Arctic starfish deadly predator: Canadian study

Some Canadian researchers have found out Hunting Deadly of the Arctic It is not a polar bear but a species Starfish.

The Arctic region is made up entirely of fresh water as well as salt water glaciers. In fact, the sea in this region remains shallowly frozen for long periods of the year.

During the winter months, the Arctic is one of the coldest and darkest places on Earth. Here the sun rises and sets only once, with six months of full light and the rest of the year shrouded in darkness.

This particular condition, combined with extreme temperatures, creates exceptional characteristics in the local flora and fauna.

Most arctic animals live in a harsh climate The temperature is -70 degrees Celsius And they have developed similar characteristics to survive.

It is a layer of subcutaneous fat that is intended to insulate from the cold and the dense fur can change color with the seasons in some specimens.

In winter, the white coat of the animals helps them to hide in the snowy environment and hide from the danger of predators. Specimens such as the polar bear, fox, wolf, hare and owl change their color towards brown in response to the change in springtime environment.

The polar bear has all these characteristics that allow it to survive in extreme climates. It has always been considered a deadly predator in the Arctic landscape, capable of killing any type of prey in its environment and not afraid of attacks from other species of animals.

However, a recent scientific study has raised an important question. Remy Amirax Canada’s University of Manitoba believes that those who identify the polar bear as an alpha predator often focus only on pelagic species, meaning those that live on land or in the open ocean. In general, therefore, the classification of highly volatile predators ignores benthic specimens, i.e. those that live on the seafloor.

The idea of ​​a food chain can be summarized as: herbivores eating plants, carnivores eating herbivores, all the way up to apex predators, models that can eat everyone and are not threatened by other species.

Deadly Predator Starfish in the Arctic: No Predators in Its Ecosystem

A group of Canadian researchers conducted the study food chaini.e. all food means, samples of surrounding water Southampton Island Including all species for the first time. The results of this research were recently published in the American Journal of Science Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

While the study confirms that the polar bear is the primary predator on land, on the other hand, scientists have identified specific species of starfish. These are some of the invertebrates belonging to the family Pterasteridae.

These animals feed on bivalves, sea cucumbers and seaweeds. Their location in the Arctic food web is similar to that of the polar bear. Also, like bears, starfish eat not only live prey, but also carcasses. Simply put, these starfish They prey on all other animals in the food web And they have no predators of their own.

Until now, research has focused only on bears, ignoring starfish, which play a similar role in the food web, except for the size of their diet. Hence, leading scientists to say that these marine invertebrates have the same level of risk and mortality as the polar bear.