Researchers have documented polar bears preying on and eating dolphins for the first time ever as the cold habitat shrinks.

The team of scientists at the Norwegian High Arctic saw an adult male polar bear prey on two white-beaked dolphins. The polar bear ate one of the animals and covered the other with snow, possibility to save it for later.

The team had documented their findings in the June 1 issue of Polar Research. They pointed out that, they further discovered at least seven other dolphin carcasses believed to have been scavenged on by six different polar bears.

Jon Aars, one of the researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said, "It is likely that new species are appearing in the diet of polar bears due to climate change because new species are finding their way north."Aars said that the believes that a pod of dolphins arrived into the Arctic, attracted by warm water and retreating ice and got stuck as strong winds might have brought ice. The polar bear likely caught the two dolphins when they came up to breathe through small holes in ice.

Experts said that the ice is retreating and there are fewer seals for the polar bears, whichconstitute much of a polar bears' standard diet.