Where do polar bears and penguins live? Endangered species: polar bear
Bears are one of the most ancient animals on Earth. Their first ancestor appeared about 22 million years ago. Today there are eight known species of bears, and one of them is white. This blond is the most large predator on the planet and, according to scientists, one of the most intelligent mammals. Prostozoo has compiled a portrait of a white giant that has adapted to life in the coldest corners of the planet.
Scientists have found that sea bears, which is their scientific name, originated from brown bears who have adapted to harsh conditions Arctic. Today, polar bears can be found in the Arctic, northern Russia, Canada, the USA, Greenland and Norway. It used to be believed that polar bears are nomads, but this is not true. It's just that bears have a huge habitat and hunting area - up to 200 square meters. km.
Polar bears are real giants and are considered the largest land predators for good reason. The height of the male if he stands on hind legs, can reach 3 m, and giants can weigh up to 700 kg. Ladies are half the size of their gentlemen and rarely grow more than 2 m; plump women weighing more than 300 kg are even rarer among them.
“Yes, the biggest one... Any questions?”
Polar bears are not actually white. Their hairs are transparent in color and have a thick, hollow core. This structure of the fur allows it to work as an ideal system for collecting and storing solar energy, thanks to which bears feel great in sub-zero temperatures. And the skin of bears, by the way, is black.
When moving to a warmer climate, the fur of the northerner may acquire a bluish or greenish tint due to bacteria and microorganisms that multiply in the cavities of the hairs.
“We are not white, we are transparent! Oh, woe is me!
Popular wisdom says: you can’t get away with it! But the polar bears refute it and come out of the water unscathed. This option is available to them thanks to their very oily fur, which repels water and prevents them from getting wet.
Polar bears are notoriously clean. If the fur is dirty, they will not move until they clean themselves up. Daily hygiene procedures take 30-40 minutes.
The polar bear is one of the best swimmers among land animals. Some scientists even classify it as marine mammals. In one dive, the bear is able to cover a distance of 100 km. In water, it reaches speeds of up to 10 km per hour, for comparison, maximum speed Olympic swimmers 6-7 km per hour. It is interesting that when swimming, the bear rows only with its front paws, while its hind paws act as a rudder.
The bear's paws are ideal oars; they are perfectly adapted for swimming: much wider than those of other representatives of the bear family and with webbed toes. On land, the miracle paws prevent you from falling into the snow, and thanks to its long claws, the bear does not slip on ice.
Miracle paws, close-up
Miracle Paws, background
"Come after me…"
Underwater plan
The polar bear is not inferior to penguins in high jumps. He can easily emerge from the water onto an ice floe 2.5 m high.
“Otherwise!”
The bears' worst enemy is not cold, but heat, and they fear overheating much more than hypothermia. Polar explorers can overheat even at sub-zero temperatures, so they prefer slow promenades to fast jogging and spend a lot of time resting. The bears walk slowly, but if necessary they can take off at a speed of 40 km per hour.
Polar bears are very emotional: after an unsuccessful hunt, they can flare up and scatter huge pieces of ice around them. Pieces of ice are not the only thing they throw from time to time: polar explorers are real strongmen and can throw 90 kg of seals into the air.
Whites are meat eaters. The basis of their diet: fish, seals, seals, less often they hunt birds.
Snack
The polar explorer has a keen sense of smell; his nose is able to detect a seal through a layer of snow and ice 1.5 m thick and at a distance of up to 32 km.
Despite the fact that polar bear a noble hunter, only in 2% of hunts does he return with prey.
The stomach of a successful hunter can store up to 70 kg of fat, which nourishes it during long treks in the ice and turns into subcutaneous fat. Thanks to this, the bear can go hungry for several months even in the most severe frosts. Unlike humans, bears have no problems with gear. They themselves are the ideal "fishing equipment". But to compare, fishermen need to choose high-quality fishing rods and reels, hooks and lures. Special prices for fishing products from the best manufacturers help them a lot in this.
Polar bears cannot be called sleepyheads; they do not know what hibernation is. This is not surprising, because given the climate in their habitat, hibernation would become a permanent state. Only a pregnant female can afford to hide in a den and fall asleep for three months before giving birth.
