Talking about Polar Bears

 

Talking about Polar Bears

( All of the sources will be linked under the text )

0.1: Facts about Polar Bear’s

0.2: Polar Bear’s diet

0.3: Polar Bear’s Population, Distribution, and Trends

0.4: Population Trends and Status by Subpopulation

0.5: Habitat Needs and Characteristics

0.6: Polar Bear’s Reproduction

0.7: Polar Bear’s Movement and Migration

0.8: Disease, Parasites, and Pathogens

0.9: Contaminants

1: Polar Bear’s Fun Facts

1.1: Polar Bear’s

2: Naming and etymology

3: Taxonomy and evolution

4: Population and distribution

5: Habitat

6: Physical characteristics

7: Life history and behaviour

7.1: Hunting and diet

8: Dietary flexibility

 

Facts about Polar Bears

 

Polar bears are the top predator in the Artic area’s marine ecosystem. The polar bear’s body requires a lot of food saying their massive size. Their diet is based on a large amount of seal fat, making it the most carnivorous member of the bear family.

Food can be hard to find for the polar bears for much of the year. The bear puts on most of its fat seals reserves between the late April and mid-July to maintain is weight in the lean seasons.

The food free seasons can be able to last up from 3 months up to 4 months - - or it could possibly last for even longer in the areas like Canada’s Hudson Bay. As the arctic warms due to the climate change happening, the ice pack is forming later on in the season, and bears must wait for later on to begin their hunting spree again.

 

Polar bear diet facts:

 

Don’t Move! The polar bear mainly relies on “ still hunting “ - - while patiently waiting next to a hole in the ice right next to them until they feel a sense of a surfacing seal waiting for it to be eaten.

Hunting by smell. Using the polar bear sense of smell, the polar bear will be able to locate a seal birth lairs, and then break through the lair’s roof in order to be able to catch its prey.

Learning to hunt. The adolescent polar bear often has to scavenge on the carcasses of other bear’s kills while learning its self too develop its own hunting skills.

Efficient digestion. The bear’s digestive system absorbs from what experiments have been done, approximately 84% of the protein and 97% of the fat it consumes.

Fatty diet. The average polar bear can be able to consume up to 2 kg ( 4.4 lbs ) of fat in a single day.

A big appetite. The bear’s enormous stomach can be able to hold 10 % to 20 % of its body weight

 

Polar bear predators:

Ringed seal

Seals are an energy rich food source, especially for the hungry polar bear mothers and their growing cubs that they have to feed. Polar bears can devour a huge amount of fat from the seals when they are available to be caught and eaten.

Bearded and other seals

Polar bears mostly eat the ringed seals and also the bearded seals, but sometimes when the ringed and boarded seals aren’t available, they may also eat harp, hooded and ribbon seals too. A 121 pound seal can be able to provide 8 days’ worth of energy for the polar bear - - but the bear also needs to eat much more in order to be able to store up their reserves. When there are plenty of seals, adult polar bears only eat the fat of the seals, leaving the carcass for scavengers for other animals such as foxes, ravens, and also for younger bears.

Carcasses

Polar bear can use their sense of smell to be able to detect a carcass from nearly up to 20 miles away. They will happily feed on the carcasses of beluga whales, grey whales, walruses, narwhals, and also bowhead whales when they are available to them.

Garbage, berries, seaweed, and more

Polar bears may attempt to find a different prey on shore, including muskox, reindeer, small rodents, waterfowl, shellfish, fish, eggs, kelp, berries, and even human garbage if they are able to consume them. Bears attracted to communities by garbage’s or store food may come into conflict with some people.

Bigger prey

Occasionally, the bears will hunt bigger preys for example like, narwhals, beluga whales, and also adult walrus.

Source: Polar bear diet - WWF Arctic (arcticwwf.org)

Population, Distribution, and Trends

Polar bears occur throughout the circumpolar region but are not evenly distributed and do not constitute a single nomadic population. Rather, they occur in 19 relatively discrete sub populations.  ( Geographic areas defined by the IUCN / SSC PBSG with the recently amended Northern Beaufort / Southern Beaufort population boundary; Figure 1 ). Sub populations boundaries are defined according to the best available information from scientist and from the Traditional Ecological Knowledge ( TEK ) related to the movements and genetics of polar bears, as well as the management considerations. Several of these sub populations are data deficient, meaning that there are not enough of information available from experiments to be able to determine the population trends. Based on sub populations estimates, and presumed densities in areas where the number are currently unknown, as of 2015 the IUCN / SSC PBSG estimates that there are around 22 thousand polar bears or up to 31 thousand polar bears ( 22,000 – 31,000 polar bears ) across the arctic area. The current range covered by these sub populations represent a total land and marine area of according to them an insane amount of 23 million km2. The distribution of polar bears is influenced by the type and distribution of the sea ice too, as well as the distribution and abundance of prey. Typically, bears spend the most of their time in over productive waters associated with the continental shelf.

Population Trends and Status by Subpopulation

Determinations of population status and trends for all of the 19 circumpolar sub populations are made by the IUCN / SSC PBSG on an annual basis. The polar bear has been classified as a Vulnerable on the IUCN Red list of Threatened Species ever since 1982. ( That’s 4 decades ago! Or 40 years ago! ). For the latest population estimates, make sure to visit the website about IUCN / SSC Polar bear Specialists Group website.

Polar Bear Specialist Group – Established 1968 (iucn-pbsg.org)

In Canada, the Polar Bear Technical Committee assesses the status of the 13 Canadian subpopulations, also on an annual basis.

Source: Polar Bear Range States - Population, Distribution, and Trends (polarbearagreement.org)

 

Habitat Needs and Characteristics

Given the large amount of annual home ranges of polar bears, their habitat requirements vary both spatially and temporally. The PBSG defines that the essential habitat as “ habitat of overall importance for the continuation of viable polar bear populations. “ Using this definition of habitat, the PBSG has designated four separate classifications of essential habitat : feeding areas ( sea ice over continental shelves and predictable terrestrial and coastal feeding sites ), mating areas ( sea ice over continental shelves ), denning areas ( terrestrial, multi-year and fast sea ice ), migration patterns ( areas connecting essential habitats ) and summer refugia ( both terrestrial and off shore ).

Polar bears like to go to the southern edge of the multi-year pack ice of the Arctic Ocean and are easy to be able to find at the coastal areas and in the channels between the islands and also the archipelagos of the Arctic. The type and the extent of the sea ice are the main factors which tells if the area of the quality polar bear habitat. The sea ice is where the polar bear’s preferred prey, the ringed seal, lives for all or much of the year; hence the distribution of bears in most areas follows the seasonal extent of the sea ice. Polar bear habitats vary with the season going on. In regions where much of the pack ice melts in the mid to late summer, the bears are forced to move on shore for about two up to five months, until it freezes back up. While on the shores, bears primarily rely on their fat reserves that they had carried hoping that it will keep them alive due to the lack of available prey is the different area.

In the late autumn times, pregnant females generally excavate maternity dens on land near the coast area. Denning habitat is extremely diverse. Dens are dug into the snow drifts or, in the areas father south, in the frozen earth or peat. In the Beaufort Sea area ( The Canadian and U.S Arctic ), a large portion of the polar bears have been traditionally used multi-year ice over, or close to productive prey denning areas. With a decline in the multi-year sea ice in those areas, more bears now den on land. Den locations are scattered over a large portion of land. In Svalbard ( The Norwegian Arctic ) and also the Eastern Russian Arctic, some of the islands with very rough topography allows the large snow drifts to form even with a low level of precipitation, and bears may den at very high densities in such restricted areas. Good hunting areas in proximity to denning areas are of importance to female bears when they leave the dens with their cubs. Presence of sea ice is thus important. Likewise, in Svalbard ( Norwegians Arctic ), in some remote areas in the islands need some sea ice to be in present in the autumn which allows the bear to reach the denning area.

During the winter times, the pregnant females still remain sheltered in their den, while the other bears are active on the  pack ice, Polar bears of all types of genders and age classes may use dens as their shelter during the very harsh weathers or to keep cool during the summer when it gets super-hot on land. By altering the extent of the sea and ice and also the distribution of the seals that reproduce on the sea ice area, climate warming will have a huge impact onto the distribution of polar bears.

Source: Polar Bear Range States - Habitat Needs and Characteristics (polarbearagreement.org)

 

Polar Bear’s Reproduction

The growth potential of a polar bear populations is pretty low compared with that of most other mammals. Most of the males usually begin to breed at about eight to ten years old of age. Females reach reproductive maturity from about four to about six years old of age and typically have litters of one or two cubs. If the cubs survive, they are ( in most areas ) weaned in the springs around the age of two years old. Ones the cubs have been weaned; the mother will mate again. This high maternal investment means that the female polar bears usually reproduce every three years, or less often, but it mainly depends on the cub’s survival. Young polar bears are susceptible to intraspecific predation. The specie’s low reproductive potential means that the population cannot recover quickly than if it had a lot of populations which follows up with a population declining. Few polar bears live longer than 25 years old of age in the wild area.

Mating usually occurs during the time from late January or early February and goes up to the end of June but usually peaks between at the early March through April. Implantation of the fertilized egg does not occur until October, and it is thought to be dependent on the female’s nutritional condition at that time. Pregnant females enter a maternity den in the Autumn times, and the cubs are born between the time of November to early January. At birth, the cubs will weigh less than 1 kg and are covered in a very fine hair. They are nursed inside of the den for shelter until sometime between the end of February and the late April, is when they venture out on the sea ice wit their mother. By this time, the cubs should weigh about 10 kg. During the months of denning, pregnant females fast. Some females may not eat up to a crazy amount of 8 months while required to meet the energy  demands of gestation and lactation.

Source: Polar Bear Range States - Reproduction (polarbearagreement.org)

 

 

 

Polar Bear’s Movement and Migration

The length and the frequency of seasonal movements undertaken by the bears within subpopulations can vary according to the attributes of the geographic area occupied - - that is, the availability of features which includes as like land masses, multi-year ice and polynyas - - and the annual pattern of freezing and break up of the sea ice.

Data from the satellite telemetry transmitters on female polar bears has shown that they do not wander aimlessly, but that they movements and their distribution and determined by the way they use the sea ice habitat as a platform for feeding, mating, denning, and in some subpopulations an area for summer retreat areas. They tend to move on drifting the ice to remain in productive habitats ( e.g., over the continental shelf where the seals are abundant ), which often means moving against of the direction of the drift of the sea ice to remain in the same general geographic location.

Source: Polar Bear Range States - Movement and Migration (polarbearagreement.org)

Diseases, Parasites, and Pathogens

Polar bears are a very long lived animals and just like the other bear species, they are not generally impacted by the diseases going on right now. Polar bears primarily eat the fat of the animals that they kill, which is relatively free of parasites; however, larvae of the Trichinella parasite have been confirmed in that polar bears throughout their range, and antibodies to the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii have been found in the polar bears in the United States at Alaska. Greenland and also Svalbard ( Norway Arctic ). It is also not clear yet that how this presence of the parasites might influence the animal’s health and mainly polar bears.

