Are there polar bears in the southeast? Where do polar bears live? What does a polar bear eat?

Polar bear, oshkuy.

Area: Circumpolar region bounded by the northern coast of the continents, the southern limit of the distribution of floating ice and the northern border of warm sea currents.
The southern border of the polar bear's habitat usually coincides with the edge of drifting ice or the coast of the mainland. Over the past few centuries, the range of this species as a whole has not undergone any noticeable changes. At the same time, the southern limit of the distribution of polar bears experiences significant seasonal changes, following changes in the ice cover limit.

Description: The polar bear is one of the largest land mammals and the largest predatory animal on the planet. It differs from other types of bears in its more elongated body, long neck, thick, short and strong legs, whose feet are much longer and wider than those of other bears, and the toes are connected by a thick swimming membrane for almost half of their length. The head is elongated, flat on top and relatively narrow, the forehead is flat, the wide muzzle is pointed in front, the ears are short and rounded on top, the nostrils are wide open. The mouth opening is not as deeply cut as in a brown bear. The tail is very short, thick and blunt, barely visible from under the fur. There are several stubbles on the lips and above the eyes, and there are no eyelashes on the eyelids. With the exception of a dark ring around the eyes, a bare nose, the edges of the lips and claws, the polar bear is covered in thick fur. The long, shaggy and thick fur consists of short undercoat and smooth, glossy and rather soft hair. The hairy soles of both the hind and front paws serve for thermal insulation and reduce slipping when walking on ice and snow. Females have four nipples.

Color: The polar bear is covered with snow-white clothing, which in young ones is silver in color, but in old ones, due to the consumption of fatty foods, it acquires a yellow tint. The time of year does not affect the color of the coat. The white color helps to camouflage the predator when it lies in wait for prey.

Size: The polar bear is much larger than all other bears, since at a height of 1.3-1.6 m it reaches 2.5-2.8 m in length. The fangs are 5 cm long.

Weight: Reaches 300-800 kg, and sometimes even tons. Ross weighed one bear that, having lost 12 kg of blood, weighed 513 kg, and Lyon points out one bear weighing 725 kg. Of the 17 bears killed in the Bering Strait and surrounding areas during the Pehuel-Leche voyage, five reached the above-mentioned heaviest weight. The fat of one large bear can weigh up to 180 kg.

Lifespan: In natural conditions it lives for about 19 years. Mortality among adult bears is estimated at 8-16%, among immature bears 3-16%, and among cubs 10-30%. The maximum lifespan of a polar bear is 25-30 years, although a female at the Detroit Zoo was still alive at age 45 in 1999.

Habitat: Polar bears are associated with drifting and fast sea ice all year round, where they hunt seals. However, he likes to live in secluded bays and bays, in shallow waters between islands, where tidal currents regularly break up the ice. In winter and early spring, bears were most often observed in areas beyond the fast ice zone and at the edge of stationary polynyas, and in heavy ice conditions at sea - in areas with increased ice fragmentation. In summer and early autumn, most polar bears concentrate along the southern edge of the ice.
If bears do come to mainland land, it is usually not for long. Only on the eastern coast of America, near Baffin and Hudson Bays, in Greenland and Labrador, on Spitsbergen and other islands can it be seen both on land and on ice floes. In Lapland and Iceland, a polar bear can only be found when it is driven here on an ice floe.

Enemies: This giant has no enemies, except for humans. The decline in the number of animals is associated with poaching, as well as poisoning with pesticides and water pollution with oil produced on the shelves.

