Population assessments have revealed that polar bears in Greenland are suffering from crippling wounds on their paws due to wet snow that gets stuck to the pads and freezes into blocks.

This photo shows the rear paws of a polar bear temporarily sedated for research in East Greenland in 2022. The bear has large chunks of ice frozen onto its feet, which the researchers removed.

Polar bears have small bumps on their foot pads that help provide traction on slippery surfaces. These bumps, which are larger than those on the pads of other bear species like brown and black bears, ...