Today on Earth there are quite a lot of animal species that require special attention for the reason that they are becoming rare and in the near future they may be threatened with extinction. This group also includes animals such as polar bears. The Red Book is designed to keep records of rare and some of its pages are devoted to the polar bear.

Polar bear habitats

This type of animal is interesting already because its representatives live in places that are not very suitable for life. We are talking about the Arctic with its harsh climate. Low air temperatures, long winters, polar nights did not become an obstacle for the polar bear.

The vastness of the Arctic Ocean with its lifeless islands, the northern outskirts of Eurasia and North America are the places where the polar bear lives.
The Red Book, various encyclopedias and many other sources, providing information about this animal, indicate its significant difference from other species of bears living on the planet. Even its name can indicate certain characteristics of the animal. From the language of some peoples or scientific sources, it is known that the animal is called differently - sea, northern, polar bear.

Evolution paths

Scientists have long believed that the paths of development of the white and brown bears diverged about about one hundred and fifty thousand years ago. And this happened in the area of ​​the planet that is occupied by modern Ireland. But recent research findings have prompted a change in this view. Today science says that the separation of species happened much earlier - on average, about six hundred thousand years ago. Over this long period, the animals developed differences associated not only with their habitat, nutritional conditions, but also with their external appearance, although the genetic material indicates that these animals once had a common ancestor.

The common thing is the sad fact that all bears today are the White Himalayan and other species of these unique animals need protection that only humans can give them. Although, it was he who became the main reason for the decrease in their number on Earth.

You can find out everything about the polar bear, as well as its relatives, on the pages of numerous publications, which contain research by scientists, stories of people who have met in nature with these unique and at the same time very dangerous animals.

I must say that the meeting did not always end happily, without sad consequences, if a person and a polar bear became its participants. The Red Book appeared because people sometimes tried to prevent the actions of a predator and destroyed it before he himself attacked a person or his home. But the actions of people were not always reasonable enough, and as a result, this led to a decrease in the number of polar bears.

Appearance and structural features of the body

A flat head is the main difference between a polar bear and a brown one in the structure of the body. The limbs of the animal have a pillar-like appearance. The feet are very wide. This helps the bears navigate the deep snow without falling through. Due to the special structure of the feet and the fact that they are covered with hair, polar bears can easily move on the ice surface. Despite their huge body weight, they easily overcome hummocks up to two meters high.

The skin of the bear is black, and the skin is white to yellowish in color. The bear's coat acquires this color in the summer, when the effect of sunlight is especially strong.

Types of polar bears

The species of animals living in different regions of the vast territory of the Arctic differ from each other. The largest polar bears live on islands. Some individuals weigh about 1000 kilograms with a body length of up to three meters.

Most of the existing species of polar bears reach 450 kilograms of weight with a height of about two meters. Females are slightly smaller than males. Their average weight is about 300 kilograms.

The habitats of the smallest representatives of these formidable animals, such as polar bears. The Red Book took under protection all existing species of bears living in the Arctic.

Fitness for life in the Arctic

The polar bear lives only in the Arctic, most of which belongs to the Russian state. In addition, polar bears are found on the mainland of Eurasia in the zone of ice deserts.

The polar bear does not inhabit other parts of the Earth. There are cases when animals on ice floes fell into warmer climatic conditions, and this gave them big problems.

How did the animal adapt to such harsh living conditions in the Arctic? First, the body is covered with thick fur. Secondly, the structure of the hairs helps to retain air in them, which makes the fur warmer. A significant layer of adipose tissue also saves the animal's body from hypothermia. In the most severe time of the year, its thickness is about ten centimeters.

With such thermal insulation, bears are not afraid of storms, or severe frosts, or the icy water of the ocean and northern seas. Polar bears are great swimmers. In search of prey, they can swim up to 80 kilometers a day. In this they are helped by the special structure of the paws, between the toes of which there are membranes. When swimming, the limbs of the animal work like flippers.

