Polar bear habitat on the world map. Polar bears (lat.
Predatory mammal polar bear, or polar bear ( Ursus maritimus) is a close relative of the brown bear and the largest land predator on the planet today.
Characteristics and description
The polar bear is one of the largest terrestrial representatives of mammals from the order of predatory animals.. The body length of an adult individual is three meters and weighs up to a ton. Average weight males, as a rule, vary between 400-800 kg with a body length of 2.0-2.5 m. The height at the withers does not exceed one and a half meters. Females are much smaller, and their weight rarely exceeds 200-250 kg. The category of the smallest polar bears includes individuals inhabiting Spitsbergen, and the largest specimens are found near the Bering Sea.
This is interesting! A characteristic feature of polar bears is the presence of a fairly long neck and a flat head. The skin is black, and the color of the fur coat can vary from white to yellowish tints. IN summer period The animal's fur turns yellow as a result of prolonged exposure to sunlight.
The fur of polar bears is completely devoid of pigmentation, and the hairs have a hollow structure. A feature of translucent hairs is the ability to transmit only ultraviolet light, which gives the wool high thermal insulation characteristics. There is also fur on the soles of the limbs to prevent slipping. Between the fingers there is a swimming membrane. Large claws allow the predator to hold even very strong and large prey.
Extinct subspecies
A closely related subspecies for the well-known and quite common nowadays polar bear is the extinct giant polar bear or U. maritimus tyrannus. Distinctive feature of this subspecies were significantly more large sizes torso. The body length of an adult individual could be four meters, and the average weight exceeded a ton.
On the territory of Great Britain, in Pleistocene deposits, it was possible to discover the remains of a single ulna belonging to a giant polar bear, which made it possible to determine its intermediate position. Apparently, the large predator was perfectly adapted to hunting enough large mammals. According to scientists, the most probable cause The extinction of the subspecies was due to insufficient food supply towards the end of the glaciation period.
Habitat
The circumpolar habitat of the polar bear is limited to the territory of the northern coast of the continents and the southern part of the distribution of floating ice floes, as well as the border of the northern warm currents seas. The distribution area includes four areas:
- permanent habitat;
- habitat of high animal numbers;
- place of regular residence of pregnant females;
- territory of distant calls to the south.
Polar bears inhabit the entire coast of Greenland, the ice of the Greenland Sea south to the islands of Jan Mayen, the island of Spitsbergen, as well as Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the Barents Sea, the islands of Bear, Vaigach and Kolguev, and the Kara Sea. A significant number of polar bears are observed on the coast of the continents of the Laptev Sea, as well as the East Siberian, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The main habitat of the highest possible abundance of the predator is represented by the continental slope of the Arctic Ocean.
Pregnant female polar bears regularly den in the following areas:
- northwest and northeast Greenland;
- southeastern part of Spitsbergen;
- western part of Franz Josef Land;
- the northern part of the island of Novaya Zemlya;
- small islands of the Kara Sea;
- Severnaya Zemlya;
- northern and northeastern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula;
- the Lena delta and the Bear Islands of Eastern Siberia;
- coast and adjacent islands of the Chukotka Peninsula;
- Wrangel Island;
- southern Banks Island;
- Simpson Peninsula coast;
- northeastern coast of Baffin Island and Southampton Island.
Dens with pregnant polar bears have also been observed on pack ice in the Beaufort Sea. From time to time, usually in early spring, polar bears make long trips towards Iceland and Scandinavia, as well as the Kanin Peninsula, the Anadyr Bay and Kamchatka. With ice and when crossing Kamchatka, beasts of prey sometimes they end up in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.
Nutritional Features
U polar bears the sense of smell is very well developed, as well as the organs of hearing and vision, so it is not a problem for a predator special labor spot your prey at a distance of several kilometers.
The diet of a polar bear is determined by the characteristics of its distribution area and the characteristics of its body. The predator is ideally adapted to the harsh polar winter and long swims in icy water, so its prey is most often marine representatives of the animal world, including sea urchin and walruses. Eggs, chicks, young animals, as well as carrion in the form of corpses of sea animals and fish that are washed up on the coast are also used for food.
If possible, the polar bear's diet can be very selective. In captured seals or walruses, the predator first eats the skin and fat layer. However, a very hungry beast is capable of eating the corpses of its fellows. It is relatively rare for large predators to enrich their diet with berries and moss. Change climatic conditions had a significant impact on nutrition, so in Lately Polar bears are increasingly hunting on land.
Lifestyle
Polar bears make seasonal migrations, which are caused by annual changes in territories and borders polar ice. In summer, animals retreat towards the pole, and in winter, the animal population moves to southern part and enters the mainland.
