Polar bears

This is a polar bear. They live in the arctic circle and hunt mainly seals. They are considered one of the larger bears due to males being up to 700kg and females being about half of that. They are nomadic, meaning that they travel and do not stick to one area. Their scientific name is Ursus Maritimus, meaning maritime bear. Despite their habitat having actual land, they spend more time on the ice sheets and by the ocean.

Bears as a family are thought to have been created up to 38 million years ago. There is a fossil of a polar bear jaw that is estimated to be between 130,000 and 110,000 years old, it was discovered in 2004 at Prince Charles Foreland in Norway. DNA studies show that polar bears are closely related to brown bears with some instances of them breeding together in the wild. Brown bears generally have up to 2% similar genetics, but one type of bear -ABC Islands bear- has a higher percentage which is further evidence of the breeding. They have 5% - 10% genetics shared with Polar bears.

Polar bears live in the Arctic circle, even as far as some land masses such as Newfoundland as well as James Bay in Canada. Biologists estimate that there are 20-25,000 or 22-31,000 polar bears, but populations are hard to track and haven't been studied well.

They spends months at sea to hunt, despite this, they are the only living animal with such strong limbs made for survival on land. They are carnivores who feast mainly on seals, but will scavenge on corpses that have reached the ice. Polar bears can produce water with their metabolism, as well as the blubber on seals.

Compared to its cousin the brown bear, polar bears have longer skulls and bodies. Their legs are stocky and muscular, and they have small ears and tails. All bears have small tails, but the tail of the polar bear is thought to be the smallest. Like many animals who live around snow, they have wide paws to support their weight and prevent them from sinking in the snow. Their paws can be up to 30cm big and also help with swimming. The pads on said paws have small and soft papillae to help them stay steady on ice. When in captivity, they are hardly ever overweight or large which could be due to such a big climate difference. Polar bears have a terrific sense of smell, being able to find a seal burried under 3ft of snow and 1 mile away.

Polar bears are not fighters, they run away from most confrontation including territory fights. A happy, healthy and full polar bear is not a threat to humans. They are not many record of them being agressive towards people. A hungry polar bear, however, may chase a person due to their lack of previous experiance with humans.

Interactions with other polar bears can be quite nice, zoologist Nikita Ovsianikov has said that adult males can have "well-developed friendships" and there have been instances of adults sleeping together in embrace to keep warm as well as playing together. In 1992, a photographer took pictures of a bear playing with a Canadian Eskimo dog, about a tenth of the size of the polar bear. This interaction lasted 10 days with no animosity, it has been theorised that it was being friendly to try and get some of the dogs food.

When it comes to baby bears, they are born helpless as most young life is. They nurse on their mother for two and a half years. Female bears mate with only one male in their life time while males mate with multiple females. Mating season is between April and May. Females dig a den in the snow to give birth to her young. Cubs are born between November and February and are blind. They are only 0.9kg when born which is impressive considering how big they'll become. Mothers are very affectionate to their young and are extemely protective of them.

I hope you learned something today, see you next time!
-Dari