Polar bear mother and cub in Baffin Bay, Canadian Arctic.
The U.S. government has proposed adding polar bears to its list of endangered species due to threats to the animals' habitat from global warming.
The U.S. proposal came after a lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace that claims the government has failed to respond quickly enough to the polar bears' plight.
H. Dale Hall, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told a news conference that the Bush administration now agrees with the conservation groups' assertions that the polar bear population could fall by more than 30 percent within 45 years due to "the warming of the climate."
As warming accelerated the melting of Arctic ice in recent years, polar bears were spotted taking unusually long swims between the ice floes, with some drowning.
Photo: Peter Van Wagner