Polar bears live near the North Pole.
They are the biggest bears.
Their paws are furry underneath so they can walk on ice.
They swim very well in deep sea.
They eat meat.
What is a bear?
There are eight different kinds of bear, but some things are the same about all bears.
General facts about all bears:
Bears are mammals.
Bears are found in many habitats in different countries.
All bears have a large body with strong legs and a short tail. They have a snout rather like a dog's snout. They have thick fur. Their paws have five claws that do not pull back like a cat's claws do.
Bears generally live alone, except when a mother is raising cubs.
There are eight different kinds of bear.
See a map of where the different kinds of bear are found
https://databayou.com/bear/habitat.html
What do polar bears look like?
Together with their close relatives, the kodiak brown bear, the polar bear is the largest of all bears, and the largest land predator. Males weigh about 500-600 kilos and are about 3 metres from nose to tail, and about 1 metre tall when standing on all four feet. Females are about 300 kilos and a bit smaller in size. Though it spends time on land and ice, the polar bear is often thought of as a marine mammal because it spends so much time in the sea and swims so well.
A polar bear waiting for prey at the edge of the sea ice ©Getty Images
The polar bear has a thick body with a very short tail about 10 cm long. They have a thick layer of body fat to help keep them warm. The legs and neck muscles are strong. Their necks are quite long, so they can keep their heads above water while swimming.
The soles of their very large feet (about 30 cm across) are covered with stiff, thick fur to give them grip when they walk on ice. The polar bear can reach a speed of about 32 kph when moving on flat ice.
Small thickly furred ears, short muzzle and three eyelids are just some of the polar bears’ adaptations to the climate. ©Getty
Polar bears have three eyelids: the third eyelid helps protect their eyes in such a severe climate. Their excellent sense of smell enables them to locate prey many miles away.
Polar bears’ fur looks white or creamy, but actually each individual hair is transparent and hollow. This means that the hairs act like greenhouses: they turn the sunlight into heat, which is absorbed by the bear's skin, which is black. Black is a good colour for absorbing and keeping warmth. Polar bears have a layer of shorter, fluffier fur underneath the outer coat.
Habitat and Distribution (where they are found)
Polar bears are are found in the top part of the northern hemisphere, in and around the Arctic Ocean which includes parts of Russia, Norway, Greenland, Canada and the U.S.A. The size of its range varies with the pack ice of the Arctic.
Pack ice forms in winter when the Arctic Ocean freezes and there is a crust of floating ice which moves with ocean currents. Pack ice can be very flat because the ocean is flat but there are rough patches where sheets of ice rub against each other. Where it is locked to the shore, pack ice is called fast ice. Pack ice is not always continuous - cracks (called leads) open up suddenly then re-freeze, so new ice is added all through the long winter.
Polar bears swim far out in the open sea ©Getty Images
What are their behaviours?
A polar bear under the Arctic ice. ©Getty
Polar bears are excellent swimmers, able to swim more than 95 km without a rest. They can swim underwater for up to 2 minutes, and can dive down about 5 metres. They have webbing between their toes to help them paddle. They flatten their short, furry ears and close their nostrils when swimming.
Like other kinds of bear, polar bears are solitary, except for females with young. Males take no part in caring for young cubs, and in fact may injure or kill them.
Polar bears must eat a lot in autumn in order to build up stores of fat to last them through the winter. ©Getty Images
Polar bears must eat plenty of food in autumn so their bodies build up extra fat to keep them alive through winter when food is scarce.
Only pregnant females hibernate, digging snow dens in which cubs will be born. Males and females that are not pregnant do not dig dens, nor do they hibernate.
Diet
Polar bears eat meat. They have a very high fat diet, and their body has adaptations to help them digest it.
They have 34 - 42 very sharp teeth. They catch seals and sometimes walrus pups, as well as birds, beluga whales, musk oxen and reindeer. They hunt in places where there are cracks in the ice that seals may use to come up for air.
When food is scarce, they eat any dead animals they find along the shore, as well as birds eggs, small animals, shellfish and any other edible things they can find.
They will sometimes eat berries or seaweed, and even garbage left by humans, when other food is scarce.
Life Cycle
Polar bears mate between March and July. In November females get ready to give birth, in snow dens where they hibernate, which is a kind of sleep during which their heart rate and temperature drop. They make oval dens 3 metres long, with a tunnel to the surface. Cubs are born in the dens in December or January while their mother is hibernating. The number of cubs born is usually 2.
Cubs feeding after coming out of the snow den where they were born. ©Getty
The tiny cubs are born blind, hairless and toothless. They drink milk from their sleeping mother, and develop fast because polar bear milk is very high in fat. By the time their mother leaves the den in March or April, the cubs are big enough to follow her. By this time they weigh about 10-15 kilos. They stay with their mother for about two to three years, learning skills they need to survive in this harsh habitat.
Global warming is affecting the habitat and hunting ©Getty Images
Conservation Status and Threats
Polar bears are classified as Vulnerable. The destruction of its habitat on the Arctic ice through global warming threatens the bear's survival. The pack ice is a large platform from which polar bears hunt for their main food, ringed seals. The ice is thinning, and is in place for a shorter time so that polar bears have a shorter hunting time. As the ice melts, the bears have to come ashore earlier and before they have eaten enough to keep them going through the winter. Pollution is also posing a threat to these bears.
It is thought that there are about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears in total left in the wild.
Read more about polar bears:
Watch a video about polar bears and kodiak brown bears in the Arctic
More educational games on mammals at NeoK12