When polar bears sleep, in order to retain heat, they cover their nose and eyes with their paws, because these are the only organs that emit it.
Polar bears spend most of their lives alone. And only the instinct of reproduction makes them go in search of a partner. The mating period for bears lasts from March to July, but the fertilized egg begins to develop in the female’s womb only in September.
“Hurray, I was born!”
Bear cubs are born very tiny and rarely weigh more than half a kilogram.
In the first months of life, 30% of cubs die. Caring for the babies falls entirely on the female.
“March out of the den!”
IN wildlife The life expectancy of polar bears is 20-25 years, and in a zoo they can live up to 40. Longevity in the wild is due to the fact that polar explorers do not have natural enemies except for humans and global warming. Polar bears are not afraid of anyone, and feel safe in their native lands.
“I’m having a blast!”
Eskimos who hunt bears eat everything except, of course, the skin and liver, which carries mortal danger for a person. In 500 g of liver polar bear contains more than 9 million units of vitamin A, while a person can only absorb 10 thousand units.
Global warming is turning bears into cannibals. As the ice melts, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to catch seals and seals. Sometimes females eat sick cubs, and adult males attack a younger and weaker relative. Many bears, in search of food, go on long voyages, hoping to meet ice floes with lunch on the way, and when they don’t meet them, they drown.
Drifting Misha
If the melting of glaciers continues, then, according to scientists, in 30 years polar bears will only be seen in zoos.
In nature, polar bears and penguins live on opposite sides from the equator: bears - in the polar regions of the northern hemisphere, penguins - in the waters of Antarctica, off the coast of New Zealand, South America.
The similarity between them is that both live in the coldest regions of the Earth.
Where and how do polar bears live?
Polar bears settled in the northern territories of Russia, Canada, the USA, on the coast of the Barents Sea, Chukchi Sea, Wrangel Island, Greenland, and on the lands of Lapland. When the weather is favorable, animals reach the North Pole.
Even the Arctic desert became their habitat - the zone arctic deserts, where in winter the temperature can drop to −60 °C, and in the warmest time of the year, in July, it rises only to +3 °C.
For most of the year, hurricane icy winds blow there, snowstorms are frequent, and in the harsh Arctic summer, with an almost constant 0 ° C, the sky is covered with gray clouds, and the land is shrouded in fog from the ocean. There is no vegetation in the Arctic deserts, with the exception of rare islands of lichen and moss. There are no animals except the polar bear, arctic fox, lemming on land, and in the sea - walrus and seal.
How do bears survive in the Arctic desert?
They have adapted perfectly to the merciless climate!
The polar bear, also known as polar bear, umka, oshkuy, is the largest land predator on the planet. Scientists and travelers have observed animals up to 3 m in length and weighing more than 1 ton.
The layer of subcutaneous fat in a bear is up to 10 cm, and together with the internal (“interior”, as they say in the north) fat, it makes up about 40% of the body weight. With such a “hot water bottle” and at the same time a “stove” (fat is the main supplier of energy in the body), the mind is not afraid of the monstrous frost of the Arctic, its storms and winds.
The fur of a polar bear matches the fat layer. It has a special structure: white translucent fibers transmit only ultraviolet rays and do not transmit infrared radiation, preventing the animal’s body from cooling down. The villi resemble tubes - they are hollow inside and represent air chambers, which serves as another barrier to cold air. Fur even grows on the soles of the animal: in such “felt boots” the animal does not slip and does not freeze. 
Unique thermal insulation allows the predator to live peacefully in the snow and overcome tens of kilometers of Arctic deserts and literally icy Arctic waters.
Where and how do penguins live?
Seven species of penguins - emperor, Adelie, chinstrap, king, golden-necked, gentoo and crested - chose even more harsh territory as their place of residence - Antarctica, polar regions Southern Hemisphere. At the South Pole the highest ever recorded in December 2013 low temperature on Earth - −91.2 °C. On average, the temperature in Antarctica in winter is −60 °C, in summer - −30 °C.
But, of course, land birds penguins do not live in such monstrous conditions. So, crested penguin lives on Tierra del Fuego, Tasmania, and the islands of the Subantarctic. Endemic to the Snares archipelago, the Snares crested penguin lives on islands that are densely overgrown with bushes and trees. Subantarctic penguin - on the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Kerguelen, Heard and others.
