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Learn about the largest living carnivores on Earth, their amazing adaptations, hunting skills and conservation status. Find out how polar bears use their sense of smell, swim, blend in with their surroundings and raise their cubs.
- Polar bears are classified as marine mammals. Because they spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean depending on the ocean for their food and habitat, polar bears are the only bear species to be considered marine mammals.
- A polar bear skin is actually black. Beneath all that thick fur, polar bears have jet black skin. The polar bear’s fur is also translucent, and only appears white because it reflects visible light.
- They can swim constantly for days at a time. As well as reaching speeds of up to 6mph in the water, polar bears can swim for long distances and steadily for many hours to get from one piece of ice to another.
- Less than 2% of polar bear hunts are successful. Although about half of a polar bear’s life is spent hunting for food, their hunts are rarely successful.
4 days ago · Learn about the polar bear, the largest and most powerful carnivore on land, and its adaptations, diet, and threats. Find out how climate change is affecting its sea ice habitat and population.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Learn about the polar bear, a large white-furred bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. Find out how it is related to the brown bear, what it eats, how it adapts to sea ice, and why it is vulnerable to climate change and human activities.
- For a polar bear, home is on the sea ice. Polar bears rely on Arctic sea ice for their survival, a habitat that is literally melting away as the planet warms.
- Polar bears are BIG. In fact, they are the largest four-legged predator. Adult males normally weight 350 to more than 600 kilograms (775 to more than 1,300 pounds).
- Polar bears are champion travelers. Polar bears are one of the most mobile four-legged animals, if not the most. They can travel more than 3,000 kilometers per month and can have home ranges that exceed 600,000 square kilometers (an area larger than California or the entire Yukon in one year!).
- Polar bear cubs are born in dens hidden under the snow. After feeding throughout the winter and the spring seal-pupping season, a pregnant female polar bear digs a den in the fall where she gives birth to her cubs and nurses them.
Learn how polar bears survive in the Arctic, hunt seals, and protect their cubs. Find out how climate change threatens their habitat and population.
Learn about the polar bear's origin, behavior, life cycle, diet, habitat, adaptations, and endangered status. Follow Anuri, a 22-year-old polar bear, on her journey across the sea ice with the Polar Bear Tracker.
