Polar Bear

The polar bear was given its common name by Thomas Pennant in A Synopsis of Quadrupeds (1771). It was known as the "white bear" in Europe between the 13th and 18th centuries, as well as "ice bear", "sea bear" and "Greenland bear". Polar bear’s name is because it is adapted exclusively in polar regions.

Many of the polar bear's physical adaptations help it maintain body heat and deal with its icy habitat. The bear's outer layer of fur is hollow and reflects light, giving the fur a white color that helps the bear remain camouflaged. The skin under the polar bear's fur is actually black; this black is evident only on the nose. Polar bears also have a thick layer of fat below the surface of the skin, which acts as insulation on the body to trap heat. This is especially important while swimming and during the frigid Arctic winter. The bear's large size reduces the amount of surface area that's exposed to the cold per unit of body mass (pounds of flesh), which generates heat.

Such prey is usually taken by ambush; the bear may follow its prey in the water or on the ice, but it will also wait for the prey to swim by by staying near an ice edge or breathing hole. The seal's high-energy fat is the main food source for the bear.

Polar bears can swim for up to ten hours straight, demonstrating their exceptional swimming abilities. Polar bears can swim 60 to 100 kilometers at a time, sometimes even beyond. These bears steer with their hind legs and paddle with their strong front paws. The bear's keen sense of smell allowed it to find seals under deep snow and up to a kilometer away. Being stealth hunters, polar bears can wait for hours in silence at seal breathing holes.

Polar bears can run up to 40 km/h on land, just like black bears; however, they are not good sprinters because of overheating. Similar to sun and spectacled bears, polar bears can climb; however, they are not as nimble as brown bears. They can do so on minor slopes, snowy terrain, cliffs, and fallen branches.

Polar bears spend over 50% of their time hunting for food. A polar bear might catch only one or two out of the 10 seals it hunts, depending on the time of year and other variables. Their diet mainly consists of ringed and bearded seals because they need large amounts of fat to survive. When the cubs are born, they are completely dependent on their mother. The polar bear has a crucial ecological role in regulating seal numbers and preserving the equilibrium of the Arctic food web. Killer whales, walruses, leopard seals, narwhals, wolves, brown bears, and humans are the polar bear's true enemies.

They stay in the den, nursing on her rich milk, until spring, when they emerge and start exploring the world as their mother heads out to the ice to catch the seals she needs to replenish the weight she’s lost during her period of fasting. Over the next two years, the cubs will learn from their mother how to catch seals themselves and develop the other skills needed to survive and grow to adult size.

Typically, cubs will stay with their mother until they are two and a half years old, but in some cases, they will stay for a year more or a year less. If the mother is able to replenish her fat reserves sufficiently, she can produce a litter of cubs that survive until weaning every three years. When food declines in abundance, there is a longer period between successive successful litters, and litter sizes are smaller. Polar bears in the wild can live to be 30 years of age, but this is rare. Most adults die before they reach 25 years old.

Reproduction

Breeding season:

• April–June.

Delayed implantation:

• Fertilized egg does not implant until conditions are suitable.

Birth:

• Usually 1–2 cubs (rarely 3) born in winter dens (November–January).

Cubs:

• Blind and tiny at birth (~600 g).

Maternal care:

• Mother raises cubs alone for 2.5 years, teaching hunting and survival.

With the exception of mother-cub groups, mating season, and large whale carcass gatherings, polar bears are primarily solitary. The polar bear has a high level of intelligence and curiosity. To save calories, these bears take frequent naps. Polar bears are not territorial like brown or black bears, but males may fight over food or mates.

Since polar bears are apex predators that can see humans as prey, they are neither friendly nor safe around people. Due of their intense curiosity, polar bears will explore campsites and food sources. Polar bears can be very hazardous when they come into contact with humans, livestock, dogs, foxes, wolves, seals and sea lions, brown bears, walruses, narwhals, sleeper sharks, and killer whales. Even "calm" bears are capable of unexpected attacks.

There were 73 documented polar bear assaults on people between 1870 and 2014, with 20 fatalities and 63 injuries. A worker in Canada was slain in August 2024, and a mother and her child were killed in an attack in Alaska in January 2023. Although polar bear attacks are uncommon, they can rise when bears are under nutritional stress, manipulated by other animals, and compelled to go inland as a result of climate change.

Threats

• Climate change, loss of sea ice reduces hunting grounds and forces bears to expend more energy.

• Pollution, bioaccumulation of toxins (PCBs, heavy metals).

• Oil and gas activity, disturbance and oil spills threaten food and habitat.

• Human–bear conflicts, especially as bears spend more time near communities.

• Persecuted by other animals, including humans and brown bears

• Poaching (varies by region).

Conservation Status

• IUCN Red List: Vulnerable (VU)

Conservation efforts

• Many countries regulate hunting or allow strictly controlled indigenous subsistence harvests.

