Siku the Polar Bear Cub | LiveCam and International Polar Bear Day

Michelle February 27, 2012 7 Comments

89 days old

When Siku the polar bear cub was introduced to the public late last year, he quickly became an Internet sensation, with his own Web and Facebook pages. But with fame often comes responsibility, and officials at Denmark’s Scandinavian Wildlife Park said Siku would have an important burden to shoulder.

“Siku is going to be an ambassador for polar bears, for global warming,” park director Frank Vigh-Larsen said in December.

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Siku’s official first day on the job is Monday, International Polar Bear Day.

The wildlife park, in cooperation with Polar Bears International and explore.org, a philantropic media organization, will debut polarbearcam.com, a daily live look-in at Siku, from 10 a.m. to noon ET Monday.

“We’re launching the Siku Cam on International Polar Bear Day, which is a day of action on climate change,” Robert Buchanan, president and CEO of Polar Bears International, said in a press release. “Our goal with the Siku Cam is for people to fall in love with this little cub and become inspired to reduce their carbon footprint to help save arctic sea ice.”

Siku is named after the environment of the polar bear, with siku being the most common word for sea ice in the Inuit language across the Arctic. The bears hunt on the sea ice, and as it disappears, so do opportunities for the bears to eat, the polar bear conservationists say.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that the Arctic ice cover is near record lows, with the January 2012 Arctic ice cover the fourth lowest ever recorded.

“Based on the satellite record, before 2005 average January ice extent had never been lower than 14 million square kilometers (5.41 million square miles). January ice extent has now fallen below that mark six out of the last seven years,” the NSIDC website says.

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Many scientists blame global warming, fueled by carbon dioxide emissions, for the decline in sea ice. Polar Bears International says two-thirds of the estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in the wild could disappear by the middle of this century if carbon dioxide emissions are not cut.

“Our goal with the Siku Cam is to create awareness and inspire change,” Vigh-Larsen said in a press release. “And we are resolute that his image may only be used to advance those ends.”

Here are some adorable photos from Siku’s web page starting when he was just 16 days old up until now at 89 days old. Try not to smile….