Food: The polar bear is a 100% predator, active and with a narrow specialization in hunting seals, mainly ringed seals, as well as bearded seals (in a year the bear catches and eats up to 40-50 seals).
The bear hunts for seals, lying in wait for them at the holes. He delivers a terrible blow with his paw to the head of a sea animal that appears from under the water and immediately throws it onto the ice. First of all, it devours the skin and fat, and the rest only in case of great hunger. During one feeding, the predator usually eats 6-8 kg, occasionally up to 20 kg.
The polar bear catches fish by diving or driving it into crevices between ice floes. It attacks terrestrial animals only when it lacks food. Occasionally attacks walruses, beluga whales and narwhals. Reindeer, arctic foxes and birds are also not protected from its attacks.
It creeps up to the spotted prey from behind the cover, crawling, spread out on the snow or ice, freezing every time it looks around. The bear covers its black nose and eyes with its paws.
Seals try to lie closer to holes and crevices of ice floes, which give them the opportunity to escape into the sea. A bear swimming under ice floes finds these holes with extraordinary skill. If he sees a seal lying on land from afar, he silently plunges into the water and swims towards it against the wind, exposing only his nose, eyes and ears, camouflaging himself behind the ice floes. He swims up, approaches with the greatest caution and suddenly emerges right in front of the seal, which becomes his.
Whenever possible, polar bears pick up dead fish, sea debris, eggs and chicks of seabirds, which otherwise does not happen often. In addition, they rob the warehouses of travelers and hunters. He eats carrion as readily as fresh meat, but he will never touch the corpse of another polar bear. In seas frequented by seal hunters and whalers, the polar bear happily eats the skinned and blubbery bodies of seals and whales. Where possible, they also eat plants, especially berries and moss, which is fully proven by the contents of their stomach.

Behavior: The polar bear has a high level of mental development, an exceptional ability to assess the situation and an excellent orientation system. Wandering in the vast expanses of icy silence, often in conditions of months-long polar night and hurricane winds, he never wanders and knows exactly where he is going and why.
The polar bear has well-developed sensory organs: it has a phenomenal sense of smell and excellent vision. Therefore, when he wanders on large ice floes, he climbs high icy cliffs and from there notices prey from afar. He can smell a dead whale or a piece of bacon roasted over a fire at a great distance (several kilometers), and even tens of them downwind. This determines his hunting style: he slowly walks across the ice fields from ice hole to ice hole against the wind, sniffing and listening, and patiently waits in the wings.
Polar bears are extremely resilient, and although the polar bear's movements on land are clumsy, in the water he is agile and graceful.
The bear's front paws are wide and act as oars while swimming. The speed with which it moves in water is 4-5 kilometers per hour. Shaggy wool soaked in fat does not get wet in water. A thick layer of subcutaneous fat protects against cold and equalizes the specific gravity of the animal’s body with the specific gravity of water. Therefore, it costs a bear nothing to swim several tens of kilometers in the icy sea. He can dive as skillfully as he can swim on the surface of the water. Under water, he keeps his eyes open and his nostrils and ears compressed. It jumps out of the water onto the ice playfully, dives, even jumping from icebergs and hummocks, almost silently and without splashing.
He walks straight, freely jumping over two-meter hummocks and wide cracks in the ice.
Only pregnant females go into hibernation; all others are active most of the year. Males and bachelors can go to the den mainly when they are starved of food, but not always and not everywhere, and they do not sleep for so long. These predators are not afraid even of severe frosts; the main thing for them is that the sea on which they live and hunt is not completely covered with ice. These animals spend the entire winter on the edges of ice floes, constantly moving from place to place in search of prey.
Most of the life of polar bears is spent wandering. Radio beacons are used to track the movements of polar bears, but they can only be used on female bears. The fact is that they are attached to the animal on a collar, but the males’ necks are thicker than their heads, and the collar simply will not hold on.

We have already looked at it in detail and were surprised. Let's now take a closer look at the familiar Polar Bear in more detail.

Polar bear- the largest bear, it is the largest carnivorous mammal in the world. The body length of an adult male can be up to 3 meters, and the weight can reach a ton. The largest representatives of the polar bear were spotted along the shores of the Intracoastal Sea.

The polar bear is listed in the IUCN Red Book and the Russian Red Book. Bear hunting is allowed only to the indigenous population of the North.

The skin of a polar bear is black, just like a brown bear. But the color of the skin is from white to yellowish. Also, the polar bear’s fur has a peculiarity: the hairs inside are hollow.