This is interesting! Despite the fact that polar bears mainly stay on the coast or ice, in winter period animals lie in dens located on the mainland or island part, sometimes at a distance of fifty meters from the sea line.
The duration of winter hibernation for a polar bear, as a rule, varies between 50-80 days, but most often pregnant females hibernate. Males and young animals are characterized by irregular and fairly short winter hibernation.
On land, this predator is fast, and also swims well and dives very well.
Despite the apparent slowness, the slowness of the polar bear is deceptive. On land, this predator is distinguished by its agility and speed, and among other things, the large animal swims well and dives very well. To protect the polar bear's body, it has very thick and dense fur, which prevents it from getting wet in icy water and has excellent heat-retaining properties. One of the most important adaptive characteristics is the presence of a massive layer subcutaneous fat, the thickness of which can reach 8-10 cm. The white color of the coat helps the predator to successfully camouflage itself against the background of snow and ice..
Reproduction
Based on numerous observations, the rutting period for polar bears lasts about a month and usually begins in mid-March. At this time, predators are divided into pairs, but there are also females accompanied by several males at once. The mating period lasts a couple of weeks.
Polar bear pregnancy
Lasts approximately eight months, but depending on a number of conditions, can vary between 195-262 days. It is almost impossible to visually distinguish a pregnant female from an unmarried polar bear. About a couple of months before giving birth, behavioral differences appear and females become irritable, inactive, long time lie on their stomachs and lose their appetite. A litter often contains a pair of cubs, and the birth of one cub is typical for young, primiparous females. A pregnant bear comes to land in the fall, and spends the entire winter period in a snowy den, most often located near the sea coast.
Caring for cubs
In the first days after birth, the polar bear lies curled up on her side almost all the time.. Short and sparse hair is not sufficient for independent heating, so newborn cubs are located between the mother’s paws and her chest, and the polar bear warms them with her breath. The average weight of newborn cubs most often does not exceed a kilogram with a body length of a quarter of a meter.
The cubs are born blind, and only at the age of five weeks do they open their eyes. A mother bear feeds her month-old cubs while sitting. The mass emergence of female bears occurs in March. Through a hole dug outside, the bear begins to gradually take her cubs out for a walk, but with the onset of night the animals return to the den again. During walks, the cubs play and dig in the snow.
This is interesting! In the polar bear population, approximately 15-29% of cubs and about 4-15% of immature individuals die.
Enemies in nature
IN natural conditions polar bears, due to their size and predatory instinct, have practically no enemies. The death of polar bears is most often caused by accidental injuries as a result of intraspecific clashes or when hunting walruses that are too large. Orca whales and polar sharks also pose a certain danger to adults and young individuals. Most often bears die from starvation.
Man was the most terrible enemy of the polar bear, and such peoples of the North as the Chukchi, Nenets and Eskimos hunted this polar predator from time immemorial. Fishing operations that began in the second half of the last century became disastrous for the population. During one season, St. John's worts destroyed more than a hundred individuals. More than sixty years ago, polar bear hunting was closed, and since 1965 it has been included in the Red Book.
Danger to humans
Cases of polar bear attacks on people are well known, and the most striking evidence of the predator’s aggression is recorded in the notes and reports of polar travelers, so you need to move around in places where a polar bear may appear, you need to be extremely careful. In settlements located near the habitat of the polar predator, all containers with household waste must necessarily be inaccessible to a hungry animal. In the cities of the Canadian province, so-called “prisons” have been specially created in which bears approaching the city limits are temporarily kept.
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 largest predator on the planet and, according to scientists, one of the smartest 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, descended from brown bears that adapted to the harsh conditions of the 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 the polar bear is a renowned hunter, only in 2% of hunts does it 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. 500 g of polar bear liver 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.
Many of us believe that polar bears have white fur, but in reality this is not so: the animals’ hair, like the undercoat, is transparent and completely colorless. And they appear white to us because there is an air pocket inside each guard hair. When a light beam consisting of all the colors of the rainbow hits the wool, the colors from the air pockets are reflected and mix to create a white color.
Depending on the season and the location of the Sun, the animal’s fur can be not only white, but yellow or brown (bears living in captivity can even be green due to algae in artificial reservoirs). But if someone managed to shave off all the fur from an animal, they would be surprised to discover that the skin of a polar bear is black. The dark skin helps absorb and retain the sun's rays, protecting the predator from the Arctic frosts.