• Conservation efforts focus on:

  • Climate mitigation

  • Reducing human–bear conflict

  • Protecting denning areas

  • Monitoring populations

Human Fatal

• January 2023: A woman and her one-year-old son were killed by a polar bear in the Alaskan village of Wales. 

• August 2024: A worker was killed by two polar bears at a remote radar station in Nunavut, Canada. One of the bears was put down.

The polar bear is found in the Arctic Circle and adjacent land masses as far south as Newfoundland. Due to the absence of human development in its remote habitat, it retains more of its original range than any other extant carnivore. The usual range includes the territory of five nations: Denmark (Greenland), Norway (Svalbard), Russia, the United States (Alaska), and Canada.

These five nations are signatories to the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, which mandates cooperation on research and conservation efforts throughout the polar bear's range. Bears sometimes swim to Iceland from Greenland—about 600 sightings since the country's settlement in the 9th century and five in the 21st century as of 2016—and are always killed because of their danger, as well as the cost and difficulty of repatriation. A marine mammal, the polar bear depends on the ocean for survival. It is pagophilic, living mostly in the spaces between islands in archipelagos and on yearly sea ice that covers continental shelves.

In the 2600s and 2700s, during The Recollections of Queen Arianna (TROQA) saga, the "Sky People" or Terrans from Earth brought polar bears to two exoplanets that resembled Earth: Reinachos from Cygnus and Berbania from Ursa Major. Despite the death of our planet, this species is recovering from endangerment or near extinction thanks to conservation initiatives. Human interactions for game hunting and rewilding produced this species, but they backfired when the bear became an invasive species. In two exoplanets that resembled Earth, polar bears lived in similar environments and climates. The polar bear was introduced and sent to the northern parts of both supercontinents on Planet Reinachos, as well as the continents of Tiqojarha and Drepesedio on Planet Berbania.

• Movement Pattern: Nomadic

• Movement Pattern: Solo

• Population Trend: Increasing

• Population: 

  • Earth: ???

  • Berbania: 70,000

  • Reinachos: 80,000

  • Thatrollwa: 70,000

  • Sawintir: 90,000

• Locomotion: Amphibious

• Habitat: Polar; Tundra; Taiga; Cold River; Cold Pond; Cold Littoral; Cold Intertidal.

• Earth: 

  • Extant (Resident): Canada (Labrador, Manitoba, Newfoundland Island, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Yukon); Greenland; Norway; Russia (Yakutiya, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, North European Russia); Svalbard and Jan Mayen; United States (Alaska)

  • Presence Uncertain & Vagrant: Iceland

• Berbania: 

  • Extant & Introduced (Resident): ???

• Reinachos: 

  • Extant & Introduced (Resident): ???

• Delphia: ???

Polar bears can be tamed by feeding their babies honey and fish, much like bears do today.

Coming soon

• ???

• Aragonese: onso polar

• Arabic: دب قطبي

• Belarusian: Мядзведзь белы

• Bulgarian: Бяла мечка

• Bengali: মেরু ভালুক

• Catalan: Ós polar

• Czech: Medvěd lední

• Dansk: Isbjørn

• Deutsch: Eisbär

• Dine Bizaad: Shash łigaaígíí

• English: Polar bear, white bear, ice bear, Greenland bear, sea bear

• Esperanto: Blanka urso

• Español: Oso polar

• Estonian: Jääkaru

• Euskara: Hartz zuri

• Suomi: Jääkarhu

• Français: Ours blanc

• Frysk: Iisbear

• Hawaiian: Nanuka

• Hebrew: דוב קוטב

• Croatian: Polarni medvjed

• Magyar: Jegesmedve

• Bahasa Indonesia: Beruang Polar

• Icelandic: Ísbjörn

• Inuitikut: ᓇᓄᖅ

• Italiano: Orso polare

• Nihon: ホッキョクグマ

• Lietuvių: Baltasis lokys

• Bahasa Melayu: Beruang Polar

• Maori: Nanuka

• Mazanderani: اسپه اش

• Nahuatl: Atlacamayeh/Atlakamayeh

• Nederlands: IJsbeer

• Northern Sami: Jiekŋaguovža

• Norsk: Isbjørn

• Polski: Niedźwiedź polarny

• Português: Urso-polar

• Română: Urs polar

• Ruma Simi: Yuraq ukumari

• Russian: Белый медведь

• Slovenčina: Medveď biely

• Serbian: Бели медвед (Beli medved)

• Svenska: Isbjörn

• Tagalog: Osong puti

• Thai: หมีขาว

• Türkçe: Kutup ayısı

• Ukrainian: Білий ведмідь

• Zhongwen: 北極熊

• ???

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear

• https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22823/14871490

• https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ursus_maritimus/

• https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ursus_maritimus

• http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=52609

• https://everydaypower.com/bear-quotes/

• https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/polar-bear

• https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22823/14871490

• https://www.irmng.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=11061491

• https://animalia.bio/index.php/polar-bear?taxonomy=239

• https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Polar_Bear

• https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Polar-Bear

• https://www.deviantart.com/ognimdo2002/art/Polar-Bear-931690521