Richard Collins: Warming Arctic sees polar bears spending more time on shore

The polar seas are warming at an alarming rate. The ice is melting more rapidly, and earlier, each year. Areas which used to be covered in winter are now ice-free. Bears find it increasingly difficult to hunt successfully and they have a shorter season in which to do so

Human fatalities due to bears are still exceedingly rare. 73 wild bear attacks were recorded across the five polar bear states (Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the US) between 1870 and 2014, resulting in 20 deaths and 63 injuries. "Nutritionally-stressed adult males" posed the greatest threat. Females tended to attack only in defence of cubs. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

About 150 souls live in Wales — a coastal village on the Alaskan side of the Bering Strait.

On January 17 last, Summer Myomick and her one-year-old son were walking near the school there. According to an AP News report, there was a snowstorm at the time and the 24-year-old mother failed to notice that a polar bear was stalking them. It attacked. Locals tried to drive it off using shovels, but the bear turned and chased them into the school. Myomick and her child were mauled to death before the bear could be shot.