The largest bear is called a white or polar bear. carnivorous mammal an animal that lives on the surface of the earth (second only to the elephant seal). He is the closest relative of the brown bear and belongs to the bear family. In nature, there are about fifteen species of polar bear, and the total number of animals is about twenty-five thousand.
You can meet these animals in the subpolar latitudes of the northern hemisphere, starting from Newfinland and ending at 88° N. sh., and they live on ice floating in the Arctic off the coast of Eurasia and America, so they can only be classified as terrestrial inhabitants only conditionally.
If you think about what natural area polar bears live, you might be surprised: they are the only large predators Arctic, ideally adapted for normal existence in polar latitudes. For example, during snow storms they dig holes in the snowdrifts, lie down in them and, without going anywhere, wait out the elements.
The size and weight of these animals largely depend on their place of residence: the smallest animals according to description live on Spitsbergen, while the largest ones live in the Bering Sea. The average height of a bear at the withers reaches about one and a half meters, while the weight of males significantly exceeds the weight of females:
- The weight of males ranges from 400 to 680 kg, length - about three meters (weight large lions and tigers does not exceed 400 kg);
- The weight of females ranges from 200 to 270 kg, the length is about two meters.
According to the description, the polar bear differs from other representatives of its species by its greater weight, powerful sloping shoulders, flat head and longer neck.
There is fur on the soles of the paws, which allows the animal not to slip and freeze. There is a membrane between the toes, and the structure of the paws allows polar bears to swim gracefully, gracefully and quickly. Large curved claws are not only capable of holding even strong prey, but also allow it to easily move on slippery ice and climb over blocks.
It is noteworthy that these animals are quite capable of reaching speeds of up to 10 km/h and swimming about 160 km without stopping. They are also very good divers and can stay underwater for about two minutes.
The polar bear does not freeze thanks to a thick, about 10 cm, layer of subcutaneous fat on the back, back of the body and hips, as well as very warm fur, which retains the heat generated. The predator's fur is very thick and dense; it not only reliably retains heat, but also protects the animal's body from getting wet, and its white color makes it possible to camouflage perfectly.
The teeth of polar bears are also noteworthy: in cross-section, they form annual circles of two cement layers. The tooth is tightly attached to the jaw, as the root of the teeth is connected to it by a layer of cement that grows throughout the bear's life. IN different time Each year, the layer grows differently and seems to consist of two parts: the winter layer is thinner than the summer layer, which is located above it, and the older the animal, the smaller the distance between the rings.
Way of life
Although polar bears give the impression of being a clumsy animal, in fact they are very fast, agile, and excellent at diving and swimming, both on land and in water. For example, when escaping danger, a polar bear can move at a speed of about 7 km/h without any problems. They are capable of covering considerable distances: the record for the longest movement was recorded for a polar bear, who, together with her baby, swam 685 km across the sea from Alaska to the north in search of a new home.
The main reason why she did this was that the place where the polar bears lived was no longer suitable due to the melting of the ice floes: the seals left their place of residence. Unfortunately, the cub died during such a nine-day swim, and her weight decreased by twenty percent.
Despite their ability to develop high speeds, polar bears still prefer to move slowly and without haste: at least temperature indicators in the Arctic they can drop to minus forty, these predators usually experience a problem not with freezing, but with overheating (especially when running).
Despite the fact that polar bears are solitary animals, they do not fight for their territory and have a positive attitude towards other representatives of their species: they often colonize an area in groups and roam with each other. In the absence of food, they are able to eat their relatives.
Animals also do not live in one place for a long time and move along with the ice, which floats closer to the pole in the summer, and to the south in the winter, while once near the continent, the predator comes to land. The polar bear prefers to be either on the coast or on glaciers, and in winter it can easily set up a den for itself at a distance of 50 km from the sea.
It is worth noting that the female sleeps the longest during pregnancy (two to three months), while males and non-pregnant female bears hibernate for short period, and not every year. When they go to bed, they always cover their nose with their paw: this helps them conserve heat.
When they talk about where polar bears live, ice floes immediately come to mind - it is there that these predators are able to find food for themselves: seals, ringed seals, walruses, bearded seals, and other sea animals that are part of the predator’s diet live here. During the year, he travels about one and a half thousand kilometers in search of food. Thanks to the huge reserves of subcutaneous fat, it is able to go without food for quite a long time, but if the hunt is successful, it can easily eat up to 25 kg of meat at a time (usually a bear catches a seal once every three to four days).
Thanks to its white color, excellent hearing, perfect vision and excellent sense of smell, the bear is able to smell its prey several kilometers away (a seal at a distance of 32 km). It catches prey, sneaking up from behind shelters, or watches for it near holes: as soon as the prey sticks its head out of the water, it stuns it with its paw and pulls it out. But for some reason, polar bears hunt on the shore very rarely.
