The final moments of a polar bear’s life were captured in incredibly painful footage filmed by Paul Nicklen, a photographer and marine biologist from the Sea Legacy conservation group. Upon arriving at Baffin Island in the summer of 2017, the team spotted a starving polar bear which was so weak and malnutritioned he was struggling to use his hind legs which seem to be failing.

The starving bear is then seen chewing on a piece of burnt foam he found in a bin. Out of energy, the bear was estimated to have just a few hours left of his life left and was seen laying down then spotted moving towards the beach where he swam away. The lack of interference of the film makers caused a controversy. However, the bear was beyond saving as the main source of nutrition for these bears are seals which have become harder to hunt due to the depletion of sea ice, their main hunting ground.

In addition to the fact that feeding bears is illegal in Canada, the team did not have access to enough food to save the bear, leaving them with the only option of killing another animal to save the bear. That would have started another moral controversy. The condition of this starving bear demonstrates some of the severe consequences of climate change.