![]() The oldest known polar bear fossil dates back approximately 110,000-130,000 years, with DNA suggesting there was hybridizing (breeding between two species) between polar bears and brown bears. Because the ice they live on is in a constant state of flux - floating, freezing, melting, and refreezing - fossils are seldom discovered, making it difficult to precisely date their origins. The evolutionary history of polar bears isn’t settled science. But if available, these bears will also eat whale carcasses, walruses and bird eggs. Their main food sources are ringed and bearded seals, which also live in the Arctic. Polar bears have flat feet with webbing between their toes, and bumpy footpads that enable them to get traction while walking on ice - wide paws help to distribute all that weight, preventing them from falling through. They are excellent swimmers and live in the Arctic, but can also be found in Canada, Alaska, Russia and Greenland. Male polar bears can reach 1,700 pounds and females weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Polar bears start out as very cute small cubs that weigh in at about one and a half pounds at birth, but they grow to be the largest carnivorous land animal. Meanwhile, here are some facts to help you get to know this Arctic keystone species. ![]() If you’re interested, you can actually watch a live stream of the migration. Once they converge on Churchill, polar bears await the sea ice to form on Hudson Bay so they can hunt for seals. Refrain from buying items that use polar bear products.It’s Polar Bear Week, a celebration of the eponymous animals and their annual migration to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. ![]() In the face of the significant threat which climate change poses to polar bears, reduce your carbon footprint and offset your carbon emissions whenever possible. In 2008 it was designated as threatened and granted Endangered Species Act protections because of rapid warming in their Arctic habitat. However, due to the polar bear’s extreme vulnerability to climate change, its listing remains a live issue of debate, with several attempts to move it to Appendix I over the past years. Polar bears can also be exposed to toxic chemicals such as pesticides through their prey, which can affect a bear's biological functioning and ability to reproduce.ĬITES Listing: Polar bears have been listed in Appendix II of CITES since 1975, meaning their trade is regulated. Contact with oil spills can reduce the insulating effect of a bear’s fur requiring them to use more energy to get warm, and can poison them if ingested. The oil and gas industry is also turning its eyes to the arctic, and with it comes the potential risks of habitat destruction from oil exploration work. There are increasing reports of polar bears drowning from exhaustion as their arctic ice home melts making the distances between ice floes, from which they hunt, too far to reach. They are extremely vulnerable to habitat loss from melting ice caps, reproduce slowly, and have specialized, inflexible diets. A major reason why limited levels of trade pose an increasing threat to the species’ survival relates to their unusual vulnerability to climate change. However, sport hunting and international trading of polar bears still occur and populations have been declining rapidly. Polar bears were traditionally hunted mainly at sustainable levels by indigenous people in the Arctic regions, for whom polar bear products are a vital resource. Polar bears main prey consists of ringed seals and bearded seals, though they will also scavenge carcasses or settle for small mammals, birds, eggs and vegetation. About half of a polar bear’s life is spent hunting for food because their hunts are rarely successful some experts say only 2% of the time. Polar bears are an apex predator in the Arctic marine ecosystems keeping prey species populations in balance. On the arctic sea ice – across Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia, and the United States of America.
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