Appearance
Polars bears are very distinct from other bears, having white fur. But despite what we commonly think, polar bears come in many colours, from white to a creamy yellow, and even a light brown in the summer. Polar bears are absolutely enormous, and can weigh 350-680 kg, or 770-1500 lbs! They also have huge feet, which they use as paddles when swimming in the arctic waters; they also work as snowshoes when they are walking on land. They are also the largest bear, along with the Kodiak bear.
Interesting Facts
Polar bears can walk on snow humans would break, due to tiny grips on the bottoms of their feet, these are called papillae.
Canada has 60% of the total polar bear population
Diet
Polar bears, similarly to other bears, are omnivores. Their diets consist of a berry named after them; "bearberries", they primarily feed on ringed seals, but they also prey on bearded seals, harp seals, hooded seals, and harbour seals. On occasion, they may kill walruses, belugas, white whales, or even narwhals. In the summer they eat more plants than in the winter, things like kelp a...
Nature, it is everywhere, everyone uses it. Quite often, however, people abuse it, such as with humans’ impact on grizzly bears. Grizzly bears are important to the environment because they have many useful purposes for the environment: “they provide an “umbrella” for the environment because they require such large home ranges.” (savethegreatbear.org/CAD/Grizzly.htm) The Grizzly Bear is extremely vulnerable to changes in its habitat and food cycle. This allows humans to detect small changes in the environment, just by watching this amazing species. The Government of Canada needs to try harder to stop the poaching of grizzly bears in Canada.
The habitat is also made up of trees with nuts and bushes with berries. Black Bears are omnivores so they eat these along with other small animals. They are opportunist when it comes to food. Mostly bears eat vegetation during the spring but they will eat mainly anything they encounter. During the summer the bears eat salmon out of the rivers if they can catch it. If they can’t catch any they mainly survive off of berries, mainly blueberries, ants, grubs, and other insects. In the fall their diet starts to shift and they start to save up food for winter. They are also known to eat newborn moose calves during the winter when food is scarce.
Bears can live anywhere but Grizzly bears live in subalpine meadows and dense forests. When grizzly bears hibernate they usually live in caves. A sloth of bears is usually a mom and the cubs. The mom bear is called a sow, the dad bear doesn't have a name because they are never with the family and the babies are called cubs. There is usually a dearth amount of cubs in a family. The families are always together and not with a different family. All bear look different but I'm not talking about the other bears I am talking about grizzly bears. Grizzly bears are usually just the color brown and not really anything different. Grizzlys need big paws to get around and travel. Bears have small black eyes. Their eyes are small because they don't need very good eyesight because they have such good sniffers. Usually the weight of a cub is about 4- 10 pounds when they are born but when they are adults they weigh 175- 500 pounds.
The Arctic region is home to a variety of valuable animals and plants, including polar bear, seal, and so on. The ecosystem of the Arctic region is fragile because these animals are evolved to live in extreme conditions. With the climate change, many animals are endangered. Ice is the habitat of polar animals because they have to rely on sea ices for resting, food, and reproduction. With the climate change and the decrease of sea ice, the number of polar animals is decreasing and their health is threatened. For example, the average weight of female polar bears in 1980 was about 650 pounds, but the number reduced to about 500 pounds in 2004 (Djoghlaf 15). The earlier breakup and later condensation of sea ice shortens the hunting season of polar bears. Polar bears mainly feed on seals that indwell icy land. The melting ice reduces the number of seals and food intake of polar bears. In addition, polar bears are used to living in ice caves. The rising temperature causes the collapse of ice caves, which can kill baby bears. The climate change is negatively affecting the biodiversity in the region and will definitely harm the ecosystem
they are at the top of the food chain of the grassland plants and animals. Grizzly bears are powerful, top-of-the-food-chain predators, yet much of their diet consists of nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, and roots. Bears also
The Harp Seal lives in the chilly waters of the North Atlantic and Artic oceans. They spend majority of their time swimming, but do go on land. The Harp Seal eats approximately sixty-seven species of fish and seventy species of invertebrates. These animals are prey of Polar Bears, Killer Whales, and Greenland Sharks (Kovacs, 2015). The Harp Seal’s status is least concerned. They move to Newfoundland, the Greenland Sea, and the White Sea for breeding. As a result of climate change and overfishing, it is predicted that Harp Seal populations will decrease because of loss of pup raising space and loss of food supply. National Geographic. (2016)
Not many people know about the arctic wolf, it is the snowy white version of a wolf. They have a really big appite when it comes to eating. They most only eat one meal a day and eat up to 20 pounds in that one meal. They are mostly carnivores; they mainly eat big animals like the caribou and the musk ox so they can feed themselves and the whole pack (Arctic/Antarctic: The Arctic Wolf). People eat up to three meals a day, but wolves can go up to days with out eating a single thing (Arctic/Antarctic: The Arctic Wolf). When wolves are hunting they have to be able to have a plan to catch their food. Wolves would get all the pack members that are hunting to surround the animal, and pounces on them. One bit to the neck and the animal would be dead. When they are eating they will eat everything, like the meat, shin, fur and bone (Arctic/Antarctic: The Arctic Wolf). Also Arctic wolves can live up to 20 years in captivity, while they can only live 7- 15 years in the wild (Arctic/Antarctic: The Arctic Wolf). Arctic wolves are one of the most prettiest and unique types of wolf. When Arctic wolves are pups t...