Sometimes, when he swims up to an ice floe where seals are resting, he capsizes it and catches prey in the water (it is these animals that mainly make up his diet). But a polar bear can cope with a heavier and stronger walrus only on solid ground, where it becomes clumsy.
It is interesting that the polar bear does not eat its entire prey, but only the fat and skin, everything else only if it is very hungry (polar foxes, arctic foxes, and seagulls eat the carcass after it). If there is no usual food, the polar bear feeds on carrion and does not hesitate to eat dead fish, eggs, chicks and even algae. After a meal, a polar bear spends at least twenty minutes cleaning itself, otherwise the wool will reduce its thermal insulation properties.
Thanks to this method of feeding, the polar predator receives a sufficient amount of vitamin A from its prey, which is deposited in its liver in such quantities that more than one case of liver poisoning of this animal has been recorded.
Polar bear camouflage
Polar bears are capable of perfect camouflage, and they are able to become invisible not only to their prey, but even to the infrared cameras with which scientists monitor predators. This was discovered by zoologists during a flight over the Arctic, which was made with the aim of counting the population of these animals. The equipment failed to notice the bears, since they completely merged with the surrounding ice. Even infrared cameras could not detect them: only eyes, black noses and breathing were reflected.
Bears have become invisible due to the fact that with the help of infrared cameras it is possible to see not only temperature indicators of the surface, but also the radiation that comes from the observed objects. In the case of polar bears, it turned out that their fur had radio-emitting properties similar to those of snow, which is why cameras were unable to record the animals.
Offspring
The she-bear gives birth to her offspring for the first time no earlier than four years(and sometimes the first birth occurs at eight). She gives birth to no more than three cubs every two to three years. The mating season usually lasts from March to June, with one female followed by about three to four males, who constantly fight with each other, and adults can even attack and kill cubs. Polar bears can interbreed with brown bears, resulting in offspring that, unlike many other animal species, are also capable of reproducing.
The female bears prepare to give birth in October, starting to dig dens near the coast in the snow drifts. To do this, females often gather in one place; for example, about two hundred dens appear annually on Wrangel Island. They do not settle in them immediately, but in mid-November, and hibernate until April. Pregnancy lasts up to 250 days and the cubs appear blind and deaf, usually in the middle or end of the Arctic winter (their eyes open after a month).
Despite the impressive size of an adult, newly born babies are not much longer in length. more rat, and their weight ranges from 450 to 750 grams. When the cubs are about three months, and they gain weight, begin to gradually leave the den along with the bear, gradually moving to wandering image life. The cubs live with their mother for three years, and until they are one and a half years old, she feeds them with milk, while at the same time feeding them seal blubber. The mortality rate among babies is quite high and ranges from 10 to 30%.
Animal life in the modern world
Polar bears are listed in the IUCN Red List: despite the fact that their numbers are considered stable and even growing, the slow reproduction of white predators, poaching (about 200 animals are killed annually) and high mortality among cubs make the population easily vulnerable, and in some places they have disappeared at all.
Recently, a sharp decrease in population has been recorded in Russia: animals living in the region of Yakutia and Chukotka have completely disappeared in some areas. The lifespan of these predators in nature is about 25 years, while in captivity they can live up to forty-five.
In addition to poachers, the lives of polar bears are affected by global warming: over the last century, air temperatures in the Arctic have risen by five degrees Celsius, which is why the area of glaciers on which these animals actually live is constantly shrinking. This directly affects the population of seals, which are their main food, allowing them to accumulate the necessary fat reserves.
During melting, the ice becomes unstable, as a result of which the bears are forced to go to the coast, where there is not enough food for them, and they significantly lose weight, which negatively affects future cubs.
Another important problem is oil, which in considerable quantities in sea water around drilling rigs. While thick fur protects bears from dampness and cold, if it becomes stained with oil, it loses its ability to retain air, causing the insulating effect to disappear.
As a result, the animal cools down faster, and the black skin of the polar bear runs the risk of overheating. If a predator also drinks such water or simply licks it off the fur, this will lead to kidney damage and other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
The polar bear, or polar bear, or northern bear, or sea bear, or oshkuy is a predatory mammal of the bear family, close relative brown bear Latin name Ursus maritimus translates to "sea bear". Origin of the species It was originally assumed that the polar bear separated from the brown bear about 45-150 thousand years ago, probably in the territory of modern Ireland. However, the latest research has shown that the polar bear has separated from their common brown bear ancestor 338-934 thousand years ago (on average 600 thousand years ago), and 100-120 thousand years ago, as a result of crossing representatives of the species, their hybridization occurred, as a result of which all modern polar bears are descendants of these hybrids.