What is polar bear food

The polar bear is a predator, so it feeds on the meat of the animals that live near it. The bear hunts both in water and on land. Smaller animals, such as seals, are easily handled by the predator in the water. He stuns the victim with a paw and drags her onto the ice.

A polar bear can only compete with a walrus on land. The skin of a killed animal and fat are the main delicacy for a predator. If there is no severe hunger, then the bear leaves the meat intact, it is eaten by other smaller predators.

Reasons for the decline in the number of animals

Anyone, if he tries to find out everything about a polar bear, can easily find information that one bear in her life is capable of giving birth to no more than fifteen cubs. When the offspring are fed, the death of the young is inevitable - the harsh living conditions make themselves felt. Comparing these two facts, it is easy to assume that a decrease in the number of animals is possible for natural reasons.

To this must be added the facts of illegal hunting, the object of which is increasingly becoming polar bears. The Red Book of our country and other countries of the world is trying to stop the process of reducing the number of these animals.

Animals of the Red Book of the Russian Federation

The polar bear, along with other animals, has been under state protection since 1956. On the territory of Russia, hunting for him is completely prohibited. In countries such as Canada, USA, it is limited.

For the population living in the northern regions of the Earth, polar bears have long been the object of hunting. The Red Book of states interested in preserving animal populations tried to change the situation.

The meat and skins of bears, for the sake of which they were exterminated, in the modern world are not the only food source available to humans, the material used to equip a home, make clothes. Therefore, hunting for bears has ceased to be seen as a necessity. It qualifies as poaching and is prosecuted.

As a result of the measures taken, a rare animal, a polar bear, was rescued. The Red Book published a description of the size and species of the population in 1993. By this time, not only the recovery of individuals was noted, but also a slight increase in the number of animals.

The polar bear is one of the largest land-dwelling predators. Its height at the withers (from the ground to the neck) is 1.5 m, the size of the foot is 30 cm in length and 25 in width; male polar bears weigh 350-650 kg, some even more, females 175-300 kg. The bear lives for 15-18 years.

Polar bears live in the Arctic - at the North Pole.

The color of the fur of this animal is from snow-white to yellowish, thanks to this, the bear is almost invisible in the snow, but the skin of the polar bear is black, but it is not visible through the thick wool, perhaps quite a bit - on the nose. Polar bears are very hardy and can travel long distances at brisk strides. Their feet are covered with hair, which gives them great stability when moving on ice and snow. Polar bears can run, but they usually walk on foot.

Polar bears swim well, they jump headfirst into the water or slide off the ice, and swim with the help of their front paws. Dive with closed nostrils and open eyes. They know how to fish. After going ashore, they immediately shake off the water.

Polar bears spend most of the year on the ice-bound shores along the coast. As a rule, they hunt alone. They search for food both day and night. Polar bears hunt seals, trapping them near holes through which seals breathe air, or creep up to animals lying on the ice. Polar bears have a very keen sense of smell. They are able to smell seals lying in shelter under the snow.

These animals are very curious and intelligent. While tracking a seal, a polar bear closes its black nose with its paw, blocks the escape route for its prey, or even pretends to be a floating ice floe. A bear can experience emotions from rage to joy: after a successful hunt and a hearty dinner, he sometimes starts frolicking like a kitten.

In winter, when there are severe frosts and polar night, the bear can go into hibernation. The she-bear also lays down for the winter in the ice den together with the cubs. For five months she does not eat any food and at the same time feeds the newborn cubs, usually two, with milk. Bear cubs, covered with rare whitish fur, are born helpless, blind and deaf. Their length is 17-30 cm, and their weight is 500-700 g. The mother - the bear warms with her body. And in the spring, the grown-up cubs come out of the den. Fathers - bears do not take any part in raising children. And even they themselves can pose a serious threat to them.

