Cute Snowballs: Polar Bears

Facts about Polar Bears      

     Polar bears are large bears. They have strong legs with large, flattened feet that help with walking on ice and swimming. The wide paws prevent sea ice from breaking by distributing weight while the bear is walking. In addition, the wide paws serve as paddles to help polar bears swim faster. They are also partially webbed.      

      The polar bears' fur has two layers--one for trapping in heat close to the body and another for trapping heat and repelling water. The outer layer of fur is hollow and reflects light giving the fur a white color. The white fur helps the bear camouflage in the icy and snowy habitat.

     In addition, they have a layer of blubber below the surface of the skin. The blubber acts as insulation on the body to trap heat. This is especially important while swimming.   

     Most polar bears inhabit the Arctic and around the North Pole (not including polar bears that are captive).  The countries that encompass the Arctic include Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) and Alaska (United States).  Polar bears thrive in these Arctic conditions because this is where their food sources are, and their bodies are made to handle the harsh Arctic conditions, even the winter one.   

Working for Food

     Polar bears spend a great deal of their time in the Arctic Ocean hunting and searching for food.  In the winter months they walk on the ice and look for seals and in the summer months they wait on the shore for them.  Polar bears know how to use the climate and the land conditions to their benefit when hunting for seals.  They will walk on an ice floe (a sheet of floating ice) and look for hole or cracks in the ice.  Since seals have to breathe at some time they wait there for a seal to come up for breath.

Become Endangered  Due to Global Warming

     Polar bears are in serious danger of going extinct due to global warming. Rising temperatures cause sea ice to melt, especially in the summer months when the polar bears are the most active.
     Polar bears depend on sea ice  as habitat for hunting and dens. As available sea ice decreases, polar bears have to swim farther to find suitable habitat and it takes much longer to find a meal. Compounding the problem, sea ice loss also impacts polar bears main food source--seals.

Polar Bears are Special

     Of all of the wildlife species in the Arctic, the polar bear is perhaps the most fitting icon for this ecoregion. Its amazing adaptations to life in the harsh Arctic environment and dependence on sea ice make them so impressive, and yet so vulnerable. Large carnivores are sensitive indicators of ecosystem health. Polar bears are studied to gain an understanding of what is happening throughout the Arctic as a polar bear at risk is often a sign of something wrong somewhere in the arctic marine ecosystem.