Four morbilliviruses ( canine distemper, dolphin morbillivirus, phocine distemper and also porpoise morbillivirus ) have been documenting the polar bears from Alaska and also polar bears from Russia too. Polar bears in Svalbard ( Norway Arctic ) have been exposed to morbilliviruses and also calicivirus, although the nature of these viruses and infections for now have been unknown due to the fact it hasn’t been found yet. Although in one case of rabies in a single polar bear has actually been confirmed in an area in Canada.

Source: Polar Bear Range States - Disease, Parasites, and Pathogens (polarbearagreement.org)

Contaminants

The polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) are the Arctic species which are exposed to some of the highest levels of biomagnifying contaminants. These types of contaminants include, for example, halogenated organic compounds, ( which originate from the industrial areas and agricultural activities too ), and they also contain mercury. Legacy persistent organic compounds ( POPs ) are still the main compounds, which polar bears are accumulating and are also exposed to. Contaminant levels can vary widely between the subpopulations and also the among compounds. Contaminants that polar bears are exposed to originate mainly from the long range transports. Although the local pollution sources also do exist, their contribution to larger scales contamination in polar bears likely has been minor.

After the climate driven loss, also the fragmentation of the sea ice habitat, contaminant exposure is also considered to be one of the most significant threats to the polar bears. Numerous types of studies have been investigated and have been done. They investigated the potential adverse health effects of contaminants in polar bears using different types of approaches, and they have indicated that the contaminant exposures may alter circulating levels of thyroid hormones as well as lipid metabolism into the polar bears. In other shown studies, they have shown that the immune system and also the neurochemistry are potentially affected by the contaminant exposure. The state of knowledge on exposure, fate, and potential health effects of the contaminants in the polar bears from the circumpolar Arctic have been summarized by the people, however our understandings of the population level risks, and side effects are still very limited to this day, and subject to further study. For more information, go to the link below here to view the 2019 review by Routti et al.

Here: doi.org

Source: Polar Bear Range States - Contaminants (polarbearagreement.org)

 

Polar Bear’s Fun Facts

Here are some short and fun facts about polar bears:

1. A polar bear can run really fast with a staggering 40 kph at their top speed

2. Polar bears are jacked with tons of razor sharped teeth. To be exact, they have 42 razor sharp teeth. With their jagged back teeth and also their canines large than a grizzly bear tooth, they can pack the punch with their insanely strong bite.

3. Polar bears have some giant paws. They have 30 cm wide paws which is the average size of a dinner plate! A natural snowshoe that helps them trek across the insanely deep and icy snow around them.

4. Polar bears have a lot of eye lids. They have 3 eye lids. The third eye lid is to help the polar bear protect their eyes from the elements around them.

5. Polar bears have tons of fat under their skin just like other types of mammals. They have 4 inches of fat under their skin to make them feel warm during the really cold times.

6. Some short facts. Polar bears have black skin, they also have transparent fur, and finally they also have a blue tongue.

 

Polar bear

The polar bear ( Ursus maritimus ) is a hyper carnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle area, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, which is surrounding the sea and also surrounding its land masses. It is the largest extant bear species, and which is also known as the largest extant land carnivore. A boar ( an adult male ) can weigh around 350 kg up to 700 kg ( 770 lb up to 1,540 lb ), while a sow ( an adult female ) is only about half of the size of a boar ( an adult male ). Although it is the sister species of the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrower ecological niche, with many of its own body characteristics adapted for the cold temperatures over there, for moving across the snow, for ice and also open water, and for hunting seals, which makes up for most of its own diet. Although most of the polar bears are born on land, they spend around most of their time on the sea ice area. Their scientific name means “ maritime bear “ and derives from this fact. Polar bears also hunt their preferred food of seals from the edge of the sea ice, often living off from the seals fat that they had ate before, which they reserve inside their stomach, and when they aren’t any sea ice in present, they live off that fat. Because of their dependence on the sea ice, polar bears are also classified as a marine mammal.

Because of the expected habitat loss due to the climate change, the polar bear is also classified as a vulnerable species. For many decades, large scale hunting raised international concern for the future of these types of species, but populations rebounded after controls and quotas began to take an effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a main key figure in the material, spiritual, and also cultural life for the circumpolar peoples, and polar bears remain important inside their cultures. Historically. The polar bear has been known as the “ white bear “. It is sometimes referred to as the “ Nanook “, based on the Inuit term nanuq.

Naming and etymology

Constantine John Phipps was the first one to describe the polar bear as a distinct species in the 1774 ( which is nearly 250 years ago! Or over 20 decades ago! ) while in his report about his 1773 expedition towards the North Pole. He decided to choose the scientific name for the polar bear,        “ Ursus martimus “, and the Latin for the “ maritime bear “, due to the animal’s native habitat. The Inuit refers to the animal as “ Nanook “ ( transliterated as nanuq in the Inupiat language ). The Yupik is also referred to the bear as “ nanuuk “ in the Siberian Yupik. The bear is umka in the Chukchi language. In Russian, it is usually called ( Russian text ) ( belyij medvedj, translated into English it means “ white bear “ ) or ours polarie ( “ polar bear “ ). In the Norwegian administered Svalbard ( Norway Arctic ) archipelago, the polar bear is referred to as the Isbjorn ( “ ice bear “ ).

The bear was previously considered to be in its own genus, Thalarctos. However, evidence of the hybrids between the polar bears and the brown bears, and of the recent evolutionary divergence of the two species, does not support the establishment of this separate genus, and also the accepted scientific name is now therefore “ Ursus martimus “, as the Phipps originally had proposed.

 

Taxonomy and evolution

The bear family ( Ursinae ) is thought to have a split from another carnivorans from about 38 million years ago. The subfamily, Ursinae originated from about 4.2 million years ago. And the oldest known polar bear fossil that scientist has found today is about 130,000 years old to about 110,000 years old and it was a jaw bone of a polar bear, where it was found on Prince Charles Foreland in 2004. Fossils shows that between around 10,000 years ago and 20,000 years ago, the polar bear’s molar teeth have changed a lot from the years passing by and it is way different that the brown bear. Polar bears are thought to have diverged from a population of the brown bears that had became isolated during the period of glaciation in the Pleistocene from the eastern part of Siberian ( from Kamchatka and the Kolym Peninsula ).

The evidence gathered up from the DNA analysis is more complex that you would think. The mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA ) of the polar bear diverged from the brown bear, Ursus arctos, is roughly around 150,000 years ago. Further, some of the clades of the brown bear, as assessed by their mtDNA, and were thought to be more closely related to the polar bars than to some other brown bears, meaning that the brown bear might not be considered a species under some species concepts, but also paraphyletic. The mtDNA of extinct Irish brown bears is particularly closer to the polar bears. A comparison of the nuclear genome of the polar bears with that of the brown bears showed a different pattern, the two forming genetically distinct clades that was diverged approximately 603,000 years ago, although the latest research about is about the analysis of the complete genomes ( rather than just the mitochondria or the partial nuclear genomes ) of polar bears and also brown bears, and it establishes the divergence of polar bears and brown bears at 400,000 years ago.

However, the two species have mated intermittently for all that time, most of it likely coming into contact with teach other during the warming periods time, when the polar bears were driven onto land the brown bears migrated northward. Most of the brown bears have about a 2 percent genetic material from the polar bears, but one of the populations, the ABC Islands bears, has about a 5 percent and also 10 percent polar bears genes, which indicates that there are more frequent and recent mating. Polar bears can breed with a brown bear to produce a fertile grizzly polar bear hybrid; instead of than just indicating that they have only recently diverged, the new evidence suggests that more frequents mating has continued over a long time period of time, and thus the two bears remain genetically similar together. However, because neither of the species can survive long in the other’s ecological niche, and because that they have a different morphology, different metabolism, different social, and also different feeding behaviours, and other phenotypic characteristics, the two bears are generally classified as a separate species than the same species.

When the polar bear was originally documented, two of the subspecies were identified: the American polar bear ( Ursus maritimus ) by a person called “ Constantine J. Phipps “ in the 1774, and also the Siberian polar bear ( Ursus maritimus marinus ) by another person named “ Peter Simon Pallas “ just 2 years later in the 1776. The distinction has since been invalidated. One alleged fossil subspecies has also been identified: Urus martimus tyrannus, which became extinct a long time ago during the Pleistocene times. U.m. tyrannus was significantly larger than the living subspecies. However, the recent reanalysis of the fossils shows a different suggestion that it was actually just a brown bear fossil.

Population and distribution

Polar bears can be found in the Arctic Circle and the adjacent land masses as far south as to Newfoundland. Due to the absence of the human development in its remote habitats area, it still remains more of its original range than any other extant carnivore. While they are a rare north of 88 degrees, there is evidence which shows that they might range all the way from across the Arctic all the way from far south as James Bay in Canada. Their southern most range is near the boundary between the subarctic and also the humid continental climate zones. They can also occasionally drift widely with the sea ice too, and there have also been anecdotal sightings as far south as Berlevag on the Norwegian mainland and also the Kuril Islands in the Sea of Okhotsk. It is pretty difficult to estimate a global population of polar bars as much of the range being poorly studied by scientists and others. However, biologists have been able to use a working estimate of about 20 up to 25,000 polar bears or 22 – 31,000 polar bears worldwide.

With the discovery of the southeast Greenland population in this year 2022, they were able to find 20 generally recognized, discrete subpopulations different types of polar bears. The subpopulations display a seasonal fidelity to particular area, but the DNA studies which have been done, shows us that they are not actually reproductively isolated. The 14 North American subpopulations can range from about the Beaufort Sea in the south to Hudson Bay and also the east to eastern Greenland which accounts for about 54% of the global population.

The usual range includes a territory of about five nations: Denmark ( Greenland ), Norway ( Svalbard ), Russia, The United States ( Alaska ) and also Canada. Those 5 nations are also the signatories of the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, which mandates the cooperation on the research and also the conservation efforts through the polar bears’ range. Polar bears also sometimes might swim from Iceland all the way to Greenland. Around 600 sightings of them ever since the 9^th century of the country’s settlement, and also five in the 21^st century as of 2016 – and are always killed because of their danger, as well as the cost and difficulty of repatriation.

Modern methods of tracking down a polar bear an entire population have been tried implemented only since the mid 1980’s, and they are just too expensive to be performed to track down the polar bears consistently too over a large surface of area. The most accurate count of polar bears requires a flying a helicopter over the Arctic and counting over the Arctic climate to find the polar bears, and then they shoot a tranquilizer dart at the bear to sedate it, and the tagging the bear and repeating it over and over again. In Nunavut, some Inuit have been reported to increase in bear sightings around the human’s settlement in recent years, leading to a belief that the populations of the bears are increasing. Scientists have also responded by noting that the hungry bears may be also congregating around the human settlements, which leads to the illusion that the populations of the bears are actually higher than what they actually are. The Polar Bear Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission takes the position that “ estimates of the subpopulation size or the sustainable harvest levels should not be made solely on the basis of the traditional ecological knowledge without the supporting scientific studies which have been done. “

Out of the 19 polar bear subpopulations which were found in 2017, once in decline, two of them were increasing, seven were stable, and nine have not even data to be concluded.