In summer, bears' food is more diverse: small rodents, polar foxes, ducks and their eggs. Polar bears, like all other bears, can also eat plant foods: berries, mushrooms, mosses, herbs.

There are not very many polar bears left on the land and hunting for them is limited.

Questions about the report on the polar bear

1. What does a polar bear look like?
2. Where do they live?
3. What do they eat?
4. How do they reproduce?

The polar bear message can be used in preparation for the lesson. A story about a polar bear for children can be supplemented with interesting facts.

Report on the topic "Polar bear" grade 4

The polar bear is one of the largest carnivores on Earth. They are inhabitants of the harsh and snow-covered expanses of the Arctic belt; their southern border is the tundra zone.

Description of the polar bear

The polar bear has a heavy, massive body and large, powerful legs.

Its weight ranges from 300 to 800 kg, and its length can be up to three meters. The color of the fur coat can be from white to yellowish. In summer, the fur can turn yellow due to constant exposure to sunlight. Wool stores subcutaneous fat and protects well from the cold, so animals do not freeze either on land or under water. The polar bear's tail is very short, 7 to 13 cm long and is almost invisible from under the dense fur.

Interestingly, the skin of the bear under the fur is black, like the nose.

Their feet have an unusual elongated shape, which allows them not to fall through the snow and cover distances of 30 kilometers. Thanks to the partitions between the fingers, the animals swim well and hunt under water.

What do bears eat?

They feed on fish, seals, and sometimes walrus cubs. Bears can go without food for a long time, but when they catch their prey, they eat up to 10 kg of meat at a time. They can eat plants in summer. Predators are very agile, despite their huge weight and thick skin. They have a well-developed sense of smell and sight. They can see and smell their prey from miles away. And having tracked down the prey, they stun it with a blow of the paw.

Polar bear lifestyle

Basically, these animals are solitary, but in the spring they are assigned in pairs to create offspring. In small families, they develop new territory, but do not stay on it for a long time. While bearing cubs, female polar bears hardly leave the shelter and lose weight by 2 times. After the birth of babies (usually one or two), the bear spends several months with them in a specially dug den, because they are not yet adapted to the cold. Mom teaches newborn cubs to hunt and survive in difficult conditions.

An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the three-dimensional, constantly changing space of water and ice, flexibly changing hunting tactics and having no natural enemies, the polar bear is the real master of the Arctic.

Taxonomy

Russian name - polar bear, polar bear, polar bear, oshkuy, nanuk, umka
Latin name - Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimus
English name - Polar bear
Squad - Carnivores (Carnivora)
Family - Bear (Ursidae) has 7 species
Genus - Ursus

Species status in nature

The polar bear is listed in the International Red Book and the Red Book of Russia as a species whose numbers in nature are decreasing - CITES II, IUCN (VU). In Russia, polar bear hunting has been banned since 1956 and is currently only allowed in very limited areas in the United States, Canada and Greenland.

View and person

These beasts were known to the ancient Romans at least as far back as the first century AD. The archives of the Japanese emperors indicate that polar bears and their skins came to Japan and Manchuria as early as the 7th century, but the population of these countries could get acquainted with these animals much earlier - bears sometimes reach the shores of Japan along with floating ice. The oldest written source containing information about polar bears and relating to the north of Europe dates back to about 880 - then two bear cubs were brought from Norway to Iceland. In 1774, the polar bear was first described in the scientific literature as an independent species. The author of this description is the English zoologist Konstantin Phipps.

The peoples inhabiting the Arctic have hunted these animals for a long time. With the development of the North by humans, the number of bears decreased, but after the prohibition of hunting and the organization of protected areas in places of ancestral dens began to increase. However, it is now shrinking again, as bears are suffering greatly from climate change - the ice cover is late in the Arctic, which is necessary for a successful seal hunt. As a result, the animals are starving, and the female bears, in addition, cannot get to the places of their ancestral dens. Environmental pollution and a disturbance factor play a negative role.

