About | the-polar-bear

A White Bear

The polar bear inhabits five of the eight circumpolar countries: Canada, United States (Alaska), Russia, Greenland and Norway (Taylor and Lee, 1995). They solely exist in the northern hemisphere; there are 18 different sub-populations of polar bears in the Arctic.
There is only one species of polar bear and little research to show any genetic variation across populations (Paetkau, 1999).
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the largest terrestrial carnivore in the world, as well as the largest mammal in North America.
The bear is classified as a marine mammal even though they spend majority of their time at sea hunting seals, this is only possible if the seasonal freeze-up of ice is permitable.
If the quality of ice is unstable for the bears, they are forced onto land where they can spend an upwards of three months (Russell, 1971). This is typical of the most southern populations’ of Western and Southern Hudson Bay and Davis Strait, scavenging for food to sustain themselves and denning females (Hogan, 2008).
As a marine ice dweller (pagophilic), polar bears are heavily intertwined with marine food webs compared to terrestrial food sources they graze upon in summer (Rugh and Shelden, 1993)
The preferred prey of polar bears is the ringed seal; the bear is listed under the carnivorous taxa, however they will consume plants and berries during summer seasons, and times with low food availability
A polar bear is among the most sexually dimorphic mammals on the planet (Parks Canada, 2009). A female can weigh between 150-300 kilograms (900 lbs) while a male can be up to 450 kilograms (1 500 lbs) (BBC Films, 2008); standing just over 9 feet on its hind legs is typical for a male and 7 feet for females.

The Polar Bear