MORE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT POLAR BEARS

 

Photo Copyright: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Alaska Image Library, Used with Permission

 

Polar bears live in a land of ice and snow. Their home has sun for twenty-four hours a day in summer, and it is very dark during the winter. Even so, they are amazingly well adapted to living in this harsh climate. Like other animals that make day beds, so do polar bears have depressions to climb into when a blizzard hits, keeping their backs to the strong wind.

 

Polar bears are often called aquatic animals, because so much of their lives are spent in the water - they are very strong swimmers.

 

Polar bears' fur is all white and their skin is all black. Sometimes, when a polar bear eats more fat than usual, his fur can take on a yellowish cast. Polar bear fur is very, very thick at the skin. This dense short fur combined with the fat under the skin helps to keep them warm in their cold climate. The top part of their fur contains very long thin guard hairs. These hairs hold water lightly so that a polar bear can shake like a large dog. Dry hair keeps him warmer.  These great white bears keep their fur very clean by washing it in water or in snow. Clean fur acts as a good insulator against the cold.

 

Ice bears have huge paws. Their paws can measure a foot across and act like snowshoes on the snow. These very wide paws also help the bears distribute their weight evenly when they are walking on ice.

 

 

Paws of Anesthetized Polar Bear near Beaufort Sea, Alaska, 1982

Photo by Helicopter Pilot Captain Bud Christman

NOAA Corps - NOAA Photo Library

 

 

Sometimes a polar bear may have to crawl or slide along on his belly if he thinks the ice may break under his weight. The underside of his large paw pads have little hills and valleys that act like suction cups to help with walking over ice. His paw pads also have fur between them that aids him in moving on slippery ice.

 

Polar bears don't run very often on ice, but on good terrain, they can sprint up to thirty miles per hour. They are very strong swimmers, and their partially webbed paws help in getting them to the next ice floe. They can dive and hold their breath a full minute. Like other bears, they are very strong, and they can leap and jump.

 

Polar bears prefer to hunt for seals on ice and snow. It is very difficult for bears to catch a seal in the water because seals swim so fast. These bears will wait at a seal air hole for hours or days at a time, waiting patiently for a seal to surface for air. Since a seal may have clawed out as many as fifteen breathing holes in the ice, it is hard for a bear to judge which one the seal may come to. These holes may have been cut out of ice as thick as six feet. Since seals are mammals, they must come up to the surface get air. That is when the bear catches them.

 

During the winter months, not all polar bears go into a den. Brown bears and black bears all den in the colder months. But only female polar bears with cubs will be in a den. The rest will be out and very active all during the long black night of winter in the Arctic. Little polar bear babies are born in dens made of snow drifts.

 

All bear mothers tend to be very attentive to their babies, and polar bears are no exception. They touch them often, and the cubs play a lot with each other as they grow up. This family will remain together for two and one half years, growing, playing, nursing, eating, and sleeping together.

 

 

Anesthetized Female Polar Bear With Her Cubs near Beaufort Sea, Alaska, 1982

Photo by Helicopter Pilot Captain Bud Christman

NOAA Corps - NOAA Photo Library

 

 

Like other kinds of bears, polar bears live with other polar bears only during mating, or during the time a female is raising her cubs. Otherwise, polar bears live alone.

 

Some polar bear behavior in some places may be changing. Recently, in the years 2004-2006, scientists have noticed polar bears stalking and attacking other polar bears for food. While it is true that all bears will attack other bears for various reasons, including dominance and population regulation and for bringing on reproductive season, it has never been thought or witnessed that polar bears stalk and kill each other for food. This study was mentioned in the journal "Polar Biology" that was published in April 2006.

 

In one instance, researchers discovered that a large male polar bear had located a female in a den with babies. He then pounded on the roof of the ice den until it collapsed, killed the female, and ate a large portion of her, leaving the babies to suffocate in the avalanche of snow. Another predatory kill of a female polar bear was discovered in April 2004, with little pawprints veering off in the snow. This indicated that this female had been with a cub. Carcasses of cubs and yearlings have also been found. Some scientists say that this is a direct result of global warming, that these large males do not have enough to eat and go after other adult bears. Some scientists say that this has nothing to do with global warming, that it is just behavior we have not previously witnessed.

 

 

 

Polar Bear

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Alaska Image Library

 

 

Nature can be harsh. During summer mating time, all species of bear cubs are in danger of being killed by males that want to mate with their mothers. That is why female bears with cubs are so protective of them, and tend to keep them away from other bears, especially in the summer. But adult polar bears stalking, seeking, killing, and eating other adult bears, is behavior that was previously not considered to be normal.

 

In October and November each year, check out www.polarbearcam.com to see live video of the polar bears migrating near the town of Churchill.