The polar bear. Climate change poses a real threat to its habitat, the ice sheets in the Arctic.
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Depletion or Arctic ice has left the polar bear with far fewer seals to hunt for food.Photo: Jon Langeland
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The polar bear is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN and its numbers have declined in many parts of the Arctic.Photo: Jon Langeland
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A bear yawning, one of Langeland's iconic pictures of the animal.Photo: Jon Langeland
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Finishing off the carcass of a seal.
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Long periods without ice force the polar bear to seek even a carcass.Photo: Jon Langeland
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The restricted availablity of seals has led to nutritional problems, infant mortality and even affected the bears' reproductive capacity.Photo: Jon Langeland
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The polar bear is a unique and highly evolved predator, yet it is vulnerable because it is highly evolved to a specific ecological requirement. Here, after preying on a seal.Photo: Jon Langeland
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Scientists say there has been a depletion of at least 14 per cent of Arctic ice since 1979. Such melting of sea ice has the potential to threaten the very existence of the polar bear.Photo: Jon Langeland
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They need a platform of ice to live and hunt seals because they cannot swim long distances.Photo: Jon Langeland
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The substratum is the ideal breeding ground for seals, the bear's prey.
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After a swim.Photo: Jon Langeland
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There are an estimated 25,000 polar bears in the Arctic, and at the current rate of global warming, two-thirds of them could be gone by mid-century.Photo: Jon Langeland
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Will the world wake up to the dangers of the fragmentation of Arctic ice, and save the polar bear?Photo: Jon Langeland
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Jon Langeland shooting a seal.Photo: By Special Arrrangement
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