White Nosed Dolphin Are Now on the Menu for Polar Bears!!! Awwww....so sad!!!

There is a group of Islands called Svalbard Islands in the Artic Ocean near Norway. And recently, Polar Bears have been spotted feasting on white nosed dolphins who have begun to swim up that way because there is less ice now. This is due to global warming, of course. The less ice during the spring was first noticed in 2013. These dolphins rarely venture so far north in the Arctic; they prefer the sub-Arctic, which has less sea ice and more open water. "If it had been a more usual sea-ice year, I do not think the dolphins would have been that far north in the spring," said Jon Aars, primary author of the study and a research scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute. [See Stunning Photos of the Polar Bears Eating Dolphins on Svalbard]

The polar bear observed feeding on a dolphin likely grabbed its prey from an oval-shaped hole in the sea ice measuring about 2 feet by 2.5 feet (60 by 75 cm). The hole was covered with slushy ice, and surrounded by sea ice a little more than half a foot (20 cm) thick. The hole marked the only break in solid sea ice, and was likely a "breathing hole" kept open by the dolphins after they made their way to the fjord during the ice-free stint. Breathing holes can be miles apart, and the researchers found no other open cracks or holes in the vicinity. Dolphins can be trapped in the ice and drown, or killed by whales and bears while catching a breath of air.

"We were surprised, as we had not thought we would see dolphins in that area that time of year, and also because polar bears [had previously not been] recorded taking or eating dolphins," Aars told Live Science in an email. "We were not so surprised of bears being able to take dolphins, given the dolphins were there." He noted that polar bears are also known to devour belugas andnarwhals, both of which are larger than the dolphins.