Habitat

The polar bear is a marine mammal because it spends many of the year of their life at the sea for their food and swimming too. However, it is the only living marine mammal with very powerful, large limbs and also feet that allows them to cover tons of land and up to kilometres and up to miles on the snow with their feet and also, they can run super-fast on land. It is preferred habitats is the annual sea ice which covers up the water over the continental shelf and also the Arctic inter island archipelagos. These areas, which is known as the “ Arctic ring of life “, has a very high biological productivity in comparison to the deep waters of the high Arctic. The polar bears also tend to frequent areas where the sea ice meets water, such as the polynyas and leads ( temporary stretches of open water in Arctic ice ), to be able to hunt the seals that makes up for basically all or most of their diet because their fat and very good for the polar bears because they can live off the fat during the times that seals and food aren’t available. Freshwater is also very limited in these types of environments because it is either locked up inside of the snow so they can’t be able to access it or saline. Polar bears are able to produce water through their metabolisms of the fat which is found in the seal blubber and that is the seal that they eat the most and are there for it is found primarily along with the perimeter of the polar ice pack, rather than in the Polar Basin area which is close to the North pole where the density of the seals pretty low.

The annual ice contains areas of water which appears and also disappear throughout the years as the weather and seasons changes. The seals migrate in response of these type of changes, and also the polar bears must follow their prey too. In the Hudson Bay, James Bay, and also other areas, the ice melts completely each summer ( an event which is often called the “ ice floe break up “ ), which forces the polar bears to go onto land and wait throughout the summer and a few months until the next ice freezes up for them to hunt for the seals. In the Chukchi and also the Beaufort seas, the polar bears retreat each summer to the ice further north that remains frozen year round. And during the summer they can’t each much stuff since the ice are not available since they have melted, and the seals are also not easy to find since the ice have melted. They use the fat inside their tummy that they had ate before the seals fat.

Physical characteristics

The only other bear which is nearly the same size as the polar bear is the Kodak bear, which is a subspecies part of the brown bear. The Adult male polar bear can weigh about 350 kg to about 700 kg ( 770 lb up to 1,500 lb ) and can measure from 2.4 metres to 3 metres ( 7 ft 10 in to 9 ft 10 in ) in total length. Around the Beaufort Sea, however, mature males have been reported to weigh an average of 450 kg ( 1,000 lb ). Adult females are roughly half of the size of the males and normally weigh about 150 kg up to 250 kg ( 330 lb up to 550 lb ), measuring 1.8 metres up to 2.4 metres ( ft 11 in up to 7 ft 10 in ) in length. Elsewhere, a slightly larger of an estimated average weight of 260 kg ( 570 lb ) was claimed for the adult female polar bears. When they are pregnant, however, the female polar bears can be able to weigh up to as much 500 kg ( 1,100 lb ). The polar bear is among one of the most sexually dimorphic of the mammals, surpassed only by the pinnipeds such as the elephant seals. The largest polar bear on record was recorded to weigh an insane amount of 1,002 kg ( 2,209 lb ), and it was a male polar bear, and it was found at the Kotzebue Sound in north western Alaska in the 1960. This specimen, when the mounted, stood at a whopping 3.39 metres tall ( 11 ft 1 in ) tall on its hindlegs. The shoulder height of the adult polar bear is estimated to be 122 cm up to 160 cm ( 4 ft 0 in to 5 ft 3 in ). While all of the other bears are short tailed, the polar bear’s tail is relatively the shortest amongst all of the living bears, which ranges from 7 cm up to 13 cm ( 2.8 in up to 5.1 in ) in length.

While it is compared with its closest relative, the brown bear, the polar bear has a more elongated body build and a longer skull and also a longer nose too. Which was as predicted by Allen’s rule for a northerly animal, the legs are pretty stocky and also the ears and tail are pretty similar as they are short. However, the feet are very large to distribute load when they are walking on the snow or on thin ice and to also provide propulsion when swimming; they may measure from 30 cm ( 12 in ) across they are an adult. The pads of the paws are covered with small, and soft papillae ( dermal bumps ), which provides them with the traction on the ice, so they don’t slip. The polar bear’s claws are short and stocky compared to those of the brown bear, perhaps it serves as a former need for grippy and heavy prey and also ice. The claws are deeply scooped on the underside which can be assisted during in its digging and also digging in the ice of the natural habitat. Research of injury patterns in the polar bear forelimbs found injuries to the right of its forelimb to be more frequent that to its left forelimb, which makes sit suggest, perhaps that they are right handedness. Unlike the brown bear, the polar bears in captivity are pretty rarely overweight or particularly large, and it is possibly a reaction to the warm conditions of most of the zoos.

The 42 teeth that the polar bears have reflects it very highly carnivorous diet. The cheek teeth are smaller and more jagged than of a brown bear tooth, and also the canines are larger and sharper too.

Polar bears are superbly insulated by up to 10 cm ( 4 in ) of their adipose tissue, they hide and their fur too. Polar bear fur consists of many layers of dense underfur and also an outer layer of the guard hairs, which also appears to be a white to tan but they are just actually transparent. The two types of genes that are known to be able to influence the melanin production , LYST and also AIM1, are both mutated inside of the polar bears, which possibly leads to the absence of this pigment inside of their fur. The guard hair is about 5 cm up to 15 cm ( 2 in up to 6 in ) over most of their entire body. Polar bears gradually moult from May to August, but unlike the other Arctic mammals, they do not shed their coat for a darker shade to provide camouflage in the summer times conditions. The hollow guard hairs of the polar bears were once to act like a fiber optic tubes to be able to conduct the light to its black skin, where it could be absorbed; however, this hypothesis was found out as false by a study during the 1998.

The white coat usually yellows with their age. When it is kept in a captivity in warm, the humid conditions, the fur may turn into a pale shade of green due to the algae growing inside the guard hairs. Males have a significantly longer hairs on their forelegs, which increases in length until the bear reaches the certain age of 14 years old. The male’s ornamental foreleg hair is to be thought to attract the females, which serves as a similar function to the lion’s name.

The polar bears also have an extremely well developed sense of smell, which it being able to detect the seals from nearly 1.6 km ( 1 mi ) away and also buried under 1 m ( 3 ft ) deep of snow. Their hearing ability is as acute as that of a human, and their vision is also good at long distances away.

The polar bear is an excellent swimmer as they often swim for a long time period for seals and might swim for days. One bear was able to continuously swim for an incredible 9 days in the frigid Bering Sea for about 700 km ( 400 mi ) to be able to reach the ice far from land. And then after that she travelled a whopping another 1,800 km ( 1,100 mi ). During the swim of the polar bear, the polar bear was able to lose an insane 22% of her body mass and sadly here yearling cub died. With its body fat providing its buoyancy, the bear swim in a dog paddle position using its large forepaws for propulsion. The polar bears can also swim very fast at 10 km/h ( 6 mph ). And when they are walking, the polar bear tends to have a lumbering gait and are able to maintain and average speed of about 5.6 km/h ( 3.5 mph ). And that is just when they are walking. While they are running / sprinting, they are able to reach up to a top speed of an insane 40 km/h ( 25 mph ). So, if you are running there are no way you are out running that polar bear. Especially on snow and ice.

 

Life history and behaviour

Unlike the brown bears, the polar bears are not territorial. Although their stereotyped as being a voraciously aggressive, the are normally cautious in confrontations, and often choose to escape than rather fight the other polar bears. Satiated polar bears rarely attack the humans unless they severely provoked.  However, due to their lack of prior human interaction, the hungry polar bears are extremely hard to predict when they are going to kill and where they are, fearless towards the people they are known to kill and sometimes eat the humans. Many attacks by the brown bears are the result of surprising the animal, which is usually not the case with the polar bears. Polar bears are a stealth hunter, and their victim is usually often unaware of the bear’s presence until the polar bear is already under their way chasing them. Where as the brown bears are more likely to be predatory and are almost always fatal. However, due to the very small human populations which lives in / around the Arctic, such attacks of the polar bears and deaths from them are really rare. Michio Hoshino, a Japanese wildlife photographer, was once pursued briefly by a huge hungry male polar bear located in the northern Alaska area. According to the person who got attacked ( Hoshino ), the polar bear started running but Hoshino was able to make it into his truck. The bear was able to reach the truck and tore one of the doors off the truck before Hoshino was able to drive off. He was able to escape from the polar bear. And it’s no surprise that the polar bears are one of the most dangerous animals due to the size of them and the strength they have to be able to rip a door off with their hands.

In general, the adult polar bears live solitary lives. Yet, they have been often seen playing together with both adults for hours at a time and even sleeping together in embrace, and the polar bear zoologist Nikita Ovsianikov has described an adult males have “ a well-developed friendship together. “ Cubs are very playful as well. Among the young males of polar bears in particular, they like play fighting and may be a means of them practising for some serious competition during the mating seasons later in their life. Polar bears are also usually very quiet but do communicate together with different of various of sounds and vocalizations. Females communicate together with their young with moans and chuffs, and the distress calls of both cubs and the subadults consists of bleats. Cubs may hum while nursing. When they are nervous, the polar bears produce huffs, chuffs, and snorts while hisses, growls, and also roars are a sign of them being angry. Chemical communication can also be very important: bears leave behind their scent in their tracks while allows the individual to be able to keep track of one another in the vast Arctic wilderness area.

In 1992, a photographer near the Churchill took a now widely circulated set of photographs of a polar bear playing with a Canadian Eskimo Dog ( Canis familiaris ) which is a tenth of the polar bear size. The pair together wrestled harmlessly together and every afternoon for 10 days in a row for no apparent reason, although the bear may have been demonstrating its friendliness in the hopes of being able to share the kennel’s food. This kind of social interaction with polar bears are pretty uncommon; but it is far more typical for the polar bears to behave aggressively to the dogs instead of playing with them and acting nice and sharing food together.

Hunting and diet

The polar bear is the most carnivorous member of the bear family, and throughout the most of its range, their diet which primarily consists of ringed seals ( Pusa hispida ) and also the bearded seals ( Erignathus barbatus ). The Arctic is homed to many of types of seals and millions of seals in the water, and which it becomes the prey of the polar bear when they surface from the hole in the ice in order to breath and which the polar bear will snatch the seals and start eating the fat of the seals. Polar bears hunt primarily at the interface between the ice, water, and air; they only rarely catch the seals on land or in the open water area.

The polar bear’s most common hunting method is called “ still hunting. “ The bear uses its excellent senses of smell to be able to tell when the seals come up and lies down until they feel a sense of seal coming up and they have to be very quiet too, so the seals aren’t suspicious. The polar bear can lie there and wait for several hours. And finally, when the seal exhales, the bear smells its breath, reaches in the hole with its sharp forepaw, and drags it onto the land / ice. The polar bear kills the seal by biting into its head and to crush its skull. The polar bear also hunts by stalking the seals resting on the ice: upon spotting a seal resting on the land, it walks within around 90 metres ( 100 yd ), and then crouches into stealth mode. If the seals didn’t notice, the bear creeps it within 9 metres up to 12 metres ( 30 ft up to 40 ft ) of the seal and then suddenly at the perfect time rushes forward to the seal to attack them and eat them. A third hunting method that the polar bear uses is to raid the birth lairs that the female seals create inside of the snow and then eat it. It’s pretty sad to see how it works and how they kill but we also do it too.