The largest and fattest birds - emperor penguins, which weigh an average of 40 kg, are distributed as far south as the South Pole, farthest away, and live on the ice surrounding Antarctica. They swim to warmer places only to hatch eggs.
How do penguins stay warm in Antarctica?
Flightless birds in “black tailcoats” have adapted to live, if not in the bitter cold, like polar bears, but in constant “coolness”, when in summer the temperature often does not rise above + 5 °C, and in winter mostly -30 °C.
They have a thick layer of fat - up to 3 cm, dense waterproof feathers, between which there is a lot of air - an “air chamber”. But the most interesting thing is the penguin paws! They not only do not freeze, but also do not freeze to ice and snow.
Completely naked - without feathers or down - penguin paws have a temperature of only +4 °C. This physiological setting allows you to tolerate severe frost as normal. At the same time, the bird’s body temperature is 39… 40 °C. Wise nature provided penguins with a unique mechanism of blood circulation, organized according to the principle of reverse outflow.
With it, hot arterial blood on its way to the paws passes very close to the veins and gives off part of its heat to the already cold venous blood. Venous blood carries heat back to the heart, and cooled arterial blood goes to the paws, maintaining them at only +4 °C. If the penguins' paws were hot, they would have frozen very quickly, but first they froze into the ice, killing the bird. 
Another mechanism of protection against cold is groups. Thus, emperor penguins gather in a dense group, heating the air inside it to +35 °C, when outside it is -20 °C. Penguins “circulate” in the group, moving from the center to the edge and back.
Polar bear ( Ursus maritimus) belongs to the class Mammals, order Carnivores, family Bears. Very close to dogs, bears appeared about 5 million years ago. The lonely ruler of the Arctic, the polar bear reigns on the floating ice off the northern shores of Eurasia and America. This is his element! He wanders all day long, covering vast distances, enjoying rolling in the snow or sleeping.
The polar bear can only be classified as a “terrestrial” mammal only conditionally, since these animals appear on land very rarely, only on the Arctic islands and the sea coast. They spend most of their time wandering across the ice of the Northern Arctic Ocean. The polar bear is perfectly adapted to life in the polar seas. Happens often in the Arctic snow storms. To escape from them, polar bears dig holes in the snowdrifts, lie down in them and come out only after the storm subsides.
This is a real amphibious beast! 
Its body has a streamlined shape: its pointed muzzle easily cuts through the water, very warm, thick fur and a layer of subcutaneous fat allow the well-swimming predator to stay in water for a long time. cold water swimming across long distances between ice fields. The hind legs serve as a rudder, and the front legs, densely covered with hair, form continuous paddle blades. The specific body weight of a bear is close to specific gravity water. The fur in the water does not get wet and retains air, supporting the body of this giant in the water, allowing it to swim for hours and even sleep without getting out on the ice. Bears can swim 100 km from land!
The polar bear is the largest land predator and the most big bear of all existing species. Adult males reach 3 m in length and weigh 500 - 700 kg, but giants are known that weighed 1000 kg! For comparison: the weight of even the most large lions and tigers do not exceed 400 kg. The height at the withers is up to 1.5 m, the tail length is from 8 to 15 cm. It lives in nature for about 25 years, but in zoos, where conditions are much less harsh, it can live up to 40 years.
The bear feels confident on the ice surface.
Extremely dexterous, it jumps over cracks up to 3.5 m wide and never breaks the ice, as it evenly distributes its weight, spreading its paws widely.
Its coloring is protective, its white fur with a yellowish tint is hardly noticeable against the background of ice and snow. The hollow hairs of the bear's fur work like light guides, through which the weak radiation of the northern sun reaches the bear's skin and warms it. Sharp, curved claws help them easily climb slippery ice blocks. Polar bears even grow hair on their paw pads, which allows them to prevent slipping on ice and keeps their paws warm.
The polar bear is an unsurpassed hunter of sea animals. He has keen eyesight, excellent hearing and an excellent sense of smell and is able to smell the scent of a prey from 7 km away. Thanks to its keen sense of smell, a bear can learn a lot from the tracks left by its relatives, for example, their gender or readiness to mate.