The bear seems clumsy due to its size and dimensions, but this is only an appearance. Polar bears can run quite fast and swim well too. The North bear travels 30 km per day. The bear's paw is unique. No deep snow can stop the bear, thanks to its size of the foot and column-shaped legs, even compared to other polar animals it very quickly and deftly overcomes any snow and ice obstacles. The resistance to cold is simply amazing. In addition to hollow hairs, the polar bear also has a subcutaneous layer of fat, which in winter can be up to 10 cm thick. Therefore, a polar bear can easily travel up to 80 km in icy water. In the summer, a bear can even swim to the mainland on an ice floe, then it is euthanized and sent back by helicopter.

In Russia, polar bears are found on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, in Greece and Norway, Canada and Alaska.

The main food of the polar bear is seals. One bear eats about 50 seals per year. However, catching a seal is not easy. A polar bear can watch its prey near a hole for hours, waiting for a seal to appear on the surface. After the seal surfaces to take a breath of air, the bear instantly hits the prey with its paw and throws it onto the ice. The predator eats the skin and fat, preferring to leave the rest, although in winter, in case of hunger, the bear eats the entire carcass. The bear is often accompanied arctic foxes, who get the remains of the seal. Polar bears also do not disdain carrion; the bear can smell the smell of prey from several kilometers away. For example, beached whale will definitely become a meeting place for several bears. 2 bears or 3 bears may not share the food, then a skirmish occurs. It is unknown how many bears may be encountered. This is why a bear can enter the territory of human habitation. More often, of course, this is simple curiosity, although evil hunger can drive the beast into a hopeless situation. Although a bear can be a vegetarian, they like cereals, lichens, sedges, berries and mosses.

Spring is a heavenly time for bears. Baby sea animals are born, which, due to inexperience and weakness, do not provide adequate resistance and often do not even run away.

The polar bear has incomparable resistance to cold. Its thick, long fur consists of hairs that are hollow in the middle and contain air. Many mammals have similar protective hollow hairs - an effective means of insulation - but those of the bear have their own characteristics. Polar bear fur retains heat so well that it cannot be detected by aerial infrared photography. Excellent thermal insulation is also provided by the subcutaneous layer of fat, which reaches 10 cm in thickness with the onset of winter. Without it, the bears would hardly be able to swim 80 km in icy Arctic water.

By the way, polar bears are the only large predators on Earth that still live in their original territory, in natural conditions. This is largely due to the fact that seals, their favorite and main food, live on drifting ice in the Arctic. For every bear there are approximately 50 seals per year. However, hunting seals is not easy. Ice conditions change from year to year, and seal behavior is unpredictable. Bears have to travel thousands of kilometers in search of the best places to hunt.

In addition, the hunt itself requires skill and patience. The bear watches the seal at the hole for hours, waiting for it to come up for air. He instantly strikes with his paw the head of a sea animal that has emerged from the water and immediately throws it onto the ice. First of all, the predator devours the skin and fat, and the rest of the carcass only in case of great hunger. A bear hunting a seal is usually accompanied by one or more arctic foxes, eager to take advantage of the remains of the killed animals. Polar bears themselves do not disdain carrion, thus compensating for the lack of seal fat and meat. The owners of the ice kingdom can smell carrion several kilometers away. And if suddenly a whale, falling into shallow water, dries up and dies, a whole company of white, eternally hungry bears will immediately come running from all sides.

Hunting seals is no easier. Shy seals, at the slightest danger, dive under the ice and emerge in another hole to breathe. And the bear rinses its face in icy water in vain. But in the spring, a fertile time comes for the bear - cubs of sea animals are born, which have never seen a polar bear before and therefore do not realize the danger. But even here the clumsy bear has to show miracles of ingenuity. In order not to scare away the cubs, the bear has to be very careful, because even the slightest crunch can give away its presence and deprive it of food.

Difficulties in obtaining food are aggravated by climate changes on Earth. As a result of climate warming, the ice in the bays begins to melt earlier than usual, summers become longer every year, winters become milder, and the problems of polar bears become more acute. Summer, in general, is a difficult time for polar bears. There is very little ice left and it is almost impossible to get close to the seals. Over the past 20 years, the polar bear hunting season has been shortened by two to three weeks. As a result, the weight of the animals decreased: if previously a male weighed about 1000 kg, now, on average, 100 kilograms less. The females also lost weight. This, in turn, has an extremely negative impact on population reproduction. Increasingly, females are giving birth to only one cub...