Polar bears are very curious, they explore any new object and often visit polar stations. At the same time, they are not aggressive and, if people do not start feeding them, they leave.

Scope of distribution

The world for a polar bear is limited by ice fields. This is a beast of the Arctic belt - and it finds food and shelter among the endless ice and hummocks. It happens that, together with floating ice, polar bears reach the shores of Iceland, even get into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Japan. However, such animals always strive to return to the usual ice environment and, once outside it, make long transitions by land, moving strictly to the north.

Appearance, features of morphology and physiology

The polar bear is the largest animal not only among bears, but also among all predators. Among the males, there are hulks, the body length of which reaches 280 cm, the height at the withers is 150 cm, and the weight is 800 kg; females are smaller and lighter. The polar bear has an elongated body, narrow in the front and massive in the back, a long and mobile neck and a relatively small head, with a straight profile, a narrow forehead and small, high-set eyes. This animal has very strong legs with large claws. The feet of the bear are wide, but the calluses are almost invisible under the thick dense coat. Such wool covers the entire body of the animal and has a monochromatic white color that does not change with the seasons of the year.

But the polar bear's skin is dark, almost black, which contributes to the least heat transfer. All year round under the skin lies a thick layer of fat - 3-4 cm; on the back, it can reach a thickness of 10 cm. Fat not only protects the animal from the cold and serves as an energy storehouse, but also makes its body lighter, making it easier to stay on the water.
The brain of this animal differs markedly from the brain of other carnivores in its outlines and more complex arrangement of grooves and convolutions. In this respect, it is similar to the brain of some pinnipeds, such as the fur seal. Greater development of the visual area of ​​the brain than that of the brown bear and less development of the olfactory area may indicate that the polar bear has better developed vision and worse sense of smell than its brown counterpart.

The structure of the digestive tract is specific and different from other bears - the intestines are shorter, and the stomach is much larger than that of other members of the family, which allows a hungry predator to eat a whole seal at once.




An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the space of water and ice


An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the space of water and ice


An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the space of water and ice


An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the space of water and ice


An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the space of water and ice


An intellectual among bears, perfectly navigating the space of water and ice

Lifestyle and social organization

In the severe conditions of the Arctic, there is no usual alternation of day and night. There is no expressed daily activity of the animals that inhabit it. During the hibernation, which is widely known for brown bears, white bears fall far away. Winter sleep is typical only for female bears who are going to become mothers, and for elderly males, thus surviving the most difficult time of the year. Strong, healthy males and non-pregnant females are active all year round, sitting out in dens freshly dug up in the snow only during a strong blizzard.

Polar bears do not adhere to certain individual areas, the entire Arctic belongs to them. Adult animals usually roam one by one. Having obtained a seal and having fed, the predator sleeps right there, in the place of a successful hunt, and, waking up, wanders on. Meeting with a co-worker can happen in different ways. Well-fed animals are most often neutral in relation to each other. Females with small cubs try to stay out of sight of large males, who, being hungry, hunt their cubs. If the meeting is inevitable, the bear will desperately protect her babies.

A hardened male can take away the prey of a younger one and even try to kill and eat it. At the same time, sometimes dozens of bears gather around the carcass of a whale thrown out by the sea, which feed a few meters from each other, showing no aggression towards the brothers.

Females with small cubs are extremely loyal to orphaned cubs: there are cases when females accepted and fed them together with relatives.

Nutrition and feeding behavior

The polar bear, in the presence of its omnivorous congeners, is a predator actively hunting for large animals. Its main prey is Arctic seals, first of all, the ringed seal. When hunting on a natyulenie, the bear shows amazing ingenuity and resourcefulness: it can sneak up on its prey polda, watch for leads, or pick up on the occasion. The bear is very patient - it can sneak up on its victim for several hours, as well as lie near the hole in anticipation of an animal emerging to breathe. With a powerful blow of the front paw, the predator kills its prey and in one movement pulls out its ice. Most often, the bear is limited only to the subcutaneous layer of fat, eating it together with the bristle, which is pulled together by the stocking of the victim. The meat is eaten by Arctic foxes and seagulls, often accompanying him in his visits. However, a very hungry bear eats a seal's meat, and at one time it can eat up to 20 or more kilograms. It is highly likely that the next portion of food will enter his stomach only after a few days.