The polar bear is selective in its diet among bears and is the only bear that feeds primarily on meat. He is able to travel long distances in search of his favorite food - seal. Polar bears have come up with different hunting techniques. Most often they watch for seals near their ventilation holes in the ice. While swimming underwater, seals periodically need to take in air. For this purpose, a hole is maintained in the ice. A polar bear stands guard at its edge, often for several hours.
As soon as the seal carelessly surfaces, the bear throws it out of the water with a powerful blow of its paw or jumps into the hole itself, killing the prey underwater. Sometimes, just one blow with a paw is enough to kill a seal. Often seals do not rest in the water, but on the edge of their holes. Then the polar bear carefully creeps up to them. Sometimes it even crawls on its belly, hiding behind snow drifts and ice floes. However, he makes a jerk from a distance of 20-25 m. After all, if a seal discovers him, he will quickly slide into the water.
In the spring, female seals make burrows in the snow, almost invisible from the outside, with access to water. In them, seals whelp and leave their young when going fishing. With an exceptionally keen sense of smell, a polar bear is able to smell a seal among the ice. With a powerful jump, he breaks through the icy roof or breaks it with his paw. In this case, the seal, as a rule, has no chance of escape.
These predators catch larger animals - young walruses, beluga whales - less often. It also feeds on fish, lemmings, musk ox calves, eggs and carrion. IN summer months They even eat plants. Polar bears have an excellent sense of smell, which allows them to smell carrion at a distance of more than 30 km. Arctic foxes and gulls often feast on the leftovers of a bear's meal.
In the summer, he uses a different tactic: he swims underwater for a long time, then suddenly emerges and attacks seals lying on an ice floe or geese, swans, and ducks resting on the waves. Bears usually do not hunt on the shore.
Polar bears have a large supply of fat under their skin, which protects them from the cold and allows for a long time do not eat. But if a bear catches prey, it can eat 10-25 kg at once. An experienced bear catches a seal every 3-4 days.
Their decent size does not prevent these animals from running at a speed of 40 km/h. On average, they travel about 15,000 km per year in search of food.
Male polar bears all year round walk around the Arctic. They live on their own, making an exception only for the mating season. Going on a hunt or in search of a female to prolong the family, they move across endless icy expanses and sometimes walk many tens of kilometers a day. Females live in small family groups with their young, usually two and sometimes more.
By the beginning of the mating season, the bear becomes restless, and her walking routes lengthen. When the male comes across her droppings or traces of urine, he senses that the female is ready to mate and takes her trail. At the first meetings, the bear demonstrates inaccessibility and rejects him with a roar or a blow of her paw. Standing on its hind legs and growling loudly, the bear tries to impress its partner. He stubbornly follows her, and gradually the female lets him closer. The bears are together for some time, frolicking and playing. But after a few days their paths diverge. After one or two days, mating occurs. Both animals later mate with other partners. It may happen that cubs from the same litter have different fathers.
If several males follow the trail of a female bear ready to mate, then the issue is decided by the size and self-confidence of the applicant. Each of the males shows what they are capable of by rising into full height, exchanging paw blows and growling loudly.
During the summer, the female polar bear stores fat under its skin to survive the long winter. After the mating season, the female hibernates during the coldest months of the year. It digs a den in the snow or climbs into naturally formed snow voids to hibernate. The bear makes her den not among the ice, but on the land of the Arctic islands.
The bear does not eat or drink for months, gaining energy by “burning” the fat reserves accumulated by the fall. A mother bear feeding her cubs during hibernation may lose more than half of his weight. Her body temperature remains normal - unlike animals that go into real hibernation.
It is very warm in the den (the temperature reaches + 30 °C), and here by December the bear gives birth to cubs. A female bear usually gives birth to 2-3 cubs every 3 years. Polar bear cubs are born weak and blind and are cared for by their mothers. great love. The newborn weighs only 700 g and is 20 cm long. Mothers fiercely protect their babies, especially from male bears, which, if hungry, can kill and eat the cubs.
Babies open their eyes about a month after birth, and take their first steps at the age of one and a half months. For the first few months, the cubs are in a snow den and feed on rich mother's milk. Bear cubs are born completely without hair, but after a while it grows back and becomes thick and dense.