A widespread legend tells that the polar bears like to cover their black nose with their paws while they are hunting. This type of behaviour, if it happens, it is rare - - although the stories exist in the oral history of the northern peoples and in the accounts by early Arctic explorers, but there are still no records of an eyewitness account of this type of behaviour in the recent decades.

The mature bears tend to eat only the calorie rich skin and also the blubber of the seals, which are highly digestible, whereas the younger bears come along he seal and consume the protein rich red meat to be able to let the younger cubs of the polar bears eat and basically, they are sharing to the cubs. Studies have also been photographed polar bears scaling the near vertical cliffs, to eat the birds chicks and the eggs too. For the subadult bears, which are independent of their mother but have not yet gained enough experience and their body size to successfully hunt the seals, scavenging for the carcasses from the other bears is a very important source of nutrition. Subadults may also be forced to accept the half-eaten carcass if they kill a seal, but they cannot defend it from the other larger polar bears. After feeding on the seals, the polar bears wash themselves with the water in the sea or with the snow on the floor.

Although the polar bears are extraordinarily powerful, its primary prey species, is the ringed seal because there are a lot of populations of them in the Arctic and it is their main prey, and it is much smaller than the polar bear itself, and many of the seals hunted are pups rather than the adults, Ringed seals are born weighing at 5.4 kg ( 12 lb ) and grow to an estimated weight of only around 60 kg ( 130 lb ). They also are in places which prey are heavily upon the harp seal ( Pagophilus groenlandicus ), the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina ), or the hooded seal ( Crystophora cristata ). The bearded seal, on the other hand, can be nearly the same size as the bear itself, averaging an insane weight of 270 kg ( 600 lb ). And an adult male bearded seal, can weigh 350 kg up to 500 kg ( 770 lb up to 1,100 lb ) are too large for a female bear to overtake them, and so are the potential prey and they are mainly hunted by the mature male polar bears. Large males can also occasionally attempt to hunt them and kill even larger prey items than them. It can kill an adult walrus ( Odobenus rosmarus), although this is rarely attempted by them. At up to 2,000 kg ( 4,400 lb ) and a typical adult mass range of 600 kg up to 1,500 kg ( 1,300 lb up to 3,300 lb ), a walrus can be more than twice the bear’s weight, and they  have extremely thick skins and has up to a 1 metre ( 3 ft ) long ivory tusks that can be used as a formidable weapon. A polar bear may charge an entire group of walruses, with the goal of separating the young walrus, infirm, or injured walrus from the pod. They will even attack the adult walruses when they are diving holes have frozen over or intercept them before they can be able to get back to the diving hole inside of the ice. Yet, the polar bears will very seldom attack a full grown adult walrus, with the largest male walrus probably being invulnerable to them unless otherwise injured incapacitated. Since an attack on a walrus can tend to be a very extremely protracted and exhausting venture, the bears have been known to back down from the attack after making the initial injury to the walrus. Polar bears have also been seen to prey on beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) and also narwhals too ( Monodon monoceros ), by swiping at them at the breathing holes. The whales are also at a similar size to the walrus and nearly as difficult for the bear to subdue. Most and most marine animals the bear encounters can outswim it. And in some areas, the polar bear’s diet is supplemented by the walrus calves and their fat to live on, and also by the carcasses of the dead adult walruses and if they are lucky also whales too, whose blubber is readily devoured even when they are rotten. Polar bears sometimes underwater to be able to catch a fish like the Arctic charr or the fourhorn sculpin.

With also the exception of the pregnant females, polar bears are actively year round, although they have a vestigial hibernation induction trigger inside of their blood. Unlike the brown bears and the black bears, polar bears are capable of fasting for up to several months at a time during the late summer and early fall, when they cannot hunt for the seals because of the water sea instead of the ice. When the sea ice is unavailable for them during the summer times and early autumn, some of the populations of the polar bears live off the fat reserves that they had kept before from the seals and they can reserve it for months at a time, as the polar bears do not ‘ hibernate ‘ any time of the year.

Being both curious animals and scavengers, polar bears like to investigate and consume garbage when they come in contact with the humans. The polar bears may attempt to consume almost anything that they can find in their area, including hazardous substances such as Styrofoam, plastic, car batteries, ethylene glycol, hydraulic fluid, and motor oil which is not good at all for the polar bears at all. The dump at the Churchill, Manitoba was closed in 2006 which was 16 years ago to protect the bears consuming their waste and sadly dying, and today the waste of Churchill, Manitoba are being recycled or being transported to a different area in Thompson, Manitoba to prevent more deaths from waste and the polar bear eating / digesting it.

Dietary flexibility

Although seal predation is the primary and indispensable way of life for most of the polar bears, when alternatives preys are in present, they are quite flexible. Polar bears can consume a lot of types of wild foods, which includes the muskox ( Ovibos moschatus ), reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus ), birds, eggs, rodents, crabs, and other crustaceans, fish and other types of polar bears. They even might eat plants too, which includes berries, roots, and also help; however, none of these have been a significant part of their diet, except for beach cast marine mammal carcasses. Which given the climate, with the ice breaking up in pieces and the areas such as the Hudson Bay earlier than it used to, polar bears are exploiting the food and resources as snow geese and eggs, and plants such as lyme grass in increased quantities. When they are stalking the land animals, such as the muskox, reindeer, and also the willow ptarmigan ( Lagopus lagopus ), the polar bears to make use of the vegetative cover and the wind direction to be able to bring them closer to each other to their prey as possible before they attack the prey. Polar bears have been observed to hunt the small Svalbard reindeer ( R. t. playtyrhynchus ), which weighs only about 40 kg up to 60 kg ( 90 lb up to 130 lb ) when they become an adult, as well as the barren ground caribou ( R. t. groenlandicus ), which weighs about double as the former. Adult muskox are able to weigh up to a whopping 450 kg ( 1,000 lb ) or more, as they are a more formidable quarry. Although the ungulates are not a typical prey, the killing off one during the summer months can be able to greatly increase the odds of them survival during that lean period of time. Like the brown bears, most of the ungulate preys of polar bears is likely to be young, sickly, or injured specimens rather than the healthy adults. The polar bear’s metabolism is specialized to require a lot of amount of fat from the marine mammals, and which it cannot derive sufficient caloric intake form the terrestrial food.

In their southern range, especially near the Hudson Bay area and also near the James Bay, the Canadian polar bears endure all of the summer without the sea ice to hunt from. Here, their food ecology shows that their dietary flexibility. They still manage to consume some seals, but they are food deprived during the summer times as the only marine mammal carcasses are an important alternative without the sea ice, especially carcasses of the beluga whale. These alternatives food may reduce the rate of the weight loss of the polar bears when they are on land. One scientist was able to find out that around 71% of the Hudson Bay bears had fed on the seaweed ( marine algae ), and that about half were feeding on the birds such as the dovekie and also the sea ducks, especially the long tail duck ( 53% ) and a common eider, by swimming underwater to be able to catch them. They were also diving to feed on the blue mussels and other underwater food sources just like the green sea urchin. And around 24% had eaten moss recently, 19% of them had consumed grass, and the most 34% had eaten the black crowberry and half about had consumed willows. This study has showed us that the polar bear’s dietary flexibility, but it does not represent its life history any where else. Most of the polar bears elsewhere will not be able to have access to these types of alternatives themselves, except for the marine mammal carcasses that are important whenever they occur.

In Svalbard, the polar bears were observed to kill the white beaked dolphins during the spring time, and when the dolphins were trapped in the sea ice. The bears soon to proceed to cache the carcasses, which remained and were eating during the ice free summer and autumn.

Reproduction and life cycle

Courtship and mating takes on a place on the sea ice during the time of April and May months, when the polar bears congregate in the best seal hunting areas. A male may follow the tracks of a breeding female for up to 100 km away ( 60 mi away ) or even more if they have to, and after finding her engaged in intense fighting with other males over mating rights, fights that often result in many scars and broken teeth. The polar bears have generally polygynous mating system; recent genetic testing of the mother and cubs, however, they have uncovered the case of litters in which the cubs have a different father. Partners stay together and mate repeatedly for an entire week; the mating ritual induces ovulation in the female.

After they mate, the fertilized egg remains in a suspending state until the time of August or September comes. During these 4 months, the pregnant females eat a prodigious amount of food, which they are able to gain at least a whopping 200 kg ( 440 lb ) and often more than doubling her body weight in that just short amount of time.

Maternity denning and early life

When the ice floes are at their minimum in the fall, the ending of possibility of hunting, each of the pregnant females digs a maternity den consisting of a narrow entrance tunnel leading to one to the three different types of chambers. And most maternity denes are in the snowdrifts but may also be made underground in the permafrost if it is not sufficiently cold yet for snow. In most of the subpopulations, the maternity dens are situated on the land a few kilometres from the coast area, and the individuals in a subpopulation can tend to reuse the same denning areas for each year. The polar bears that do not den on land, makes their den on the  sea ice. Inside of the den, she enters a dormant state similar to the hibernation. This hibernation like state does not consist of any continuous sleeping; but however, the bear’s heart rate starts to slow down from 46 bpm to around 27 beats per minute. And also, her body temperature does not decrease during this period of time as it is would for a typical mammal in hibernation.

Between the months of November and February, the cubs are born blind so they are not able to see anything, as they are covered with a light down fur, and weigh a whopping less than 1 kg, 0.9 kg ( 2.0 lb ), but in the captivity they might be delivered in the earlier months. As the earliest recorded birth of the polar bears captivity was on the date of 11 October 2011 in the Toronto Zoo. On average, each litter has two cubs. The family remains inside of the den until the time of mid February to mid April, with the mother maintaining her fast while nursing her cubs on a fat rich milk. And by the time the mother breaks open the entrance to the den, her cubs should weigh about 10 kg up to 15 kg ( 22 lb up to 33 lb ). For about 12 to 15 days, the entire family spends time outside of the den while remaining in its vicinity, the mother grazing on vegetation while also the cubs become more used to walking outside and playing outside. Then they start their long walk from the denning area to the sea ice area, where the mother can once again catch seals for her to eat and share with her cubs. Depending on the timing of the ice flow break up in the fall, she also may have fasted for up to 8 months. During this time, the cubs playfully imitate the mother’s hunting methods into their preparation for their later life so one day they can also go and mate and continue the family legacy of the polar bears.