The diet of a Greenland will eat almost anything that it will come across. With its
Out of an Ice Age emerged one of our most majestic creatures in the world the polar bear. From its brown bear ancestry, the predator evolved to be a master of a harsh and unwelcoming ice kingdom. Intelligent, adaptable and fierce, the polar bear learned how to survive in a place that offers few comforts to any creature. But now that very environment is in flux. And so is the polar bear’s fate (Nature). Polar Bears are very different from other bears. Polar bears are very large bears compared to Black bears. Polar bears weigh anywhere between 330-1700lbs and Black bears weigh anywhere between 150-600lbs. They have strong legs with large, flattened feet with some webbing between their toes that help with walking on ice and swimming. The wide paws prevent sea ice from breaking by distributing weight while walking. Their paws allow them to pull a 600 pound seal out of its breathing hole (Rosing, 20). The webbed feet results in making polar bears, unlike other bear species to be considered as marine mammals along with seals, sea lions, walruses, whales and dolphins (Polar Bear). According to Rosing Polar bears are excellent swimmers and have been known to swim up to six miles an hour and as far as 60 miles at a stretch. The bears paddle with their front feet and steer with their back feet. They often overheat. Sometimes they venture into the waters just to cool off. When a bear climbs on an ice floe, it shakes itself off because it is trying to prevent ice from forming on its fur (22-23). Because of climate change and hunting of polar bears are now becoming an endangered species which is affecting the food chain. We can fix this by going green, banning polar bear hunting and keep creating these new hybrid bears that are mixed with griz...
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the brown bear is located all throughout Alaska, mostly in areas that allow them to seasonally hunt salmon (Alaska Fish & Game, 2010). This allows them to become larger and live in higher concentrations than the grizzly bear. The traditional brown bear and the grizzly bear are actually both classified as brown bears, despite having several differences in appearance. Brown bears are one of the most fascinating and powerful species in the Alaskan wilderness. Cubs are usually born during January or February, usually in groups of one to four (Alaska Fish & Game). A fully grown, male brown bear can weigh up for 1,500 pounds and be over 10 feet in stature (Alaska Fish & Game, 2010). Brown bears also have the ability to run at speeds up to 40 mph for short bursts of time (Alaska Fish & Game). All of these unique characteristics make many people upset that it is legal to hunt them. There are several groups that are working to conserve the brown bear population, particularly in Alaska, such as The Northern Forum’s Brown Bear Working Group (Fish & Wildlife Journal, 2010). The bear population in Alaska is thriving and is classified as a status of least concern, by the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2010). Overall, the brown bear population faces no danger whatsoever.
To begin with, the melting of polar ice caps has caused polar bears to swim long distances. According to Bryan Walsh of TIME Magazine the melting of the ice caps have caused polar bears especially the young cubs to swim longer distances which has caused a “ forty-five percent mortality rate” (Walsh). In the article Walsh, writes about a study that showed that younger cubs because of low fat and strength were more likely to die due to the long di...
Polar bears don't just live on ice, they use the ice as an advantage to catch prey such as seals. Polar bears have adapted to living on ice and being able to withstand the cold weather. Now that the climate is changing at a fast pace, polar bears are losing their land because its melting, leaving them with no place to walk, sleep and taking away their way of hunting prey. (polar bears international, 2015) This is all happening so fast that there is no way polar bears will be able to adapt to the new environments, causing extinction. The arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world is due to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, making it a problem happening very rapidly. (Bagley, 2015) Temperatures in the Arctic region have risen 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the last half century. (Bagley, 2015) Population among polar bears has decreased up to 40% in some areas. (Bagley, 2015) With the climate getting warmer, ice is melting earlier every spring, and takes longer to freeze every winter which is disrupting the feeding and breeding cycles of many different arctic species. (Bagley, 2015) Polar bears have adapted ways to survive in the cold harsh arctic environment including having the ability to cool down their outer skin to keep their vital organs warm when they are submerged in cold water. Though this may help the delay of hypothermia as they have to swim greater distances from ice shelf to ice shelf, that doesn't mean polar bears can swim forever. (Bagley, 2015) One bear that a scientist studied swam 500 miles over nine days, but lost 22% of her body weight, and lost her cub.(Bagley, 2015) Many different scientists have been studying the behaviour of the polar bear to see if it could adapt in any way to survive. Eight U.S scientists made a hypothesis consisting that polar bears could lower their metabolic rates enough to survive as food
The fur of the Siberian tiger is long, thick and yellow with dark black stripes running through it. The coat of this animal is reddish colored in the summer months. The underside of the Siberian tiger is bright white, and the tail area is white and black.
The polar bear rarely eats plants. That is why it is considered a carnivore, or meat-eater. The ringed seal is the polar bear's primary prey. A polar bear hunts a seal by waiting quietly for it to emerge from an opening a seal makes in the ice allowing them to breathe or climb out of the water to rest. Polar bears eat only the seal's skin and blubber of the seal. The remaining meat provides a food source for other animals in the Arctic.
The ears, eye patches, legs, and shoulder band are black. The rest of the body is whitish. Adults are 4 to 6 feet long and may weigh up to 350 pounds, about the same size as the American black bear. However, unlike the black bear, giant pandas do not hibernate and cannot walk on their hind legs. The giant panda has unique front paws-one of the wrist bones is enlarged and elongated and is used like a thumb, enabling the giant panda to grasp stalks of bamboo. They also have very powerful jaws and teeth to crush bamboo.