Four-month-old cubs weigh 10 kg and still suckle their mother (sometimes for up to a year), but the mother bear is already beginning to feed the cubs with seal blubber. Despite all the efforts of the female, out of three cubs, usually only one survives.
With the end of the polar night, the cubs come out with their mother from the cramped ice den and frolic with pleasure in the open air.
Now they can come out of hiding, and no frost will be scary for them. The she-bear will teach them to hunt and swim. While they are small, the mother allows them to sit on her back and happily rides them, like on a steamboat.
At two years old, a young bear begins to live independently. At this age, the risk of death is still quite high, since he is still an inexperienced hunter and often remains hungry.
In Russia, the polar bear is distributed on the islands of the Arctic Ocean: on Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya, New Siberian Islands and Wrangel Island.
The polar bear prefers to stay among floating ice or near the wormwood, where you can catch seals. The largest number of snow dens in which cubs are born are located on Franz Josef Land and Wrangel Island. In November - December, female bears usually give birth to two cubs. In March - April, the cubs leave the den with their mother. By this time, their weight reaches 10-12 kg. A bear family persists for about two years.
In nature, the polar bear has no enemies. He is quite peaceful towards humans. When defending its prey (for example, a caught seal) or bear cubs, it can rush at a person, trying to scare him. Loud muttering serves as a warning of possible danger. There are very few actual cases of attack. On Novaya Zemlya, over more than 100 years of its development, three people died for this reason, and on Wrangel Island there were not a single casualty.
The acquaintance of a person with a polar bear has a long history. These animals were known to the ancient Romans in the 1st century AD. A written source containing information about polar bears dates back to 880.
In the XII-XIII centuries. Russian settlers who settled on the banks of the Bely and Barents seas, hunted polar bears, and supplied bear skins to Veliky Novgorod and Moscow. As long as residents hunted bears Far North, the damage to the livestock was small.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries. Hunting vessels began to regularly penetrate the Arctic seas and hunting for polar bears began. It increased especially sharply in the middle of the 19th century, when the reserves of bowhead whales were depleted and the attention of miners switched to walruses and bears. At the beginning of the 20th century. the hunt was carried out on an unusually wide scale.
On Spitsbergen for 1920-1930. More than 4 thousand animals were killed. According to rough estimates, only in the north of Eurasia from the beginning of the 18th century. until the middle of the 20th century. the production amounted to over 150 thousand bears.
Back in the seventies of the last century, polar bears were hunted with impunity in Canada, Greenland, Norway and Alaska.
By the beginning of the 70s. XX century 5-7 thousand polar bears lived in the Russian sector of the Arctic, and throughout the Arctic their number did not exceed 20 thousand. In 1973, an International Agreement on the Conservation of the Polar Bear was signed. Ten years later, the number of bears increased and amounted to over 25 thousand.
About 25,000 polar bears live around the North Pole in different packs, and their populations are stable. But they suffer from sea pollution and global warming. Today they are protected by international agreements, hunting them is prohibited, and the polar bear itself is listed in the Red Book. The polar bear is also protected in the nature reserve on Wrangel Island and is included in the IUCN-96 Red List and the Red Book Russian Federation.
Rapid climate warming has threatened the existence of the polar bear population off Hudson Bay in northern Canada. The sea began to freeze a month later, and this prevents them from hunting seals. Hungry bears approach villages and rummage through garbage dumps.
Studying bears is not easy: they live scattered over large areas, are cautious and too dangerous to approach. Researchers now have effective sedatives. Polar bears, which are aggressive and very active, are euthanized from the air: the bears are driven onto open ice by snowmobiles, and then arrows containing a tranquilizer are shot from a helicopter. The stunned animal is measured, examined for scars, teeth imprinted, and blood drawn. Analyzes of the integument and fat provide information about the state of his health. In female bears, based on a blood test, it can be determined whether she is ready for mating or is already pregnant.
Other data about the life of bears is obtained from paw prints, analysis of fur, dens and droppings, from which the type of food can be determined. Additional information make observations of behavior. In this way, it is possible to monitor the development of the bear population in a certain area over many years.
Bear trails and areas are explored using telemetry. Animals receive radio collars, thanks to which their location can be determined. Many collars are additionally equipped with sensors that record the animal's body temperature and movements.
