Polar Bear

Common Name: Polar bear Ours blanc; ours polaire (Fr); Oso polar (Sp)

Scientific Name: Ursus maritimus

Habitat: Arctic

Location: Arctic (northern hemisphere)

Biogeographic realm: Nearctic and Palearctic

Ecological region: Alaskan North Slope Coastal Tundra, Canadian Low Arctic Tundra, Taimyr and Siberian Coastal Tundra, Chukote Coastal Tundra, Bering-Beaufort-Chukchi Seas, Barents - Kara Seas, Grand Banks, Canada

The polar bear has many unique adaptations inorder to deal with the Arctic cold. The polar bear's skin is black in actual, which allows it to soak up as much heat as possible from the sun. They are great swimmers and will swim from one ice floe to othe ice floe. They have been seen swimming at a distance of 50 miles away from any ice or land.

Range: Polar bears spend their entire life associated with pack ice. Females usually prefer ice along the shoreline while others prefer moving sea ice at the floe edge -usually within 180 miles of shore.

Diet: Polar bears eat mostly ringed and bearded seals. They occasionally eat other mammals, eggs, vegetation and beach-cast carrion. They don't drink water. They get all the liquids that they need from the animals that they consume.

Polar bears have fur that is basically made up of "hollow guard hairs". The ones that are kept in zoo's that are in warmer climate, can have algae growind inside hollow guard hairs of fur. This makes them have a greenish tint to their fur. These hollow hairs also keep their hair from matting down when they swim in water.

Polar bears have a technique for catching the seals present in the freezing water under the ice floor. They find a seal air hole and sneak up on it slowly and sit there until a seal comes up to breathe and then they scoop him right out of the hole.

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