World’s polar bear population has been shrinking at a quite fast pace. Latest study by the US scientists confirmed that all the 19 known populations of Ursusmaritimus have been badly hit by the earlier sea ice melt in the Arctic spring, and due to the delayed onset of ice every autumn.

The latest revelation hasn’t shocked many people because of the continuous warnings by conservationists about such things for long. Amid all such concerns, polar bear has become an icon of climate change related issues. Generally, in cases of species threat, both winners and losers exist.

The new study appeared in The Cryosphere, a journal of theEuropean Geosciences Union, has confirmed that the particular case has no winners because the ice was in retreat for entire polar bear society.

Arctic is left with 25,000 or so surviving bears, and all of them depend on the ice for survival, food and breeding success. Some of the bears stay on ice year long, but southerly populations live ashore during summers. They seasonally feast on seals and other sea mammals for nourishment to stay alive till the next breeding season.

Kristin Laidre, principal scientist at the University of Washington's Polar Science Centre (PSC), said, “Sea ice really is their platform for life. They are capable of existing on land for part of the year, but the sea ice is where they obtain their main prey”.

With the help of 35 years of satellite data, Laidre and her co-author, Harry Stern, principal mathematician at the PSC, analyzed sea ice concentrations across the Arctic.

They noted that in the period between 1979 and 2014, the total number of ice-covered days fell at the rate of seven to 19 days per ten years. Sea ice decline was also noted in summer in all areas, by between 1% and 9% per ten years.