From them, the researcher can determine whether the bear is resting or active. Every six hours, the exact coordinates of its location are transmitted to the satellite, and from there to the scientists’ computers. Many transmitters even send data constantly, so that the coordinates they provide are projected onto the map, and the movements of the bears can be monitored on the screen.
In order to determine the age of a bear, a small, non-functional tooth in the lower jaw is removed from a euthanized animal.
Bears' teeth form annual circles, like tree trunks. Inside they consist of dentin. The crown of the tooth is covered with dental enamel, the root is covered with dental cement. To ensure that the tooth always remains firmly anchored in the jaw, a layer of cement continually grows throughout the bear's life. Depending on the time of year, the growth of cement occurs in different ways: in winter it is slower, at this time only a thin dark layer forms around the tooth. At the beginning of the year and in the summer, a wider light layer appears. Both lines form a layer that grows in one year. The older the bear, the slower the cement grows and the smaller the distances between the annual rings become.
Polar bears have been studied quite well: the approximate size of their territories, types of food and mating behavior are known. Scientists were able to observe how mother bears raise their cubs.
Are polar bears threatened by the greenhouse effect?
The greenhouse effect and global warming are primarily a consequence of gas emissions. Carbon dioxide and other gas compounds rise into the high layers of the atmosphere, forming a layer above the Earth that traps heat near the surface of the planet, like in a greenhouse. The consequences are already visible in the Arctic: over the past 100 years, air temperatures there have risen by about 5°C. Square arctic ice is decreasing every year.
Pollution environment- a problem for polar bears. Around oil rigs and oil harbors sea water often contaminated with oil. Thick fur protects polar bears from cold and dampness. But oiled wool loses its ability to hold air, so half its insulating effect is lost. The bear cools down faster, and in the sun there is a danger of overheating. If, while swimming, a bear swallows oil-contaminated water or licks it from its fur, this will lead to kidney damage, intestinal bleeding and other serious diseases. Harmful substances such as chlorinated hydrocarbons were found in the tissues of polar bears. They accumulate from food and are deposited in fur, teeth and bones. In the future, harmful substances affect not only health, but also the ability of animals to procreate.
The life of polar bears depends on the presence of ice. Only if they go out into the ice to hunt seals in the summer do they manage to accumulate sufficient fat reserves for the winter. If the ice melts earlier in the summer or crumbles into ice floes, the animals have to return to the mainland, where there is less food. This affects the ability to procreate: bears that are less well-nourished have fewer offspring or no offspring at all. If warming continues at the same rate, then the cover summer ice in the Arctic Sea will disappear by 2080 at the latest. The polar bear will have to adapt to completely different living conditions or face the threat of extinction.
Bears and people
Today, zoos try to provide animals with housing appropriate to their species. Zoos perform important function to maintain endangered species by researching animal habits, educating the public about endangered species, and coordinating breeding programs in international level.
To keep the animals occupied, more and more zoos are developing entertainment programs for their bears. Bears are not couch potatoes at all. In nature, they are constantly busy exploring and searching for food. Animals that cannot satisfy their need for movement often demonstrate behavioral disturbances: they mark time, shake their heads, jump up every now and then, or show the same type of rhythmically repeating movements.
Food is no longer served in a feeder, but is scattered throughout the enclosures, buried or hidden in tree hollows or under roots.
So the bears have to look for it or catch it with their paws. Balls made of straw or hay are filled with food, honey is placed on the very tops tall trees. Bears love frozen food. For example, carrots, apples and fish carcasses are placed in buckets of water or fruit juice and frozen.
There is such a thing geographical name- Arctic. It means adjacent to North Pole edges - the Arctic Ocean with islands and the northern outskirts of Eurasia and North America... The name “Arctic” comes from the Greek word “ arctos» – bear, since the direction to the north has long been determined by the North Star, located in the constellation Ursa Minor... And it is in these “bearish” regions that amazing animals from the bear family live - polar bears.
I remember when I was a child I saw a cartoon about a brown bear that found its way to the Arctic - and the polar bears mistook him for their brother, but not very clean... so, this fairy tale has no basis in reality: if a brown bear is painted white ( or vice versa), there is no way to confuse them: the evolutionary paths of polar and brown bears diverged approximately 150 thousand years ago (scientists suggest that this happened on the territory of modern Ireland), and their body structure is completely different.
