Polar bears are rewiring their own genetics to survive a warming climate

With climate change steadily dismantling the icy habitat essential to their existence, new research suggests polar bears are rapidly rewiring their own genetics in a bid to survive

With climate change steadily dismantling the icy habitat essential to their existence, new research suggests polar bears are rapidly rewiring their own genetics in a bid to survive.

The species is being forced to adapt to the harsher reality of a warming Arctic, in what scientists believe is the first documented case of rising temperatures driving genetic change in a mammal.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia in Britain say these findings, published Friday in the journal Mobile DNA, offer a rare glimmer of hope for the species.

"Polar bears are still sadly expected to go extinct this century, with two-thirds of the population gone by 2050," Alice Godden, who is the lead author of the study, told NBC News.

"I believe our work really does offer a glimmer of hope — a window of opportunity for us to reduce our carbon emissions to slow down the rate of climate change and to give these bears more time to adapt to these stark changes in their habitats."