Female polar bears have also been known to adopt other cubs. Multiple cases of adoption of a wild cub have been confirmed by the genetic testing. Adult bears of either gender occasionally kill and eat the polar bear cubs. As the time of 2006, in Alaska, around 42% of the cubs were reaching 12 months of age, down from 65% in 1991. In most of the areas, the cubs are weaned at two and a half years of age, when the mothers chases them away or sadly abandons them for their future life. The Western Hudson Bay subpopulation is unusual in that its female polar bears sometimes wean on their cubs at only around one and a half years of age. This was the case for about 40% of the cubs there in the early 1980’s; however, by the 1990’s fewer than about 20% of the cubs were weaned this young. After the mother leaves, the siblings cubs sometimes travel and share their food together for weeks or even months.

Later life

Females begin to breed at the age of just four years in most of the area, and around five years in the area of the Beaufort Sea. Where the males usually reach sexual maturity at around six years old; however, as competition for females is fierce, many of the males do not breed for 2 extra to 4 extra years which they will mostly breed at eight or ten year olds. A study was done in Hudson Bay which indicated that both of the reproductive success and the maternal weight of the females were peaked inside of their mid-teens. Maternal success appeared to decline after this point of time, possibly due to the age related impairment in the ability to store the fat necessary to rear the cubs.

Polar bears also appear to be less affected by an infectious diseases and parasites too than most of the terrestrial mammals. Polar bears are especially susceptible to Trichiella, which is a parasitic roundworm that contacts throw cannibalism, although the infections are usually not fatal. Only one case of a polar bear having rabies has been documented, and even though the polar bears frequently interact with the Arctic foxes, which often carry rabies on them. Bacterial leptospirosis and also Morbillivirus have been recorded. Polar bears also sometimes have problems with various types of skin diseases which can be caused by the mites or other different types of parasites.

Life expectancy

Polar bears can rarely live beyond the 25 year old mark. While the oldest wild bear death was recorded at the age of 32, whereas the oldest captive female who died in 1991, at a whopping age of 43. The causes of death in wild adult polar bears are very poorly understood, as the carcasses are rarely found in the specie’s frigid habitat area. While in the wild, old polar bears eventually become too week to be able to walk or catch food, and gradually will starve to death. Polar bears are mostly injured in fights or accidents, and they may either die from their injuries, or they become unable to hunt effectively, leading to them to starve to death / starvation.

Ecological role

The polar bear is the apex predator within its range, and it is a keystone species for the Arctic area. Several animal species, particularly Arctic foxes ( Vulpes lagopus ) and glaucous gulls ( Larus hyperboreus ), routinely scavenge polar bear kills.

The relationship between the ringed seals and also the polar bears are so close that the abundance of the ringed seals in some areas will appears to regulate the density of polar bears, while the polar bear predation in turn regulates density and reproductive success of ringed seals. The evolutionary pressure of polar bear predation on seals probably counts for some significant differences between the Arctic and also the Antarctic seals. .Which compared to the Antarctic, where there is no major surface type predator, While the Arctic seals use more breathing  holes per individual, appear more restless when they hauled out on the ice and rarely defecate on the ice. The baby fur of most of the Arctic seal species is mostly white, presumably to provide the camouflage from its predators, where as the Antarctic seals all have a dark fur at the birth of the seals over there.

Brown bears are tend to dominate polar bears in the disputes over carcasses, and a dead polar bear cubs have been found in brown bear dens too. Wolves are rarely encountered by the polar bears, although there have still been 2 times that the Arctic wolf ( Canis lupus arctos ) packs killing the polar bear cubs. Adult polar bears are occasionally vulnerable to the predation by the orcas ( Orcinus orca ) while swimming, but they are rarely reported as taken and bears and likely to avoid entering the water If possible if they detect an orca pod near the area that they are at. The melting sea ice in the Arctic may be also causing the increase of orcas inside of the Arctic Sea, which may increase the risk of predation on the polar bears but the also may benefit the bears by providing more whale carcasses that they can scavenge on. The remains of the polar bears have been also found in the stomachs of the large Greenland sharks ( Somniosus microcephalus ), although it is certainly cannot be ruled out that the bears were merely just scavenged by this slow moving, unusual shark. A rather unlikely killer of a grown polar bear has also been reported included wolverine ( Gulo gulo ), anecdotally reported to have been suffocated by a bear in the zoo with a bite to the throat during its conflict with it. This report may well be dubious, however. The polar bears are sometimes the host of the arctic mites such as the Alaskozetes antarcticus.

Long distance swimming and diving

Researchers have tracked down 52 sows in the southern part of Beaufort Sea off the Alaska with a GPS system collars attached to the animals; no boars were involved  in the studies due to males’ necks being too thick for the GPS to be fully equipped onto the boar. Fifty long  distances swim were recorded; while the longest one which was tracked down was a whopping 354 km ( 220 mi ), with an average of around 155 km ( 96 mi ). The length of these swims ranged from the most of a day to ten days. Tens of the sows had a cub swim with them and after a year, those six cubs survived. The study also did not determine if the other lost their cubs before, during, or some time after their long time of swimming. Researchers also do not know whether or not this is a new type of behaviour of the polar bears or not; before the polar ice shrinkage, the opined that there was probably neither the need nor opportunity to swim such long distances. As noted above, there have been a crazy amount of 600 recorded instances of polar bears in the Iceland ever since the 9^th century. These presumably swam from Greenland, about 300 km ( 190 mi ).

The polar bear may swim underwater for up to 3 minutes to be able to approach the seals on shore or on the ice floes area.

Indigenous people

Polar bears have long provided important types of raw materials for the Arctic peoples, which includes the Inuit, Yupik, Chukchi, Nenets, Russian Pomors and others. Hunters are commonly used as teams of dog to distract the bear, allowing the hunter to be able to spear the bear or shoot it with an arrow at a closer range of the bear. Almost all of the parts of captured animals had a use. The fur was used to make trousers and also, by the Nenets, to make a galoshes like outer footwear called tobok; the meat is edible too, but it has some risk of trickinosis; but the fat was used in food and also as a fuel for lighting up homes, alongside seal and whale blubber too; sinews were used as a thread for sewing clothes; the gallbladder and sometimes heart were dried up and also powdered up for some medicinal purposes; the large canine teeth that they had were highly valued as talismans. Only the liver was not used, as it is a high concentration of Vitamin A and if you eat too much it can be poisonous. As a carnivore, which feeds on largely upon fish eating carnivores, the polar bears have to ingest a large amounts of vitamin A which is mostly stored up inside of their livers. The resulting high concentrations of Vitamin A can be able to cause you hypervitaminosis A, the hunters make sure that to either toss the liver into the sea or bury it away in order to spare their dogs from potentially eating it and the dog getting poisoned and possibly dying. A Traditional subsistence hunting was on a small enough scale to not really affect the polar bear population as much, mostly because of the sparseness of the human population inside of the polar bear habitat.

History of commercial harvest

In Russia, the polar bear furs have already been commercially traded way long ago since the 14^th century, though it was of a low value compared to the Arctic fox or even the reindeer fur. The grown of the human population inside of the Eurasian Arctic in the 16^th and the 17^th century, together with the advent of fireman’s and the increasing raise of popularity of trading, the dramatic harvest of the polar bear for their fur raised dramatically. However, since the polar bear fur has always played a marginal commercial role, the data on the historical harvest is fragmentary. It is known though, for example, that already in the winter of 1784 / 1785 Russian Pomors on Spitsbergen harvested over 150 polar bears in Magdalenefjorden. In the early 20^th century too, the Norwegian hunters were able to harvest over 300 bears per year at the same location. The estimate of total historical harvest suggests that it had started at the 18^th century, roughly around 400 to 500 animals were being harvested annually in the northern Eurasia reaching at a peak of around 1,300 animals up to 1,500 animals in the early 20^th century and falling off as the numbers began dwindling down.

In the first of the 20^th century, the mechanized and overpoweringly efficient methods of being to hunt animals and traps came into use in North America as well. The hunters were chasing down Polar bears using snow mobiles and also ice breakers, and even airplanes, the latter practice was also described in a 1965 New York Times editorial as being “ about as sporting as machine gunning cow. “ Norwegians used “ self-killing guns “, comprising a loaded rifle in a baited box that was placed at the level of the polar bears / other bears head, and it which fired when the string attacked to the bait was suddenly pulled by the bear tripping on it. The numbers of the animals grew rapidly in the 1960’s, which suddenly peaked at about 1,250 at the year 1968 which was estimated of the entire globe.

Contemporary regulations

Concerns over the future of survival of the species led to the development of the new animal safety company called the national regulations on polar bear hunting, and it had begun in the mid 1950’s. in which the Soviet Union ( Russia ) banned all the hunting in 1956 of polar bears. Canada also decided to begin imposing hunting quotas in 1968. Norway passed the series of increasingly strict regulations from 1965 up to 1973 and has completely banned hunting ever since then. The United States also began regulating hunting in the 1971 and adopted the Marine Mammal Protection Act ever since 1972. In the 1973, the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears was officially signed by all of the five nations whose territory is inhabited by polar bears: Canada, Denmark, Norway, the Soviet Union, and also the United States. Member countries decide to agree to place restriction on recreational and commercial hunting, ban hunting from aircraft and ice breakers, and conduct further on research. The treaty also allows hunting “ by local people using traditional methods “. Norway is the only country of the five in which all harvest of polar bears is banned. The agreement was a rare case of the international cooperation during the Cold War times. Biologist Ian Stirling commented, “ For many years, the conservation of polar bears was the only subject in the entire Arctic that nations from both of the sides of the Iron Curtain could agree upon sufficiently to sign an agreement. Such was the intensity of the human fascination with this magnificent predator, the only marine bear. “

Agreements have been done between the countries co-manage their shared on polar bear subpopulations. After several year of negotiations between the countries together, Russia and the United States finally agreed on a settlement  in October 2000 to jointly set quotas for indigenous subsistence hunting the Alaska and also Chukotka. The treaty was ratified in October 2007, In September 2015, the polar bear range states decided to agree upon a “ circumpolar action plan “ which describes their conservation on strategies for the polar bears.

The species is listed in the Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( CITIES ) meaning that the international trade, which includes in the parts or derivatives, is controlled by the CITES system of permits and also certificates. The United States government has also proposed that polar bears be transferred to Appendix I of CITES which would also ban all of the commercial international trade which has connection to polar bear parts. The decision to leave the species listed under the Appendix II was also endorsed by the IUCN and TRAFFIC, who was determined that such an up listing was unlikely going to confer a conservation benefit.

Canada

Polar bears were also designated as “ Not as Risk “ in April 1986 and up listed to a “ Special Concern “ in the April 1991. This  status was re evaluated and confirmed in April 1999, and in November 2002 and also April 2008. Polar bears continue to be listed as a species of a special concern in Canada due to their sensitivity to overharvest and because of its expected range contraction cause by the loss of the Arctic Sea ice.

In Canada more than 600 bears are killed per year over there by just humans themselves with their special weapons and stuff, a rate was calculated by the scientists in Canada and to be unsustainable for some areas, notably Baffin Bay. Canada has allowed some of the sport hunters accompanied by the local guides and dog sled teams since the 1970’s, but since the practise was not as common until the 1980’s. The guiding of sport hunters provides a meaningful employment and an important source of income which comes from the northern communities in which the economic opportunities are few. Sport hunting can bring 20,000$ CDN up to 35,000$ CDN per bear in the northern communities, in which until recently has been for most of the American hunters.

