Animal Life - Polar Bear Day
Polar Bear Day is meant to bring awareness to the changing conditions in which these bears live.
They are currently indicated as "Vulnerable" on the Red List.
The World Wildlife Foundation has been working to track and understand the polar bears. "It's impossible to plan long-term management strategies without having good information to base them on." They are also obtaining traditional knowledge from the Inuit peoples.
The Polar bear International organization suggests that we not only inform ourselves about these animals and their environment, but that we reduce our carbon footprint in our own environment to help combat climate change.
Here are some facts about polar bears:
"Home is on the sea ice." This is where they hunt, mate and sometimes den. When pregnant though, polar bear mamas will dig a den in the fall which will be covered with snow while she births and nurses her pups.
Polar bears are the largest four-legged predator, with adult males weighing up to 1300 pounds. Pups are only about 1.5 pounds when born but grow more than 20 times their body weight in just a few months.
They are also one of the most mobile four-legged animals; traveling about 2,000 miles per month, with home ranges that can exceed the size of California.
Polar bear paws can be about 12 inches across. The black pads are covered in papillae, which grip the ice to avoid slipping and sliding. The large paws are excellent for swimming as well, acting as large paddles.
Polar bears can eat up to 100 pounds of blubber in one sitting, and are actually considered lipovores since marine fat is their main source of calories. While they are on the top of the food chain, they rely on the entire "food web" to stay alive. 86% of the carbon in their bodies is from marine algae - microorganisms (like copepods) eat the algae, fish eat the copepods, seals at the fish, and the bears eat the seals.
Some polar bears have also been known to hoard food - a study observed thousands of bears over a 45 year period and only documented 19 cases of food being hidden in the snow.
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