Polar Bears and their Retreating Habitat

Include the scientific and common names of your species

The Polar bears scientific name is Ursus maritimus, which means “maritime bear”. This was coined in 1774 by Commander C.J. Phipps. The reason for this name was because of the polar bears dependence on the Arctic sea ice, which they spend most of their time traveling and hunting. Another name is Nanuk which is the Inuit name meaning seal bear. According to Polar Bears International (2014) other terms are Beliy Medved meaning white bear in Russian, Isbjorn, meaning ice bear in Norweigan. Norse poets described the polar bear as "the white sea deer," "the seal's dread," "the rider of icebergs," "the whale's bane," and "the sailor of the floe." They praised him for having the strength of 12 men and the wit of 11. In Eastern Greenland the polar bear is known as Tornassuk, meaning “the master of helping spirits”. Lapps refuse to speak the polar bear's real name for fear of offending him. Instead they call him "God's dog" or "the old man in the fur cloak.”. Nineteenth-century whalers referred to the polar bear as "the farmer" because of his slow, pigeon-toed gait. The Ket, a Siberian tribe, revere all bears. They call them gyp or qoi, which means "grandfather" and "stepfather," respectively.

Include 5 facts about your species that you learned from Science North

First, I learned how polar bears use their upper bodies to break through the ice to get to their food supply, such as pups, and grown up seals. Polar bears use their nose to track down where the seals are located under the ice, and then use their brute upper body force to break through the ice, and try to capture the seal before they escape. This picture below exemplifies how the polar bears do this acti...

... middle of paper ...

... (2009). Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) Life History and Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate. Arctic, 62(4), 491-494.
Rode, K. D., Regehr, E. V., Douglas, D. C., Durner, G., Derocher, A. E., Thiemann, G. W., & Budge, S. M. (2014). Variation in the response of an arctic top predator experiencing habitat loss: Feeding and reproductive ecology of two polar bear populations. Global Change Biology, 20(1), 76-88.
Sale, Richard. A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife. New York: Firefly, 2006. Print.
"Species Profile." Government of Canada, Environment Canada. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
Stapleton, S., Atkinson, S., Hedman, D., & Garshelis, D. (2014). Revisiting Western Hudson Bay: Using aerial surveys to update polar bear abundance in a sentinel population. Biological Conservation, 17038-47.