Global warming greatly impacts the fate of the polar bear. Polar bears are currently listed as vulnerable by IUCN’s Red List. The litter, usually two cubs, will spend two years with their mother learning essential hunting and survival skills. In the fall, she enters into a dormant state, remaining this way even as she gives birth. After mating in the spring, a female polar bear spends the summer ingesting large amounts of food and building a maternity den in a snow drift to prepare for the arrival of her cubs. Polar bears do not hibernate like other bears, but females do enter into a dormant state while pregnant. When in proximity to human settlements, they have even been known to eat garbage such as Styrofoam.
Supplemental foods include walruses, short-legged reindeer, birds, bird eggs, kelp, and beached whales. However, when food is scarce, polar bears will eat just about anything. In ideal hunting conditions, the bear will just eat the seal fat, leaving the carcass for other animals. Once located, a polar bear will wait patiently by the hole and attack the seal’s head when it comes up for air. They can smell a seal’s breathing hole, or aglu, up to one mile away. They use their powerful sense of smell when hunting for seals, their main source of food. Polar bears are also equipped with strong noses. Hairs and bumps on the soles of their feet provide traction, while webbing between their toes allows for effective swimming strokes. In addition, polar bears’ paws are especially adapted for walking on the ice and swimming in the sea. Two coats of fur and a thick layer of blubber help insulate the polar bear’s body from the cold, keeping its temperature at an even 37° C (98.6° F). Inhabiting the ice and sea of the Arctic, polar bears are well-equipped for survival in a harsh environment.
Their visibly pale coloring is caused by the reflection and scattering of light.
POLAR BEAR SKIN
On average they live to be about 25 years old, reaching sexual maturity at around 4 years.Īlthough they appear white or yellow in color, their fur is actually clear and hollow, and their skin is black. Polar bears, or “sea bears,” are the world’s largest land predators, weighing up to 600 kg (1300 lb.) and measuring up to 3 m (10 ft.) tall.
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