A recently conducted study has revealed that polar bears are facing greater threat from climate change than previously thought. Researchers for the study tested polar bears' ability to conserve energy by turning down their metabolic rate.

Polar bears have been at the center of the climate change debate in recent years. The animal is brought into equation every time when the impact of climate change on a significant species is discussed.

Study researchers also tested a long-held theory regarding the life of a polar bear. The theory stated that the polar bear conserve their energy in summers and they turn-down their metabolism rate so that they could survive well.

The team found that the polar bears actually don't have any ability to dial back any part of their metabolic rate in the summer, like they do in the winter when they're in hibernation.

University of Wyoming zoologist Merav Ben-David said in a statement that polar bears tend to reduce their metabolic rate during the winter as part of their hibernation process.

To test the theory, researchers tracked down the international temperatures and movements of 25 bears for more than two years at the Beaufort Sea, north of Canada and Alaska.

The researchers said they had expected that as the bears went through increasingly long periods without food during the summer, they would reduce their body temperatures. But they were surprised knowing that the animal never did anything like they thought.

Researchers said this clearly shows that polar bears cannot access seal meals through sea ice during the summer. Therefore, the bear population will decrease, while Ben-David said the only thing to stop it is to reverse the loss of sea ice.