However, polar bears are not only suffering from warming temperatures and a shortened hunting season. In the recent past, the polar bear was an important commercial target. Fur and bear paws, which are the most important components of popular and expensive oriental soups, prompted members of polar expeditions to mercilessly exterminate this beautiful animal. The profits from such business are so great that the international black market continues to flourish, despite all attempts to stop it. The fight in this area has reached the same intensity as the fight against drug smuggling.

In July, many of the polar bears that traveled with drifting ice move to the coasts of continents and islands. On land they become vegetarians. They feast on cereals, sedges, lichens, mosses and berries. When there are a lot of berries, the bear does not eat any other food for weeks, gorging on them to the point that his face and butt turn blue with blueberries. However, the longer the bears starve, forced to prematurely move to land from the melting ice as a result of warming, the more often they go in search of food to people who have been actively exploring the Arctic in recent decades.

The question of whether an encounter with a polar bear is dangerous for a person is difficult to answer unequivocally. Sometimes bears attacked people out of curiosity, quickly realizing that they were easy prey. But most often, tragic incidents happen at campsites, where bears are attracted by the smell of food. Usually the bear goes straight to the smell, crushing everything in its path. The situation is complicated by the fact that the animal, in search of food, tears into pieces and tastes everything it comes across, including people who turn up by chance.

It should be noted that bears, unlike wolves, tigers and other dangerous predators, have virtually no facial muscles. They never warn of impending aggression. By the way, circus trainers claim that because of this feature, it is most dangerous to work with bears - it is almost impossible to predict what to expect from them in the next moment.

Now, thanks to the efforts of Greenpeace, they try not to kill bears that wander into the city in search of food, resorting to temporarily tranquilizing shots from a special gun. The sleeping animal is weighed, measured and recorded. A colored tattoo is applied to the inside of the lip - a number that remains for the entire bear's life. Females, in addition, receive a collar with a miniature radio beacon as a gift from zoologists. The euthanized bears are then transported by helicopter back to the ice so that they can continue living a full life in their natural habitat. Moreover, females with cubs are transported first.

For a polar bear, the world is limited by ice fields, and this primarily determines the characteristics of its behavior. Judging by animals kept in captivity, this bear, compared to the brown one, seems less intelligent and not so dexterous; he is less trainable, more dangerous and excitable, and therefore can be seen relatively rarely in the circus arena. True, he is characterized by a certain “straightforwardness” in his actions, due to a rather monotonous lifestyle, narrow food specialization, and the absence of enemies and competitors. But it is enough to observe this animal in a natural environment for even a short time to be convinced of the high level of its psyche, its exceptional ability to assess the conditions of the natural environment, including the quality of ice, adapt to them and, depending on them, flexibly change hunting tactics, find the easiest and passable paths among piles of hummocks, confidently move along young, fragile ice fields or areas of ice replete with cracks and leads.

The strength of this beast is amazing. He is capable of dragging and lifting up a slope a walrus carcass weighing over half a ton, with one blow of his paw he can kill a large sea hare that has almost the same mass as his, and, if necessary, he can easily carry it in his teeth for a considerable distance (a kilometer or more).

Polar bears are eternal nomads. Ice transports them over vast distances. It often happens that even such experienced “travelers” suffer disaster. Thus, animals caught in the zone of the cold East Greenland Current are carried on drifting ice along the southeast of Greenland, and in the Davis Strait the ice melts, and most polar bears, despite all their dexterity, die.

It would seem that living in the deserted polar spaces, the polar bear should not suffer from humans. However, it is not. The Arctic is already quite settled. Sailors, hunters, and people of other professions now constantly meet with polar bears, and these “contacts” do not always end favorably for the huge, but very curious and generally harmless animals.