Sometimes the bear hunts young animals of large marine mammals - walruses, beluga whales, and narwhals. The real feast begins when the sea throws up the corpse of a whale. Several predators gather at once - there is enough food for everyone.

Being dry, bears feed on birds' eggs, grab lemmings. In addition, in the summer on the mainland and islands, they eat cloudberries, in the intertidal zone - algae such as kelp, fucus. After leaving the izberlog, the she-bears dig out the snow and eat the shoots of willow and sedge silt.

Reproduction and rearing of offspring

Mating of whitewashed bears occurs in spring or summer. Animals can keep in pairs for about two weeks, at night up to 3 and even 7 males gather around the female, between which fights arise.

In October-November, when the ice fields are suitable for bonfires, the females come out of the rocky shores. Here, in their favorite places in the thick snow, they make dens. The entrance to the den is always lower than the nest chamber, due to which the shelter is much warmer than outside. Blizzards and winds complete the construction of the "house", forming a solid roof over it, sometimes up to 2m thick. Here, after 230–250 days of gestation (including the latent stage characteristic of bears, when the ovum does not develop), cubs appear in the midst of the Arctic winter. Newborns are just as helpless as those of other species of bears, weighing about 700 g. The ability to see and hear appears in them only at the age of one month, and a month later the babies are teething. By this time, they begin to publish izberlogs, but only at the age of 3 months they are able to follow their mother. I dream young animals do not part for a year and a half. Their fathers do not take any part in the upbringing of children, on the contrary, they pose a serious danger to them - the cannibalism of whitewashed bears is not uncommon.

For the first time, a female gives birth to one cub at the age of five to six years, in the subsequent one she will most likely give birth to two cubs once every three years.

Life span

Unwittingly, a polar bear can live more than 30 years, less in nature.

Keeping animals in the Moscow Zoo

Throughout the existence of the zoo, there have been only very short periods when polar bears were not kept. There is evidence that the first polar bear appeared in 1871. B1884 Emperor Alexander presented the zoo with two more polar bears. They gave birth to cubs, but, unfortunately, because of anxiety on the part of the people, the mothers refused to feed them, and the first cubs born involuntarily died. In subsequent years, the zoo was mainly visited by bear cubs brought from polar stations. In 1938, the zoo housed 8 polar bears at the same time. From them offspring were received and raised. In the severe war years, zoo enthusiasts made truly heroic efforts to save the animals, but some of them even died during the bombing. At the beginning of 1945. the zoo accepted another bear cub as a gift from the famous polar explorer Papanin.

Now the zoo is home to three adult polar bears, only one of which was born in the zoo, the rest, left without parental care, were picked up and handed over to the zoo by the winterers. Wrangel and Chukotka. They were allocated two aviaries, the water of which, in addition to the obligatory pool, there is an installation from which it snows on hot summer days. The installation is a gift from the Moscow government, ion has greatly adorned the life of our furry pets. Bears like to rest near a snowdrift and hide the remnants of food inside it, and children play with pleasure in the snow.

Females each live in their own enclosure, the Asamese moves, they move it out only shortly before it is time for pregnant females to go to bed. At this time, expectant mothers try to bother as little as possible. The cubs appear at daylight in October-November, but visitors to the zoo can see them in wallets not early in February. The first 3-4 months of their lives, as befits all cubs, they spend with their mothers in the berlog. About one year old, the cubs leave for other zoos.