In polar bears - unlike all other species - Long neck and a flat head. The legs are columnar and the feet are large - thanks to which the bears can easily and quickly move through deep snow. They also move quickly on ice - they can walk 30-40 km in a day, deftly overcome two-meter ice hummocks, which is surprising given their enormous size: in the Bering Sea there are real giants weighing up to a ton and growing up to 3 meters. True, on average, bears are still somewhat smaller: weight 450 kg, body length 2 m (smaller females: up to 300 kg). The smallest bears live on the island of Spitsbergen.
Polar bears are inseparable from the Arctic- they do not live in any other regions (even if they swim on ice floes to the shores of Iceland or the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan, they try to return to their homeland). And they are perfectly adapted to this harsh edges: their fur is white, which means it absorbs well sunlight, which in these parts is “worth its weight in gold.” The fur is hollow - therefore, it contains air, and this helps to warm up (their fur retains heat so much that it is even “invisible” for ultraviolet photography). A thick layer of subcutaneous fatty tissue also contributes to this (in winter its thickness reaches 10 cm).
Thanks to this “thermal insulation”, polar bears can not only live in Arctic conditions, but also swim in icy water for 80 km. They swim and dive beautifully - no wonder Latin name This animal, Ursus maritimus, translates to "sea bear". Among these bears there are real record holders: there is a known case when a bear swam 685 km from Alaska to multi-year ice; However, this was not easy for her - she lost 48 kg, which was 20% of her weight.
Bears feed on sea animals: seals, walruses, etc. Usually he stuns the victim with a blow to the head when he sticks out of the water and pulls him out onto the ice - but he can only deal with a walrus on land. If there is no severe hunger, then the polar bear will not eat the whole carcass - it will only eat the skin and fat, and the Arctic foxes will eat the rest.
Of course, animals living in such conditions cannot reproduce rapidly: a female bear gives birth to no more than 15 cubs in her entire life, and the mortality rate among cubs reaches 30%. Combined with hunting for polar bears - including poaching - this has threatened their very existence. Therefore, in our country, hunting polar bears is completely prohibited (they are listed in the Red Book of Russia), and in other countries it is limited. These measures have borne fruit: the polar bear population has stopped declining and is even growing.
And this cannot but rejoice! Because people love polar bears– and not only as an object of hunting. We all remember the “Mishka in the North” candies, stamps with the image of bears, and since 2003, light beer “White Bear” has been produced. A polar bear is depicted on the Canadian $2 coin.
Animators also love polar bears. Thus, the Spaniards created a hilarious animated series about the polar bear Bernard, who constantly gets into trouble (by the way, one of the hero’s constant companions is also a polar creature, which certainly cannot meet a polar bear, since it lives in the region South Pole- penguin). But this is a cartoon for adults - with “black” humor, but Soviet animators created a children's cartoon about a polar bear. His name - Umka - comes from the Chukchi language and means “adult polar bear”, so the hero has yet to become in the full sense “umka”... and new generations of children will have to see this good cartoon that we all grew up with - and become interested in these unusual animals.
King of the Arctic deserts and eternal ice Arctic Ocean, the largest and dangerous predator Arctic - polar bear. Its habitat extends from the border of the tundra and arctic deserts to 88º north latitude. In the scientific world it is known as Ursus maritimus - the sea bear. The indigenous population of the Arctic knows the polar bear, it is an important part of folklore, art, mythology and magical rituals(for example, initiations). The Chukchi call it Umka, the Eskimos - Nanuk, the Nenets - Yavvy, the Yakuts - Uryungege, the Pomors - Oshkuy.
Polar bears have lived in the Arctic for hundreds of thousands of years - the formation of a separate species occurred about 600 thousand years ago. But the Arctic bear we know is a descendant of a hybrid that came from crossing an ancient polar bear with a brown relative, which confirms that the polar species has a small percentage of genes characteristic of brown bears. However, polar and brown bears remain sufficiently genetically similar for “interracial marriages” to produce fertile offspring called grolar, or polar grizzly bears.