And the biology of the beast itself has “weak” sides. During the mating season, the male has to travel enormous distances to find a female, and often endure a battle with a rival. Often searches are not crowned with success at all and no family is formed. Mother bears bear offspring (one or two cubs) every two years and become sexually mature only at the age of about four years.

The presence of food (seals and fish), suitable places for breeding and the absence of human disturbance are the main conditions for the existence of polar bears in the Arctic. But strangely enough, there are not so many places like this at first glance. The unique “maternity hospital” of these animals is Wrangel Island. In addition, polar bears make dens on the northeastern islands of Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, northeast and northwest Greenland, southwest Hudson Bay and some Arctic islands of Canada. The main territory of the Arctic is essentially unsuitable for habitation, much less breeding, of this species.

All pregnant female polar bears spend the winter in snowy shelters, which are relatively identical in structure and located, with rare exceptions, on land; Everywhere in the Arctic they go into dens and leave them at almost the same times. The physiological state of animals in dens is similar to that of brown bears, i.e. it is shallow sleep or torpor with a slight decrease in body temperature, respiratory rate and pulse, but not hibernation (as, for example, in marmots, gophers, etc.) . Apparently, at the beginning of winter, female bears lying in dens are more active than in the middle of winter, although in the spring in most dens one can see traces of the digging activity of females of varying ages.

The question of the winter activity of males, spawning females and young individuals is not clear enough. Obviously, in a significant part of their range, especially in the south of the Arctic, they are active all year round, with the exception of periods of severe snowstorm, from which the animals take refuge among hummocks or coastal rocks; finding here before. the layer of snow is quite deep, they even dig shallow shelters in it. With the end of the blizzard, bears leave such shelters and continue to roam and hunt.

In the high latitudes of the Arctic, especially in places with a harsh climate, frequent and strong winds, and possibly where animals have great difficulty in feeding, most of them lie down in dens relatively regularly. On the northern coast of Greenland, 90% of all animals spend the winter in shelters, in the northern part of Baffin Island - 50 and in the south of Greenland - 30%; in the whole range, 70-80% of all bears spend the winter in shelters, and older males go to shelters earlier and leave them earlier.

In the Canadian Arctic, male polar bears use refuges from early August to late March (most frequently in September, October, and January); young ones, as well as females with one-year-old cubs, were found here in shelters from early October to early April. The state allocates funds to build shelters made of laminated waterproof plywood, this significantly helps the animals.

In the north of the Taimyr Peninsula (Cape Chelyuskin area), all animals spend the winter in dens, but the duration of their stay there varies and depends on gender, age and whether the female is pregnant or barren. For the shortest period of time (according to the latest dates 52 days - from mid-December to early February) young bears go to shelters in the north of Taimyr; There are almost as many adult males in them. Females with young of the year spend 106 days in dens, spawning females - 115-125, and pregnant female bears - 160-170 days.

There is information in the literature about encounters of male polar bears in dens on Franz Josef Land, in the east of Taimyr, in the Kolyma Territory, etc., although everywhere here animals of various sex and age categories were observed and caught outside dens, which means that they remained active throughout the winter. The dens of such animals (obviously, the dens of barren females and young bears) are often located on sea ice and are more diverse in structure (shape, size) than the dens of pregnant bears. It is also obvious that the timing of their use is relatively variable.

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 polar or polar bear is the largest predatory mammal 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 the natural zone in which polar bears live, you might be surprised: they are the only large predators in the 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 (the mass of 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. At different times of the 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: although temperatures in the Arctic can drop to minus forty, these predators usually experience problems 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 a 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

A she-bear gives birth for the first time no earlier than four years of age (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 than a rat, and their weight ranges from 450 to 750 grams. When the cubs are about three months old and gain weight, they begin to gradually leave the den with the mother bear, gradually switching to a wandering lifestyle. 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 is present in considerable quantities in the 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.

Female polar bears give birth to their offspring in the middle of winter. Bear cubs are born small, the size of a cat or rabbit. Polar bear cubs are completely helpless; they live in a den that is warm and dark, as if in an incubator.