The feeding of polar bears in the zoo is very diverse. They prefer meat to everything else, they like aryba, mostly large. From a variety of vegetables to heal, bears first of all choose green salad. They eat a variety of cereals.

Of course, life in a zoo is easier than in nature, but more boring. "Extraneous" objects that you will see in the enclosures are toys of bears. If you do not catch the bears asleep, then it is very likely that you will see them playing.

The polar bear is the largest species of the bear family (Ursidae). In his homeland, in the Arctic, he is undoubtedly the "king of beasts" who has practically no natural enemies. But what do we know about polar bears, besides the fact that they live in northern latitudes? This article will tell you in detail about the life and behavior of polar predators and help you understand what they really are, the rulers of the Far North?

Polar bears live in the ice of the circumpolar Arctic. There are about 20 populations that hardly mix with each other and vary greatly in numbers - from 200 to several thousand individuals. The number of the entire world population is approximately 22-27 thousand animals.

The permanent place of residence of polar bears is the coastal ice of the continents and islands, where the number of their main prey - the ringed seal - is quite high. Some individuals live among less productive perennial ice in the central Arctic region. From the south, their distribution is limited by the southern boundary of the seasonal ice cover in the Bering and Barents Seas and in the Labrador Strait. In areas where the ice completely melts in summer (Hudson Bay and southeast Baffin Island), animals spend several months on the shore, consuming their fat reserves, until the water freezes.

Description and photo of a polar bear

The polar bear is the largest member of the bear family. As an independent species, it was first described in 1774 by K. Phipps, receiving the Latin name Ursus maritimus, which means "sea bear".

Polar bears descended from brown bears in the late Pleistocene, the oldest find, 100 thousand years old, was discovered in the Royal Botanic Gardens in London.

The body length of males is 2-2.5 m, of females - 1.8-2 m; the mass of males is 400-600 kg (especially well-fed individuals can weigh a ton), females - 200-350 kg.

In the photo, a polar bear is jumping off an ice floe. Despite their massive body, these animals are surprisingly mobile. If necessary, they can swim for several hours, and on land in a day they can cover up to 20 km, although sometimes this leads to overheating.

The structural features are associated with living conditions in a harsh climate. The body of the polar predator is stocky; they do not have the raised withers characteristic of brown bears. Compared to other species, the polar head is narrower and longer, with a flat forehead and a long neck. The ears of the animal are small, rounded.

Thanks to their thick coat and thick layer of fat, polar predators feel quite comfortable at temperatures of -50 ° C. Their coat is naturally white; it serves as a perfect disguise for the beast. However, fur often becomes yellowish due to dirt and fat oxidation, especially in summer. Interestingly, when the coat is white, the skin of the animal is dark. This feature serves as a natural accumulator of solar energy for animals, which, as you know, is in great deficit in their habitats.



Large paddle-like forepaws are great for swimming, and there are swimming membranes between the toes. When swimming, the hind legs play the role of a kind of steering wheel. Wide feet increase the support surface when driving on snow.

An interesting fact: despite the fact that outwardly white and brown bears are very different, they are close relatives and in captivity can interbreed with each other. A hybrid of such a cross is called a grolar or pizzli.

Polar bear lifestyle

Polar bears are predominantly solitary; keep in pairs only during the rutting season. Cases of their accumulation, sometimes up to several dozen individuals, in places where there is a sufficiently large amount of food, are quite rare. Groups of polar predators are quite tolerant of each other's society even when feeding on large prey, for example, a dead whale. However, ritual battles or games are not uncommon, but each animal does not forget about its hierarchical status.

Animals are predominantly nomadic, with the exception of the time spent in dens. The dens are primarily used by females to give birth and feed their young. It is also a refuge for winter sleep, but animals hibernate for a short time and not every year.

How are dens arranged?

