Animal Unique | Polar Bear | Polar bears live only in the northern Arctic where they spend most of their time on ice floes. They are the largest land carnivore in the world and the largest of the bear family. They are well suited for the cold Arctic ice and snow. Although most Polar bears are born on land, they spend most of their time at sea. Their scientific name means "marritme bear", and is derived from this fact. Polar bears can hunt their favorite food of seals in the edge of the sea ice, often of life fat if there is no sea ice present. The Polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with eight of the nineteen polar bear subpopulations in decline. For decades, large-scale hunting raised international concern about the future of the species, but populations rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species: U. maritimus
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species: U. maritimus
The Polar bear is the largest terrestrial carnivore, which is more than twice as large as the Siberian tiger. It shares this title with the Kodiak Bear. Adult females are about half as big as men. The largest polar bear on record, reportedly weighing 1,002 kg, was a male shot at Kotzebue Sound in northwestern Alaska in 1960. The shoulder height of the Polar bear is 130-160 cm. The Polar bear is one of the most sexually dimorphic of mammals, surpassed only by the pinnipeds.
Compared with its closest relative, the brown bear, Polar bear has a more elongated body build and a long skull and nose. As predicted by the northern line All for one animal, the legs are stocky and the ears and tail are small. However, the feet are very large for the load balancing while walking on snow or ice and slippery propulsion when swimming, they can measure 30 cm in an adult. The pads of the paws are covered with small, soft papillae (dermal bumps) which provide traction only on the ice. The Polar bear claws are short and stocky compared to that of the brown bear, perhaps to the earlier need for heavy prey and ice grip to serve. The claws are deeply scooped on the underside to help dig into the ice of the natural habitat.
The Polar bear has many unique adaptations for dealing with the Arctic cold. The Polar bear skin is actually black, that makes it possible to enjoy as much heat as possible from the sun. They are also good swimmers and will swim from ice floe to ice floe. They are seen swimming 50 miles away from ice or land. The white fur is usually yellow with age. When kept in captivity in warm, humid conditions, the coat a pale shade of green due to algae growing in the top coat. Men have significantly longer hair on their legs, that the increase in length to the bear reached 14 years. The male ornamental foreleg hair is thought to attract females, where a similar function to the lion's mane.
Unlike grizzly bears, Polar bears are not territorial. Although stereotyped as greedy aggressive, they are normally cautious in confrontations and often choose to escape rather than fight. Saturated Polar bears rarely attack unless provoked serious man, and hungry Polar bears are very unpredictable and are known to kill and sometimes eat people. Polar bears are stealth hunters, and the victim is often unaware of the presence of the bear to attack in progress. In general, adult Polar bears live solitary lives. Polar bears have a wide range of sounds, including bellows, roars, growls, steam locomotives and sapwood.
Polar bears have fur, which consists of "hollow guard hairs." Sometimes when Polar bears live in zoos in warmer climates, they can grow algae in the hollow guard hairs of their fur. This makes them have a greenish tint to their fur. These hollow hairs keep their hair from matting down as they swim in water. Polar bears are usually solitary, except for female-cub groups during the mating season, and abundant food sources. Pregnant for the winter, but do not hibernate. All the Polar bears may temporarily avoid the bad weather.
Climate change, leading to the loss of Arctic sea ice, is the leading threat to Polar bears.. The survival of Polar bears and the protection of their marine habitat priority areas for the WWF and other conservationists. The main danger of climate change, hunger or malnutrition as a result of habitat loss. Polar bears hunt seals from a platform of sea ice. Rising temperatures cause the sea ice melts earlier in the year, driving the bears ashore before they have built sufficient fat reserves for the period of scarce food to survive in the late summer and early autumn. Reduction of sea-ice cover also forces bears to swim longer distances, which further put their energy stores and occasionally leads to drowning. Thinner sea ice tends to be easier to deform, which seems to make it harder for Polar bears to seals to open.
For the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, Polar bears have long played an important cultural and material role. Polar bear remains were found on the yacht dating from 2,500 to 3,000 years ago and 1,500 year old cave paintings of Polar bears are found in the Chukchi Peninsula. He Inuit and Eskimos have many tales with the bears also legends which bears his people in their own homes and bear hides when going outside, and the stories of how the constellation which is said that a large bear, surrounded by dogs seem on was made. These legends reveal a deep respect for the polar bear, who is portrayed as both spiritually powerful and closely related to humans.
Animal Unique