Polar bear den

Even before the babies are born, but already in anticipation of offspring, the female begins to look for a suitable den. Usually she chooses a place somewhere on the shore, but sometimes she finds a convenient place on an ice floe. Since you will have to spend the whole winter in the den, the place should be near water. Having chosen a place, the bear sets up a bed measuring one meter by two meters and about a meter in height. Before the final choice of den, a female polar bear may try several options, but then choose the most convenient one.

In the den prepared by the bear, air will circulate well, but it will always be warm. The female’s body temperature in the den does not decrease as significantly as, for example, in a brown bear; the deviation can be only five degrees. Throughout the winter in the den, the bear does not eat anything; her body uses previously accumulated reserves of subcutaneous fat.

Birth of cubs

Cubs are born in December, usually there are two of them. Their body length does not reach thirty centimeters, their weight is no more than eight hundred grams. The cubs feed exclusively on mother's milk. The mother periodically wakes up and checks if everything is okay with the cubs, then falls asleep again. Babies also sleep all the time when they are not eating. Female polar bears are able to begin bearing offspring at the age of about four to five years and sometimes remain fertile for up to 20 years or more.

The mother bear first brings her cubs out of the den in March or April, when they are already three or four months old. By this time, the cubs already weigh ten to fifteen kilograms and are strong enough to play on the snowy plain themselves. After several days outside the den, the bear goes out onto the ice near the sea. At this time, the cubs still continue to feed on her milk, but are already beginning to learn how to get food for themselves on their own.

Another year and a half passes before the young bears are separated from their mother. They begin their adult life, and the female bear goes off in search of a new male. At the end of April or sometimes at the beginning of May, the female secretes substances with a specific odor, to which the males are sure to come. If there are several of them, then they first choose the strongest, and only then the mating process occurs. Immediately after this, the female bear’s estrus stops, and the males leave her - they never participate in raising the offspring.

While female polar bears sleep in their dens all fall and winter, the rest of the adult bears lead their usual way of life: they hunt, eat, and walk along the shore. In those months when pregnant females give birth to offspring and begin feeding them, other bears willingly hunt seals from the wormwood to feed themselves. In the spring, when the mother first takes her babies out of the den, she prefers not to be seen by the males, since it is at this time that the adult bears are in the rut. And finally, with the onset of summer, polar bears happen to go out onto land and look for food there, although those individuals that remain on the ice floes are better fed for the winter.

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The polar (or polar) bear is a predatory mammal belonging to the Bear family. Ursus maritimus is its Latin name. Where does a polar bear live and what does it eat? How does it reproduce and interact with other animals? What is its population? Where does the animal live? More on this later in the article.

Origin

It was initially assumed that the separation of the brown and polar bear happened about 45-150 thousand years ago, possibly in the territory occupied by modern Ireland. But recent research has revealed that the division occurred about 338-934 thousand years ago. About one hundred to two hundred years ago, representatives of species crossed, which resulted in hybridization. As a result, all polar bears inhabiting the planet today are descendants of the resulting hybrids.

External data

The polar bear is considered one of the largest representatives of terrestrial mammals from the order of predators. The height of individuals can reach 3 m, weight - up to a ton. The most common are males, whose weight is from 400 to 450 kg, and their body length is up to 250 cm. At the withers, the height is from 130 to 150 centimeters. Females weigh significantly less - from 200 to 300 kg. The smallest representatives live on Spitsbergen, and the largest ones live in the Bering Sea. The white bear is distinguished from other bears by its flat head and long neck.

Skin color - black. The fur can range in color from yellowish to white (in summer the “fur coat” may turn yellow due to constant exposure to direct sunlight). The fur is hollow, and the fur itself is devoid of pigment. Translucent hairs are capable of transmitting, due to which the cover acquires thermal insulating properties. When carrying out UV photography, a polar bear may appear dark, and sometimes it may even turn green. This usually happens if a white bear is in a zoo, in a hot climate. Due to the special structure of the hairs, microscopic algae grow in them - hence the green color of the skin. In order not to freeze and not slide on the ice, the soles of all limbs are lined with wool. There is a swimming membrane between the toes, and hard bristles are present on the front of the paws. Further in the article we will learn more about what polar bears eat.

