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

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