Despite their apparent clumsiness, polar bears are fast and agile even on land, and in water they swim and dive easily. Very thick, dense fur protects the bear's body from cold and getting wet in icy water. An important adaptive role is played by a thick layer of subcutaneous fat up to 10 cm thick. White coloring helps camouflage the predator. The senses of smell, hearing and vision are well developed - a bear can see its prey from several kilometers away, a ringed seal can smell it from 800 m away, and, being right above its nest, it hears the slightest movement. According to the memoirs of Vice Admiral A.F. Smelkov, a swimming polar bear, pursued by a submarine, is capable of speeds of up to 3.5 knots (almost 6.5 km/h). The record recorded bear swim was 685 km, made in the Beaufort Sea by a bear, swimming from Alaska north to the pack ice to hunt seals, while she lost 48 kg of weight (20%).
Gradual increase average annual temperature continues to make adjustments to the life of our planet. One of the species that will be most affected by a warming climate is the polar bear. Melting arctic ice, caused by climate warming, poses a serious threat to these unique mammals.
There are several versions of warming. The first is global warming, which is that average temperature the Earth has risen by 0.7°C since the start of the Industrial Revolution (the second half of the 18th century), and that “most of the warming observed in the last 50 years is caused by human activity.”
Opponents of the concepts of anthropogenic global warming and the greenhouse effect argue that the observed increase in average annual temperature is natural processes occurring on Earth, and they are in no way related to human activity.
But one way or another, the gradual increase in average annual temperature poses a threat to polar bears.
The polar bear is a rare protected species listed in the Red Book Russian Federation. The total number of polar bears is now about 25 thousand individuals. Today, the existence of the polar bear as a species is threatened by industrial development of the Arctic, pollution and habitat destruction, poaching and, of course, climate warming.
Animal advocates are sounding the alarm - according to them, the polar bear population is declining year by year. One of the main reasons is climate change, due to which in the spring the ice moves away from the shore so quickly and far that bears do not have time to swim to the edge of the ice. As a result, they remain cut off from their main prey - ringed seals and seals - and go to get food in garbage dumps in settlements where they meet a person.
Experts say that by 2050, the polar bear population in the Arctic could decline by two-thirds. Today, the amount of drifting ice in the Arctic has greatly decreased. Because of this, the polar bear’s habitat is narrowing, and it is forced to go ashore, where it inevitably encounters people.
Some time ago, to protect the polar bear population, US authorities allocated a special zone for polar bears that live on the disappearing ice of Alaska. Zone size - 484 thousand sq. km - doubled more area UK and covers the northern and northwestern coasts of Alaska, including the polar ice caps.
Although climate warming continues to have an impact Negative influence on the polar bear population, scientists say that these Arctic inhabitants have recently been actively adapting to climate change.
For example, Canadian scientists observed several cases when single bears went off sea ice ashore and wandered through the colonies white goose, carrying eggs from nests, and even climbed rocks in search of guillemot eggs and chicks. This is despite the fact that regular food polar bear - ringed seal.
The polar bear is the largest land predator in the animal world. Body length is 1.6-3.3 m, weight of males is 400-500 kg (sometimes up to 750), females - up to 380 kg.
The bear is an excellent swimmer and diver, and can swim tens of kilometers into the open sea. Moves quickly on ice. Leads a solitary lifestyle, but sometimes groups of 2-5 animals are found; several bears may gather near large carrion.
Polar bears hunt pinnipeds, mainly ringed seals, bearded seals and harp seals. Coming to land coastal zones islands and the mainland, they hunt walrus cubs, they also eat sea waste, carrion, fish, birds and their eggs, less often rodents, berries, mosses and lichens.
Pregnant females lie down in dens, which they build on land from October to March-April. In broods there are usually 1-3, more often 1-2 cubs. They stay with the female bear until they are two years old. The maximum lifespan of a polar bear is 25-30 years, rarely more.
Where do polar bears live in Russia? This predator constantly lives in the space from Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya to Chukotka. On floating ice it sometimes reaches Kamchatka. Distances deep into the continent have been noted (up to 500 km along the Yenisei River).
The southern border of the habitat coincides with the edge of drifting ice. As the ice melts and breaks up, bears move to the northern border of the Arctic Basin. With the beginning of stable ice formation, the animals begin their reverse migration to the south.