Life

Polar bears live on fast ice and drifting ice. There they hunt and get their main food. What do polar bears eat? Their main food is ringed seal, walrus and others. They catch their prey by sneaking from behind cover or near holes. As soon as the victim removes its head from the water, the animal stuns it with a blow from its paw and drags it ashore. A polar bear can also knock over an ice floe on which seals are sitting. Walrus hunting is carried out only on land. As a rule, it eats lard and skin. In case of severe hunger, it devours the entire walrus carcass. But usually the remains of the caught animal are then eaten by arctic foxes. But that's not all that polar bears eat. On occasion, they can also pick up carrion, dead chicks, fish, and eggs. Their diet also includes grass. If polar bears appear in human-inhabited areas, they can be seen in garbage dumps, not far from household and food waste dumps.

There are even known cases of them robbing food warehouses of polar expeditions. Everything that polar bears eat contributes to the accumulation of vitamin A in their liver. This compound is contained in their body in fairly large quantities. There are even reports of several cases of liver poisoning. Does a polar bear eat penguins? This question may arise from those who are new to the habitat of these animals. It is known that penguins inhabit the South Pole, and polar bears inhabit the North Pole. There is no way they can meet under natural conditions. It was described above what polar bears eat. And representatives of the South Pole are not included in their diet.

Nomads

In accordance with the annual change in the boundaries of polar ice, polar bears make seasonal transitions. In the summer they retreat closer to the pole, in the winter they migrate to the southern territories, entering the mainland. Despite the fact that polar bears mainly stay on ice and coasts, they can lie down in dens on islands or on the mainland, in some cases fifty kilometers from the sea. Winter hibernation, the duration of which varies from 50 to 80 days, is usually characteristic of pregnant females. Single females and males do not mate annually and for a fairly short period.

Behavior

Despite their apparent slowness at first glance, bears are fast and agile even on land. In water they dive and swim quite easily. The bear's body is protected from getting wet and cold in the water by dense and very thick hair. A special adaptive task is performed by subcutaneous fat with a layer of up to ten centimeters. The camouflage of a predatory animal is greatly facilitated by its light coloring. Polar bears have very well developed hearing, vision and sense of smell. They can see their prey from several kilometers away, and, for example, they can smell a seal from 800 meters away.

Reproduction

The rut for polar bears begins in March and ends in June. In estrus, a female is usually followed by three or four males. By October, females begin to dig dens in the sediment. Bears have favorite territories where they gather (Wrangel Island, for example). Every year there are about 150-200 burrows in such places. Mother bears settle in dens only by mid-November, after the latent stage of bearing cubs has ended. The entire pregnancy lasts 230-250 days. At the end or in the middle of the Arctic winter, cubs are born. The female herself remains in hibernation until April. It should be said that female bears have a low reproductive potential. The first offspring appears at 4-8 years. Childbirth occurs every two to three years, with one to three cubs in one litter. As a result, a female brings no more than ten to fifteen cubs in her entire life. Newborns weigh from 450 to 750 grams. After three months, the female leaves the den with them and begins a wandering life. The cubs remain with their mother for up to one and a half years. During this entire period, she feeds the cubs with milk.

Social structure

It should be said that mortality among cubs reaches 10-30%. The life expectancy of bears is no more than 25-30 years, the record for longevity in captivity is forty-five years. As a rule, animals are peaceful relative to members of their own species. But during the mating season, clashes between males can occur. Sometimes adult males attack cubs, mostly males. Polar bears can interbreed with brown bears. As a result, fertile (reproductive) offspring appear - polar grizzlies.

Population status and economic importance

The polar bear is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation as a rare species. Due to the high mortality rate of young animals and slow reproduction, this animal becomes quite easily vulnerable. But even despite this, today it is considered relatively stable, even growing in some way. Eskimos hunt polar bears for meat and skins. In Russia, hunting of animals has been prohibited since 1956. In other countries (Greenland, Canada and the USA), polar bear hunting is limited. On the territory of Russia today there are about 5-7 thousand individuals. At the same time, poachers shoot about 150-200 bears per year.