A white polar bear moved cautiously and steadily, treading over the snow that had fallen and settled on the ground not long ago. Amid the crisp crunch of the flattened snow, it slowly made its way toward the shore.
After going hungry all night, it was preparing to catch some fish by the shore for breakfast—and lunch, dinner, and a midnight snack while it was at it. It would head back whenever it was full, hoping to enjoy a comfortable day lying down after one satisfying meal.
As an apex predator with no natural enemies anywhere in the Arctic biosphere, a polar bear's life was this carefree... Not really.
It had actually been forced into this lifestyle.
Although polar bears had no natural enemies in the Arctic and there were practically no creatures capable of threatening their lives, global warming had caused the Arctic icebergs to melt in huge numbers. Their habitat continued to shrink, and the food they could obtain gradually decreased.
Although polar bears were invincible on their own territory, even the invincible had to eat to survive. In fact, their invincibility came at a price: they needed even more food to stay alive.
Because there was not enough food, they could only conserve it by reducing their activity, using that method to survive.
Yet even though they had worked hard to save energy, the number of polar bears was still declining rapidly.
Over the past forty years, the total number of polar bears worldwide had fallen by nearly fifty percent. In some regions, it had dropped by more than ninety percent.
Although bears were generally "lazy and fond of leisure," polar bears did not avoid moving because they were lazy. They simply had no extra strength left to "work."
As the polar bear walked, it remained alert