The dens of breeding females can be divided into generic and temporary dens. In generic bears bear offspring. The time of their stay in such dens is on average 6 months. A temporary den serves breeding females for a short time - from 1 day to 2-3 weeks, and in isolated cases up to 1 month or more.

The ancestral den consists of one or more chambers. The length of the chamber is on average from 100 to 500 cm, width is from 70 to 400 cm, height is from 30 to 190 cm, the length of the corridor varies from 15 to 820 cm. The entrance opening is often poorly visible from a distance of several meters.

Temporary dens differ from generic ones in structure. They are usually quite simple in structure: with one chamber and a short (up to 1.5-2 m) corridor, as a rule, with completely "fresh" walls and a vault, a slightly icy floor.

Depressions, pits and trenches without a vault and a distinctly pronounced entrance are sometimes referred to as temporary dens, but it would be more correct to call them refuges. Such shelters usually serve polar bears for a short time - from several hours to several days. They provide the animal with minimal comfort, for example, shelter during bad weather.

In conditions of particularly severe weather (blizzard, frost), bears, in order to save energy, can lie down in temporary shelters for several weeks. The northern predator has one interesting physiological feature: while other bears can only hibernate in winter, our hero can go into a state similar to hibernation at any time.

What does the lord of the north eat?

The ringed seal (ringed seal) is food No. 1 in the diet of polar bears; to a lesser extent, the sea hare becomes their prey (the animal catches it when it comes up to breathe). Animals hunt seals, waiting for them near the "air vents", as well as in places of their breeding on ice floes, where inexperienced cubs become easy prey for predators. The bear quietly sneaks up on the victim, then makes a sharp throw and plunges into the water. To expand small "air vents", the animal breaks the ice with its front paws, using its impressive mass. Having immersed the front part of the body in the water, it grabs the victim with powerful jaws and pulls it out onto the ice. Bears can find the location of a seal hole through a meter thick layer of densely packed snow; they go to her from a kilometer away, guided exclusively by smell. Their sense of smell is one of the sharpest among all mammals. They also hunt walruses, belugas, narwhals, and waterfowl seabirds.

For the nutrition of hungry polar predators, sea emissions are of significant importance: the corpses of dead animals, waste of sea animals. A large number of bears usually accumulate near the carcass of a whale washed up on the shore (photo).

The polar bear, being a typical carnivore, nevertheless, being hungry and unable to hunt for its main prey - seals, can easily switch to other food, including plant foods (berries, seaweed, herbaceous plants, mosses and lichens, shrub twigs). This, apparently, should be regarded as an evolutionary adaptation of the species to the harsh environmental conditions.

In one sitting, the beast is able to eat a very large amount of food, and then, if there is no prey, it can starve for a long time.

In modern conditions, an increased technogenic impact on ecosystems can lead to a deterioration in the food supply of a polar bear, forcing it to increasingly switch to secondary food, visit landfills in settlements, ravage warehouses, etc.

Eternal nomads

Constantly changing ice conditions force polar bears to regularly change their habitats, looking for areas where seals are more numerous and among the ice fields there are open or young ice-covered openings, channels and cracks that make it easier for them to prey. Such areas are very often confined to the dry zone, and it is no coincidence that many animals concentrate here in winter. But from time to time, the dry zone is completely closed because of the pressure winds, and then the bears have to again migrate to other areas in search of places more favorable for hunting. Stable ice remains stable, and then only for the period of winter and early spring, but they are not everywhere suitable for the existence of seals, and, consequently, polar bears.

In search of more suitable places for hunting, animals sometimes go hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, their habitat varies significantly even during one season, not to mention the off-season and annual differences. In the absence of territorialism in the polar bear, individual individuals or family groups for some time master a relatively small area. But, as soon as conditions begin to change dramatically, animals leave such areas and migrate to other areas.

Procreation

The mating season is in April-May. A rather intense struggle for females takes place between the males at this time.

