Frozen Planet II

Harp seals face a difficult future due to the rapid disappearance of sea ice in the Arctic. Seals use the sea ice for giving birth and providing a shelter for their newborn pups for their first six weeks, crucial time in which they build up the strength and skill to begin swimming. If the sea ice disappears too quickly, the pups are at risk of drowning. Scientists in Canada fit trackers to juvenile harp seals to better understand where they go after being independent.

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As the summer sea ice melts faster, polar bears are being forced to swim up to 400 miles to find dry land, such as Wrangel Island in Russia. Here, scientists are using fur traps to obtain hair samples with which they can estimate the number of bears that are on the island. Unable to find the calorie-rich seals they usually hunt on the sea ice, the bears have been seen in increasingly alarming numbers in coastal towns in Siberia, desperate to eat whatever they can, and posing a danger to humans.

The Inuit people in Qaanaaq, Greenland, have depended on the sea ice for sustenance for centuries. Dogs are a vital means by which communities separated by great distances can stay connected and trade goods. With dwindling sea ice however, even experienced dogs are increasingly unable to find safe passage on what once used to be reliable routes through.

A warming climate has also affected one of the largest colonies of Adélie penguins, which has decreased from 20,000 adults to just 400 breeding pairs in 40 years. Warmer air brings increased rainfall, which has meant that chicks that have yet to develop their parents' waterproofed feathers are at risk of hypothermia from being constantly soaked. Many such chicks are too weak to even defend themselves against predatory skuas.

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