Polar bears reproduce quite slowly - after puberty at 4-8 years, a female bear gives birth to 1-3 cubs every 2-3 years. With a maximum lifespan of 25-30 years, this is 10-15 new individuals. However, up to 40-70% of cubs die in the first year of life - they are threatened by adult males, the need for long swims (the subcutaneous fat of the cubs is not developed enough), and poachers.
Why are there polar bears in the Arctic?
White color is generally characteristic of Arctic animals, and polar bears wear luxurious snow-white fur coats all year round. Why white? The most obvious answer to this question is camouflage. To successfully hunt against the background polar ice, it needs to successfully blend into the surrounding landscape.
But there are other reasons, for example, thermoregulation. Arctic animals live in regions with extremely low insolation, and the pigment melanin, which is also responsible for the color of animal fur, serves as an additional obstacle to the penetration of ultraviolet radiation. The skin, deprived of pigment, better transmits UV rays to the bear’s skin - no longer white, but black. Saturated with melanin, it easily absorbs ultraviolet radiation transmitted by wool, using it for heating and other processes. This creates an ideal “mechanism” that makes it possible to make maximum use of the weak insolation in the Arctic regions.
By the way, speaking of color, polar bear hairs are not white. They lack pigmentation, that is, color. In addition, they are hollow inside (this is also characteristic of the animal world of the Arctic regions, and is found, for example, in reindeer). This structure of the hair has better thermal insulation properties; in addition, the internal cavity of the hair is uneven, and the light, reflected at different angles, gives the illusion white skins. The fur is covered with a layer of sebum, allowing the bear to literally come out of the water unscathed, which is very important, because a polar bear in the Arctic is often forced to swim in order to hunt, or move from one ice field to another. The polar bear is an excellent swimmer; it moves in water at a speed of more than 6 km/h, can spend several minutes underwater, and the maximum recorded duration of a polar bear's swim was 685 km.
What does a polar bear eat in the Arctic?
The polar bear's diet depends on its habitat and body characteristics. Ideally adapted to harsh polar winters and long swims in cold water, it preys primarily on marine wildlife on land, ice and water.
ringed seal, sea hare and he motionlessly lies in wait for the walrus near the ice hole, throwing him onto the ice with a blow of his powerful paw, or sneaks up on animals on land during rest. In the water, bears can compete in agility and strength with beluga whales (Arctic whales), narwhals, and can catch fish, although this is not the bear’s primary interest. Polar bears also eat eggs, chicks, and young animals, which are much easier to catch than an adult. They do not disdain carrion - the corpses of sea animals and fish washed ashore. However, they will never touch the meat of representatives of their own species.
Whenever possible, the polar bear feeds very selectively - it eats the skin and fat of a caught seal or walrus, eats the rest only if it is very hungry, what it does not eat, it usually leaves for scavengers - birds and animals, which often accompany the “owner”, feeding on the remains of his meals . Berries and moss are also included in the polar bear's diet, but they are not included in its diet so often.
Currently, due to climate change, what the polar bear is used to eating often becomes inaccessible to it, then the bear switches to hunting Arctic land animals and birds (deer, lemming, goose), and raids warehouses and garbage dumps in Arctic villages. In the Canadian city of Churchill, a prison has even been built to house “recidivists” who disturb the peace of the city’s residents.
Why is the polar bear not cold in the Arctic?
The Arctic is a harsh and icy place. So why isn't the polar bear cold in the Arctic? The answer is simple. Arctic inhabitants have a very thick layer of fat. Its thickness reaches 10-12 cm. Subcutaneous fat Polar bears have the property of not freezing at low temperatures. Bears also have black skin, which allows them to quickly warm up in the sun. Therefore, they are not afraid of Arctic ice and polar snowdrifts.
Polar bears live in the Arctic or Antarctica
Not only schoolchildren, but also adults are often confused about this issue. The distribution range of polar bears is limited to the Arctic. Even if the bears managed to overcome the distance from one pole to the other, they would hardly be able to survive in the Antarctic latitudes. There the temperature is lower, the ice thickness is hundreds of meters (in the Arctic - about a meter), which excludes the possibility of a favorite method of hunting sea creatures near a hole or crack. Animal world The Antarctic is also not adapted to the appearance of such a predator. In addition, this would put many species at risk of destruction - for example, penguins, which thrive in Antarctic latitudes and do not live in the Arctic.
