”

The five pathogens, as disease-causing agents are collectively called, that have become more common in polar bears, are two parasites that cause toxoplasmosis and neosporosis, two types of bacteria that cause rabbit fever and brucellosis, and the virus that causes canine distemper.

"Bears in general are pretty robust to disease," explained Dr Rode. "It's not typically been known to affect bear population, but I think what it just highlights is that things [in the Arctic] are changing."

Scientists say the biggest threat to their future is the continuing loss of sea ice habitat, which they depend on as a platform from which to pounce on their marine prey. Dr Rode explained: “Our study suggested that they're getting their exposure to some pathogens primarily through their prey species.

“So what we saw as changes in pathogen exposure for polar bears is indicative of changes that other species are also experiencing.”

There are about 26,000 polar bears left in the , with the majority in . Populations are also found in the US, Russia, Greenland and Norway

Polar bears are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with climate change a key factor in their decline.

The study comes at the same time UN experts have warned that the international goal to limit dangerous global warming will "soon be dead" without a massive mobilisation to cut emissions.

In its annual report on the gap between cuts needed to limit global warming to 1.5C and what countries are doing and have pledged to do, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned the world was currently on track for temperature rises of 2.6C to 3.1C.

The warning comes ahead of this year's UN Cop29 talks in Baku, in fossil-fuel rich Azerbaijan, where nations are facing calls to agree bolder action.

Countries agreed to limit temperature rises to "well below" 2C and pursue efforts to curb them to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels at the Paris climate talks in 2015.

Responding to the report, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said the world was "teetering on a planetary tight rope".

"Either leaders bridge the emissions gap, or we plunge headlong into climate disaster - with the poorest and most vulnerable suffering the most," he said.

He said already people were suffering from monster hurricanes, biblical floods and record heat which was turning forests into tinder boxes and cities into saunas, and warned "current policies are taking us towards a catastrophic 3.1C temperature rise by the end of the century".

He said governments must drive down all greenhouse gas emissions, weaning the world off fossil fuels, accelerating the roll out of renewables and halting and reversing deforestation, and agree a new finance goal at Cop29 to unlock the huge sums of money developing countries need to tackle climate change.

Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, said: "Climate crunch time is here.

"We need global mobilisation on a scale and pace never seen before - starting right now, before the next round of climate pledges - or the 1.5C goal will soon be dead and well below 2C will take its place in the intensive care unit."