The territory of the Nunavut accounts for the location of 80% of the annual kills which happens in Canada. In 2005, the government of Nunavut increased the quota from 400 bears up to 518 bears now, despite the protests from the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group. In two areas where the harvest levels have been increased based on the increased sightings of the bears, science based studies have indicated that the populations have been declining, and a third area is now considered data deficient. While most of the quota is hunted by the indigenous Inuit, a growing share is also sold to the recreational hunters. ( 0.8% in the 1970’s, 7.1% in the 1980’s, and 14.65 in the 1990’s ). Nunavut polar bear biologist, Mitchell Taylor, who was formerly responsible for the polar bear conservation in the territory, has insisted that the bear numbers are being sustained under the current hunting limits. In 2010, the 2005 increase was partially reversed. The Government of Nunavut officials announced that the polar bear quota for the Baffin Bay region would be gradually reduced from 105 per year to only 65 by 2013. The Government of the Northwest Territories maintained their own quota of around 72 bears up to 103 bears within the Inuvialuit communities of which are set aside for some of the sports hunters. Environment Canada also decided to ban the export form the Canada of fur, claws, skulls and other vary types of products mostly from the polar bears which were harvested in Baffin Bay as of the 1^st of January 2010.

Due to the ways of polar bear hunting are managed by Canada, attempts to discourage sport hunting would actually be able to increase the numbers of bears killed in the short term. Canada allocates a certain number of permits each year to sport and subsistence hunting, and also those that are not used for the sport hunting are re-allocated to a indigenous subsistence hunting. Whereas the northern communities kill all of the polar bears they are permitted to take on each year, only half of the sport hunters with a permit actually manages to kill a polar bear. If a sport hunter does not kill a polar bear before his or her permit expires, the permit cannot be transferred to another hunter.

As of August 2011, the Environment Canada published a national polar bear conservation strategy.

Greenland

In Greenland, the hunting restrictions were first introduced in the 1990’s which the exact year is 1994 and expanded by executive order in 2005. Until the 2005 Greenland placed no limits on hunting the indigenous people. However, in 2006 it imposed a limit of around 150, while also allowed to recreational hunting for the first time. Other provision included year round protection of the cubs and mothers, restrictions on usings weapons and other various types of administrative requirements to catalogue kills.

Norway

Polar bears were also hunted very heavily in Svalbard, Norway throughout the 19^th century and to as recently as 1973, when the conservation treaty was signed. 900 bears a year were harvested in the 1920’s and after World War II too, there were as many as 400 up to 500 harvested annually. Some of the regulations of hunting did exist at that time. In 1927, poisoning was outlawed while in 1939, certain denning sights were declared off limits. The killing of the female’s polar bear and her cubs was made illegal in 1965. Killing of the polar bears were able to decrease of somewhat 25 years to 30 years before the treaty. Despite this, the polar bear population continued to decline even more and by 1973, only around 1000 bears over there were left in Svalbard. Only with the passage of the treaty did they now start to begin to recover their populations.

Russia

The Soviet Union decided to ban the harvest of the polar bears in 1956; however, poaching continued on and is estimated to pose a serious threat to the polar bear population. Due to the recent years, the polar bears have approached the coastal villages in Chukotka more frequently due to the shrinking of the sea ice, which endangers the humans and starts raising more concerns that illegal hunting would become even more prevalent. In 2007, the Russian government had made a subsistence hunting legal for the indigenous Chukotkan peoples only, a move which support by Russia’s more prominent bear researchers and also the World Wide Fund for Nature as means to curb poaching.

Polar bears are currently listed as a “ Rare “, of “ Uncertain Status “, or “ Rehabilitated and rehabilitating “ in the Red Data Book of Russia, depending on the population of the polar bears. In 2010, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment published a strategy for polar bear conservation in Russia.

United States

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 afforded polar bears some protection in the United States. It was banned hunting ( except by the indigenous subsistence hunters ), banned importing the parts of the polar bear ( except for the polar bear pelts taken legally in Canada ), and banned the harassment of polar bears. On the 15^th of May 2008, the United States Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, citing that the melting of the Arctic Sea ice as the primary threat to the polar bears. It banned all of the importing of polar bear trophies. Importing products made from the polar bear had also been prohibited from since 1972 to 1994 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and restricted between 1994 and 2008. Under those types of restrictions, permits from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service were also required to import sport hunted polar bear trophies taken in hunting expeditions in Canada too. The permit process required that the bear would be taken from an area with quotas based on the sounds management principles. Since the 1994, hundreds of sports hunted polar bears trophies have been important into the U.S. In 2015, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service decided to publish a draft about the conservation management plan for polar bears to improve their status under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act too.

Conservation status, threats, and controversies

Polar bear population sizes and trends are difficult to estimate accurately because they occupy remote home ranges and exist at a low population densities. Polar bears fieldwork can also be hazardous to the researchers. As of 2015, the International Union FOR Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) reports that the total population of polar bears in the entire world is around 22,000 polar bears to about 31,000 polar bears and the current population trend is unknown right now. Never the less, the polar bears are listed as “ Vulnerable “ under the criterion A3c, which indicates that an expected population will decrease about >30% over the next thee generations ( which is about 34.5 years ) due to “ decline in the area of occupancy, extent of the occurrence and / or the quality of  habitat “. The risks which are currently happening to the polar bear habitat includes climate change, pollution in the form of the toxic gas and contaminants, conflicts with shipping, oil and gas exploration, development, and the human bear interaction which includes the hunters harvesting the polar bears and possible stresses from recreational polar bear watching.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the polar bear is an important indicator of the Arctic ecosystem health so if it is eventually gone that means we have failed and its going to be near impossible fix the problems. Polar bears are also studied to gain the understanding of what is happened throughout the Arctic area, because at risk polar bears are often a sign of if something wrong is happening in the Arctic Marine ecosystem.

Climate change

The key danger for the polar bears is posed by the effects of what is humans doing right now called climate change and it causes malnutrition or starvation due to the habitat loss happening right now. Polar bears mostly hunt for the seals from a platform of the sea ice. But with the current rising temperatures it has caused the Arctic Sea ice to start melting a lot and it has been happening for a long time now, which makes the polar bears harder for them to build up a fat reserves to survive the period time of the summer and early fall. Reduction of the sea ice cover also forces the bear to swim long distances at a time, which further depletes their energy stores and occasionally leads to them drowning and dying, and for the other marine mammals to eat them. The thinner sea ice tends to deform more easily that if it was thicker, which appears to make it more difficult for the polar bears to be able to access the seals to be able to eat. Insufficient nourishment could lead to lower reproductive rates in the adult females and a lower survival rates for the cubs and the juvenile bears, with on top of that it adds a poorer body condition to all the bears of all ages.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, United States Geological Survey, and many other types of leading polar bear biologists have expressed and grave concerns about the impact of the climate change, and their prediction for the polar bears extinction will be by 2100.

In addition to creating the nutritional stress, a warming climate is expected to affect various types of other aspects of the polar bears life: changes in the sea ice affect the ability of the pregnant females to be able to build a suitable maternity dens. While the distance increases between the pack ice and the coast, females must swim longer distances to reach favoured denning areas which is on land. Thawing of permafrost would affect the bears who traditionally den underground, and a warm winters which could result in the den roofs collapsing or having a reduce insulative value. For the polar bears that currently den on a multi-year ice, increased ice mobility may result in a longer distances for the mothers and young cubs to walk when they return from their seal hunting areas where they catch their food in the spring time. Disease causing bacteria and parasites would flourish and more readily in a warmer climate.

Problematic interactions between polar bears and the humans too, such as foraging the bears in garbage dumps, and have historically been more prevalent in years where the ice floe break up occurred early and local polar bears were relatively thin. Increased human bears interactions, including fatal attacks on by the humans, are likely to increase as the sea ice shrinks and hungry bears try to fin food on the land.

The effects of the climate change are really bad especially for the future for the polar bears arctic sea ice and since it will be hotter too, the part of where the affect is most in the southern part of the polar bear’s range, and this is indeed where the more significant degradation of the local populations has been observed on. The Western Hudson Bay subpopulation, in the southern part of the range, which also happens to be one of the best studied polar bears subpopulations. This subpopulation feeds heavily on the ringed seals during the late spring times, when newly weaned and easily hunted seal pups are abundant. The late spring hunting seasons end for the polar bears when the time comes and the ice starts to melt and starts breaking up to pieces, and they fast or eat very little during the summer time until the sea is able to freezes again.

Due to the warming air temperature due to the global warming, the ice floe breakup which are happening in western Hudson Bay is currently occurring every three weeks earlier than if it was 30 years ago, which reduces the feeding season for the polar bears. The body condition for the polar bears have declined a lot during this time of period; the average weight of lone ( and most likely pregnant ) female polar bears was approximately 290 kg ( 640 lb ) in 1980 and around 230 kg ( 510 lb ) in 2004. Between the time span of 1987 to 2004, the Western Hudson Bay population have declined about 22%, although the population of the polar bears were listed as “ stable “ as of 2017. As time go on and climate change will become worse, the sea ice will melt more faster, the U.S. Geological Survey projects about two third of the polar bear populations will disappear by 2050.

While in Alaska, the effects of global warming have killed more polar bears cubs in a while due to the sea ice shrinkage and have led to a lot of change in the denning locations of the pregnant females. The proportion of maternity dens of sea ice has changed from about 62% in between the years of 1985 through out 1994, and 37% over the years from 1998 through 2004. Thus, now the Alaskan population more resembles as the world population in that is more likely to den on land. In the recent years, the polar bears in the Arctic have undertaken a longer than usual swims to find their prey to be able to eat, and possibly resulting four recorded drownings of the polar bears in the unusually large ice pack regression of 2005.

A new development is that polar bears have begun ranging to a new territory of land. While not unheard of but still uncommon, polar bears have been sighted increasingly in larger numbers ashore and staying on the mainland for longer periods of time during the summer time for a few months, particularly in North Canada, traveling farther inland. This may cause an increase reliance on terrestrial diets, such as goose eggs, water fowl and caribou too, as well as increased human bear conflict.

Pollution

Polar bears accumulate high levels of persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyl ( PCBs ) and also chlorinated pesticides. Due to their position being at the top of the ecological pyramid, with a diet heavy in blubber in which halocarbons concentrate, they bodies are also among one of the most contaminated of the Arctic mammals. Halocarbons ( which is also known as organohalogens ), are also known to be toxic to other different types of animals, because they mimic a hormone chemistry, and biomarkers such as immunoglobulin G and retinol suggest a similar effects on the polar bears. PCBS have also received the most study, and they have been associated with the birth defects and immune system deficiency.

Many chemicals, such as PCBS and DDT, have been internationally banned due to the recognition of their harm on the environment. Their concentrations in the polar bear tissues continued to rise for decades and on after being banned, as these chemicals spread through the food chain. Since then, the trend seems to have abated, with the tissues concentrations of the PCBs declining between then studies which were performed between 1989 to 1993 and studies performed from 1996 to 2002 too. During the same time periods, DDT was also found to be a notably lower in the Western Hudson Bay population only.

Oil and gas development

Oil and the gas development on the polar bear habitat can affect the polar bears in a lot of different ways. An oil spill in the Arctic would most likely concentrate in the areas where polar bears and their prey are also concentrated, such as the sea ice leads. Because the polar bears rely partly on their fur for their insulation and soiling of the fur by oil reduces its insulative value, but an oil spill at the arctic ice sea area can put the polar bears at risk of dying from hypothermia. A polar bear which is exposed to an oil spill conditions have been observed to lick the oil from their fur, which leads to a fatal kidney failure. Maternity dens, which are used by the pregnant females and the female’s infants / cubs too, can also be disturbed the nearby oil exploration and development. Disturbance of these sensitive sites may be able to trigger the mother to abandon her den prematurely or abandon their litter altogether.

Predications

Steven Amstrup and other U.S. Geological Survey scientists have been able ( sort of ) to predict that around two third of the world’s polar bears population may be gone / disappear by 2050, based on the moderate projections for the shrinking of summer sea ice caused by the climate change, though the validity of this study has been debated. The bears could disappear from Europe, Asia, and also Alaska too, and be depleted from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and some areas off the northern Greenland coast. By the time of 2080, they could possibly disappear from Greenland entirely and from the northern Canadian coast too, which leaves the dwindling numbers in the interior Arctic Archipelago. However, in the short term, some of the polar bear populations in historically colder regions of the Arctic may temporarily benefit from a milder climate, as a multiyear ice that is too thick for the seals to create some breathing holes is replaced by a thinner annual ice.

Polar bears have diverged from brown bears from around 400,000 years ago to around 600,000 years ago and have been able to survive the past periods of climate fluctuation. It has also been claimed that the polar bears will be able to adapt to different types of terrestrial food sources as the sea ice they use to hunt the seals to be able to eat it starts to disappear. However, most of the polar bear biologists think that the polar bears will be unable to completely offset the loss of the calorie rich seal blubber with their new diet of terrestrial foods, and that they will be outcompeted by the brown bears in this terrestrial niche, which could ultimately lead to the decline of the polar bears population by a lot.

Controversy over the species protection

Warnings about the future of the polar bears are often contrasted with the fact that the worldwide population estimates that it had increased over the past 50 years and are still relatively stable today. Some estimates about the global population are around 5,000 to around 10,000 during the early 1970’s, and other estimates were around 20,000 to 40,000 during the 1980’s. The current estimates put the global population to be about 20,000 and 25,000 or as much as 22,000 to 31,000. Despite the encouraging rebound of some of the populations, there is little evidence to suggest that the Polar bears are thriving overall.

There have been several reasons for the apparent discordance between the past and projected populations trends estimates from the 1950s and the 1960s were based on the stories that the explorers and hunters rather than on the scientific surveys. Second the controls of harvesting them were introduced that allowed this previously overhunted species to recover. Third, the recent effects of the climate change affected the sea ice so much in different areas to varying degrees.

The debate going on over the listing of the polar bears under endangered species legislation has put on a conservation groups and Canada’s Inuit at opposing positions; the Nunavut government and many other northern residents have also condemned the U.S. initiative to the list the polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Many Inuit believe that the polar bear population is increasing, and restriction on a commercial sport hunting are likely to lead to a loss of income to their communities.

In Culture

Indigenous folklore

For the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, the polar bears have long played an important role for a culture for their material role. The polar bears remain have been found at hunting sites which can date back all the way to 2,500 to 3,000 years ago and a 1,500 year old cave paintings of the polar bears have been found in the Chukchi Peninsula. Indeed, it has been suggested that the Arctics people’s skills in the seal hunting and the igloo construction ahs been in part acquired from the polar bears themselves.

The Inuit and the Alaska Natives have many folk tales featuring  the bears including legends in which the bears are humans when inside their own houses and put on the bear hides when going outside, and also the stories about how the constellation that is said to resemble the gear bear surrounded by dogs came into being. These legends reveal a deep respect for the polar bear, which is portrayed as both spiritually powerful and closely ain  to humans. The human like posture of bear when they are standing and sitting, and the resemblance of a skinned bear carcass to the human body, have probably contributed to the beliefs that the spirits of the humans and bears were interchangeable.

Among the Chukchi and Yupik of the eastern Siberia, there was a longstanding shamanistic ritual of the “ thanksgiving “ to the hunted polar bear. After killing the animal, its head and skin were removed and cleaned and brought into the home, and a huge feast was held in their hunting camp in its honour. The appease the spirit of the bear, traditional song and drum music was also played too, and the skull as ceremonially fed and offered a pipe. Only once a spirit was appeased was the skull be separated from the skin, taken beyond the bounds of the homestead, and placed into the ground, facing north.

The Nenets located at the north central Siberia placed a particular value on the talismanic power of the prominent canine teeth. These were traded in the villages of the lower Yenisei and Khatanga River to the forest dwelling peoples which is a little bit further to the south, who would sew them into their hats as protection against the brown bears. It was believed that the “ little nephew “ ( or the brown bear ) would not dare attack a man who wear the tooth of its powerful “ big uncle “, the polar bear. The skulls of the killed polar bears were buried in a lot of different areas which were scattered all around the site, and altars, called sedyangi, were constructed out of the skulls. Several such as the sites have been preserved on the Yamal Peninsula.

The Symbols and mascots

 

Their distinctive appearance and their association with the Arctic have made the polar bears a popular icon to the world, especially in the areas where they are native to the area. The Canadian two-dollar coin carries an image of a lone polar bear on its reverse side on the coin, while a special millennium edition features three. Vehicle licence plate located in the Northwest Territories in Canada are in the shape of a polar bear, as it was the case in Nunavut until 2012; these are now displaying polar bear artwork instead. The polar bear is now the mascot of Bowdoin College, Maine; the University of Alaska Fairbanks; and also, the 1988 Winter Olympics which was held in Calgary. The Eisbaren Berlin hockey team uses a roaring polar bear as their logo, and the Charlotte North Carolina hockey team the Charlotte Checkers also use a polar bear named Chubby Checkers as their mascot.

Polar bear - Wikipedia

 

Also, about polar bears is that polar bears have different type of bears just like the Brown bear, Black bear, and the Grizzly bear and more different types of bear species.

1. Talking about the Brown bear

1.1: Short Facts about brown bear

1.2: Long Facts about brown bear

2: Talking about Black bear

2.1: Short Facts about Black bear

2.2: Longs Facts about Black Bear

3: What I did today

For example: Brown Bear

Here are some Facts about the Brown Bear

Brown bears have long captured inside our imaginations in ways that a few other types of wild animals have - as they can stand on their two hind legs, pick things up with their big paws, and also they are omnivores, they even like to eat a lot of the same food just like humans. These bears are also especially relatable due to their abilities to be able to communicate with one another through their “ sign language “ which also includes scratch marks which are left on trees, sounds and smell.

Facts about Brown bear ( Short facts )

1. Where do brown bears live?

The brown bear has the widest distribution of any type of bear, as once ranging from as far as Morocco, Algeria, and Mexico. As of today it lives in the continents of North America, Asia, and also Europe, and it is also the national animal of Finland. While in the United States, you are able to see brown bears in place for example like Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, Katmai National Park, Glacial National Park, and also Yellowstone National Park.

2. How strong are the brown bears?

Brown bears have some amazing endurance. Which with their speed and their endurance they can be able to outrun a horse and are able to drag a dead elk up an entire hill.

3. How do brown bears communicate with each other’s?

Brown bears are able to communicate to each other by scratching and also rubbing onto the trees to be able to mark their territory and be able to indicate their reproductive status.

4. How long do brown bears hibernate?

Brown bears are able to hibernate inside of a den from around October to December to March to May. But it matters where they live such as if they live in the farther north area, they are able to hibernate longer. While at the more southern areas, hibernation is shorter than average or possibly may not even occur at all.

5. How big can a brown bear get?

The two general main types of brown bears are recognized as, the coastal brown bear and also the inland grizzly bear. Most of the herbivorous grizzlies can weigh as little as 530 lbs, while a brown bear living on a diet which mainly consist of spawning salmon can be able to reach up to 1,500 lbs.

6. Why are some of the brown bears called grizzlies?

In the Rocky Mountains, there are some brown bears which have long hairs on their shoulders and their back that are frosted with cream, which gives them a grizzled, blond look: thus, grizzlies!

7. How do the brown bears help keep the ecosystems in balance?

Brown bears also play as an important roles as predators – keeping the animal populations in check – and as the seed dispersers.

8. How can I be able to identify a brown bear?

Look at its shoulder jump, as a set of strong muscles that can allow the brown bears to be able to dig up roots and tear apart logs to be able to find food itself. None of the other seven bear species have that type of ability.

9. How are brown bear cubs born during the hibernation?

Brown bears mothers can give birth of their cubs while they are still asleep! Cubs born during the hibernation makes their way to the mother's chest and nurse until she is ready to wake up.

10. What is the biggest type of brown bear?

The biggest brown bear known species is called the Kodiak bears for their home on the Kodiak archipelago off the Alaska coast, these Bear giants are the largest known subspecies of brown bear.

11. Can a person be able to outrun a brown bear?

Tennis shoes or not, this is one bear that will beat you every single time if you try to outrun it. Despite the brown bears giant size and ambling demeanour, brown bears can still run super-fast up to speed of 30 mph!

12. Where is the Brooks Falls?

Brook Falls is located within  the Alaska’s Katmai National Park, and which is arguably the most famous spot in the world to be able to capture that classic shot of the brown bears catching salmon while the food is in mid-air.

13. What is the World Wildlife Fund doing to protect the brown bear species?

Brown bears live across the northern part of the hemisphere inside of the mountain forests and also river valleys. One of the world’s largest carnivores, brown bears depend on the large natural areas and are also important management indicators for a number of other different types of wildlife species. Due to the vast habitat loss, the brown bears are listed as a threatened animal in the Lower 48 states. The WWF is working its way to be able to protect the brown bears through its habitat preservation around the world, and its anti-poaching efforts inside of Asia.

13 Facts About Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) | Alask (nathab.com)

 

Facts about Brown bear ( Long facts )

1. The brown bear, ( which scientific name is Ursus arctos ), which is a shaggy haired bear ( Family Ursidae ) Native to areas like Europe, Asia, and also the Northwest of North America. Numerous different types of brown bears have been described by the people; they are also treated as several subspecies of Ursus arctos. One of the subspecies, the Kodiak bear ( U. arctos Middendorf ), can be able to weigh up to a whopping 720 kg ( 1,600 pounds ) and is often considered as the world’s largest carnivore, as its title it shares with the polar bear ( U. maritimus ), in which it grows to a similar size to it. Although the North American brown bears are traditionally called as grizzlies / grizzly bear, this common name refers to the different subspecies U. arctos horribilis, which is widespread across the North western North America. Read facts about the Grizzly bear here: Grizzly bear | Weight, Habitat, & Facts | Britannica

2. Brown bears are also omnivorous and feed on the berries, plant roots and shoots, small mammals, fish, calves of many hoofed animals, and also carrion. They often cache food in the shallow holes, and they also dig readily and vigorously in search of rodents. Except in some different parts of the southern areas, the bears like to retire to their dens during the winter time; they accumulate large amounts of fat during the late summer and autumn times. Cubs, usually twins, and are also born in winter after about six to eight months of gestation. At birth a cub weighs less than 1 kg ( 2.2 pounds ).

3. The Eurasian brown bears are generally solitary animals that are able to run and swim pretty well. They are usually about 120 – 210 cm ( which is about 48 inches to 83 inches ) in length and can weigh around 135 kg to about 250 kg ( 300 to about 550 pounds ); the exceptionally large Siberian brown bear ( which scientific name is U. arctos beringianus ), weighing to as much as 360 kg ( 800 pounds ), which is the approximate weigh of the North American grizzly bear. The coat colour is highly variable, which ranges from a greyish white through a bluish and brownish shades to almost black fur. Eurasian brown bears are most commonly seen inside of the zoos; formerly they were often trained to be able to move rhythmically to music – the so called dancing bears of the European carnivals and festivals. They once were able to roam most of the Europe and Asia; however, the animal’s southern range has been significantly reduced now.

4. Brown bears have an extremely large geographic distribution, and their worldwide populations totals out to be about 200,000 individuals or more. For these types of reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) Red List of Threatened Species has classified the brown bear as a species of one of their least concern. The brown bears live in close proximity to humans are often regarded as pests because of the animal’s attraction to the human foods. Their large size and their also relatively aggressive disposition can unsettle people who come in contact with them, and also brown bears that frequent human settlements are sometimes killed by the landowner and also the government officials. Other different sources of the brown bear mortality which includes collisions with the train and automobiles, poaching, and also sport hunting too. In addition to that, the gallbladder and bile of some of the brown bears are harvested by the people to be able to make traditional types of medicines with them that purportedly alleviate digestive problems and also inflammation and purify the blood. Many harvesting operations has also removed and sell the animals paws, which are considered as a delicacy in different parts of Asia. The Ainu people of Japan worship the brown bear as a god of the mountains, and also some of the mountain dwelling Ainu consider the bear as their ancestor.

Brown bear | Diet, Habitat, & Facts | Britannica

 

Here are some other facts about other different types of bears! For example: Black bear

Facts about the Black bear ( Short facts )

1. A lot of American black bears are usually found in Canada, Mexico, and North America.

2. Black bears main source of food are grass, herbs, and also fruit, but they will sometimes eat other types of food, which also includes fish.

3. The black bear’s coat has lots of layers of shaggy fur, in which keeps them warm during the cold winter months.

4. They may be called Black bears, but their coat can also be blue – grey or blue-black, brown and even at some point even white!

5. The black bear short claws can make them a expert tree climber.

6. They may be large and heavy, but don’t be fooled by their weight and size, because black bears can be able to run up to 40 kph!

7. These big bears also have a really good sense of smell, and they can be often seen standing on their hind legs, sniffing scents.

8. The black bears usually lives inside of forests, but they can also be found in the mountains or swamp!

9. Black bears spend the winter time inside of their dens, which their body eat their fat reserves that they have built up during the summer and autumn time. Just like the polar bear!

10. They also make their dens inside of caves, burrows, or other sheltered spots. Sometimes they even make their dens inside of the tree holes above the ground!

10 black bear facts! | National Geographic Kids (natgeokids.com)

Facts about Black bears! ( Long Facts )

Black bear scientific name

Black bears scientific names are actually “ Ursus Americanus “ which means “ bear “.

The American Black bear can be found over most of North America. Similar to the European Cave Bear and evolving  form the same line, it probably got descended from Ursus abstrusus, as did the Asiatic Black Bear, which is the closest known genetic relative to the American Black Bear.

Where they usually live

American ( native only ) Black Bears can be found inside of 42 states in America. They mostly live in the forest dwellers in which  the temperate climates ranging from Alaska to Florida.

Population

There are 750,000 known Black bears inside of North America ( Around 286,600 to 328,000 Black Bears are inside of America. Around 342,500 to 395,000 Black bears are inside of Canada ) Texas has a population of around 50 American Black bears, and they are a endangered species within the state of Texas. While nationally, the black bears are not endangered, and they have a strong, viable population. The American Black Bear is the most numerous and widespread species inside of the North America, due to the black bear intelligence and adaptability.

Colours

The Black Bears can be in sorts of different colours! For Example: Black, Cinnamon, Red, Chocolate, Brown, Blond, Yellow, Grey, Tan, Bluish-Grey ( Glacier Bear of Alaska and the Yukon ), White ( Kermode Bear of the British Columbia ). All of the Black Bears, regardless of its colour, have a brown snout. Around 70% of all American Black Bears are black in colour, and most of the bears that are black in coloration are found in the Eastern United States.

Fur

Their fur are soft, dense underfur ( insulation ); long, coarse, thick in diameter guard hair. Black bears molt once a year, depending on the photoperiod ( hours of light per day, usually in July ).

Size

They are around 4 to 6 feet tall when they are on their foot standing!

Weight

The Male Black bears usually weigh around 250 lbs on average, 125 – 600 ( range ) while the heaviest male black bear known is 880 lbs. Male bears are around 33% larger than the Female Black Bears.

Growth & Development

At around six weeks of age, they weigh about 2 lbs.

At the age of eight weeks old they now weigh 2.5x more at 5 lbs.

At now they are six months old they can weigh about 40 to 60 lbs.

And now once their 5 years old they are Sexually mature.

And then finally once they are five years old, they are officially fully grown.

Cub: A young bear ( born weighing around 13 oz. Average, 8 inches long, blind, naked, and unable to hear, smell, really only able to find the sow’s nipple, born during the hibernation in January or the early February time weaned from mother after 16 – 18 months ).

Boar, He-Bear: adult male bear

Sow, She-Bear: an adult female bear ( reach Sexual maturity between the time of 3 to 5 years of age, gestation period being about 235 days, averaging 2 cubs per litter, in which most of the cubs being born during the time of January or February ).

Eating Habits

Although bears are classified in the carnivore family, t hey exhibit characteristics that are predominately ominivorisitic.

Food

Black bears are omnivorous – they both eat plants and also animals. They rely heavily on their sense of smell for finding food; it is thought that they are able to smell a food source from over two miles away! Most of their diet consists of berries, fruit, grass like plants, and also insects.

Teeth

Bears can develop cavities and are one very few wild animals that are susceptible to tooth decays, due to their sugary diet. A bear’s age can also be determined by the study of one of its teeth ( similar to counting the rings on a tree ). Bears have 42 teeth total.

Body Temperature

Black bears average temperature are around 98 to 99 Fahrenheit, during hibernation it can drop down to around 89 Fahrenheit.

Heart Rate

The average heart beat for black bears are 98 beats per minute while they are awake. But while they are sleeping it can drop down to 45 beats per minute.

Locomotion

Black Bears can be able to run up to 30 mph!

 

Claws

Their non retractable claws are also mainly used to climb and be able to rip apart objects in the search of food. Black bears are also the only species of bears in the North America that are able to climb trees at all ages ( this is primarily a defence mechanism ).

Eyes

All bears are near sighted, but they do exhibit a colour vision and can be able to see moving objects at a far distance away. Their vision is comparable to a human vision. Bears stand up on their hind legs and approach things to be able to see them better.

Senses

Bear’s primary sense is their sense of smell ( similar to their vision in humans ). Their sense of hearing is just their most prominent sense, with vision being their third.

Swimming

Black bears are also excellent swimmers and they can swim for pleasure and as means of thermoregulation. Bears also do not sweat, and they also therefore must release their heat by panting or swimming.

Climbing

Black bears are also known for the climbing just like how they can climb a tree. They can climb regularly and pretty easily to be able to find food, escape their enemies, or to hibernate in some different areas. Climbing ability declines with age. Climbing is also the principal means of defense.

Hibernation

While we commonly refer to a bear’s winter repose as to hibernation, it is actually a process called torpor. Hibernation is also a response to a shortage of their food, with the decreasing temperatures and the snow on the ground. The bears enter inside of their dens in October and November, although in the southern most areas of their range ( For example: Like Texas, Mexico, the South eastern United States ), only pregnant females and mothers with their yearling cubs will enter hibernation. Hibernating bears enter a shallow torpor with a decrease of body temperature of only 10 degrees. Their metabolism and heart rate starts to slow down. But if they don’t need to eat, drink, or pass waste. In order for them to survive, they use their fat inside of the bear’s body to break down into water and calories for the body to use. Muscle and organs tissue is rebuilt by using the nitrogen in urea ( the basis of urine ). In contrast true hibernators, such as squirrels, reduce their body temperature to a near freezing and greatly reduce their metabolism, to be able to conserve their energy when the food is low. But they also need to wake up once week or so to be able tot eat some food and pass waste.

American Black Bear Facts | Bear Habitat | Baylor University

I will be typing about the other facts about bears soon later but I have finished this one but I have no idea what to type about for the rest of 500 words so I will just be typing about what I did today. Today the first thing I did was wake up for subuh but then went back to last and soon later woke up to watch some Ninjago. I finished season 8 – 10. And then after that we had to go take a shower for something important. After we took a shower we had a little more time to go watch / play some more and then we went to my grandma friend house or cousin house. I didn’t know because I was asleep the entire time. When we arrived to their house, my mom, brothers, sister, grandma went out and talked to them and also ate. But I was still in the car asleep so then I just waited until they were finished eating there and doing their stuff but then it got very hot inside the car. So, I decided to get up and enter the house and I decided to just sleep on their couch. After that I got some water, and then my mother talk to them for a little bit and then we were going to leave. We went into the car and went back home. By now it took 2 hours or 3 hours. Which is a very long time. It was now around 12:30. We decided to sholat dhuhur and then watched for just like 20 minutes because my brothers wanted to refill their snacks. So, we went at 12:50 to go to the giant SuperIndo Maret. While we were shopping, I wanted to go and make some homemade rice krispies. Rice krispies are a cereal snack candy combined with marshmallow. But since they weren’t halal I wanted to make some homemade ones. My mom said to use the Choco pops that she had bought instead of buying rice krispies. I bought 1 packet of Marshmallow and some other snacks. After we went back home, I got the ingredients and the tutorial. I started melting the butter and the marshmallow. Then poured in the cereal and the rest of the marshmallow. The mistake I did was that I added either too much cereal or that I bought too little marshmallow. So, then I put them in the fridge for 30 minutes. After that they were pretty hard. They were soft / hard. In some parts it was a little soft while in other parts they were hard. So then I decided that the next time I make them I would add more marshmallow or less cereal. And then I just decided to keep watching some Ninjago and some YouTube. And then now I’m typing all of this out. The end.