Females have induced ovulation (they have to mate many times over several days before ovulation and fertilization occurs), and therefore pairs stay together for 1-2 weeks to reproduce successfully. In addition, polar bears are characterized by a delay in implantation until mid-September-October, depending on the latitude at which the animals live. After 2-3 months, cubs are born in most areas. This happens in a snowy den. Babies are born weighing about 600 grams. At birth, their coat is so thin that it seems as if they are naked. Up to 7-8 months of age, the mother's milk is the basis of the diet of the young. This milk is very fatty - 28-30%, but it, apparently, is separated in small quantities.

Sometimes the bear leaves the den, which has become "dysfunctional", when the cubs are still weak. They move with difficulty and require constant care. If such a family is disturbed at this time, then the female, saving the cubs, carries them away in her teeth.

When the cubs reach a mass of 10-12 kg, they begin to accompany the mother everywhere. They follow her freely along the steep slopes, often playing games while walking. Sometimes the games end in a fight, while the cubs roar loudly.

Some she-bears, who have gone out for a walk, do a kind of gymnastics in the snow. They clean themselves on the snow, rub their muzzle against it, lie on their stomachs and crawl, pushing off with their hind legs, slide down the slope in different positions: on the backside, side or stomach. For adult bears, this appears to be a hygiene procedure aimed at keeping the fur clean. In cubs imitating their mother, this behavior also has a playful coloring.

The education of the younger generation by the bear probably lasts as long as the family group remains. Imitation of the mother is already manifested when the babies are in the den, for example, burrowing activity. They also sometimes imitate her when eating plants.

Having finally left the den, the family goes to the sea. On the way, the female often stops to feed the cubs, sometimes she feeds herself, digging plants from under the snow. If the weather is windy, she lays down with her back to the wind; when the snow is deep enough, digs a small hole or a temporary den. Then the families go into the ice. In the first half of May, females and cubs are sometimes still seen on land, but, probably, from among those who, for some reason, left their den with a delay.

Females can reproduce once every 3 years, since the cubs are with her for up to 2.5 years. For the first time, females become mothers, usually at the age of 4-5 years, and then give birth every 3 years until death. Most often, 2 teddy bears are born. The largest broods and the largest cubs are found in females at the age of 8-10 years. Young and old bears often give birth to 1 cub. There is evidence that adult females in natural conditions can change cubs or adopt cubs that have lost their mother for some reason.

The lifespan of female polar bears is 25-30 years, of males - up to 20 years.

Diseases, enemies and competitors

Among polar bears, such a dangerous intestinal-muscle invasive disease as trichinosis is widespread. Other diseases are very rare in them.

Much more often they suffer from various injuries, including those inflicted in a fight to each other for the possession of a female or food. But they have no serious consequences for the population.

A competitor to a polar bear can only be a man who hunts seals for skin, fur and meat, disrupting the natural balance between predator and prey.

The wolf and arctic fox have a minor effect on the population, attacking and killing cubs.

Polar bears and man

Thanks to conservation measures for polar predators, the risk of extinction is low. Previously, they were considered a vulnerable species, but after the introduction of the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, the population has stabilized.

Provided that hunting for polar bears is controlled, they are not threatened with destruction. However, there are concerns that their numbers may decline due to the low breeding rate. They are mainly shot by the local population, whose representatives kill about 700 individuals per year. But the main danger for our heroes is a warming climate and environmental pollution.

In the arctic regions, population growth has potentially increased the likelihood of a polar predator colliding with humans. As a result, a conflict situation is created that is dangerous for both sides. Polar bears, however, cannot be considered aggressive towards humans, but there are exceptions. Most of the animals, when they meet a person, retire, others do not pay attention to him. But there are those who pursue a person, especially if he runs away. Most likely, at this moment the instinct of pursuit is triggered by the beast. Therefore, it would be a dangerous delusion to say that a polar bear is a completely harmless animal. Emaciated individuals pose a real threat. First of all, these are old animals that have lost the ability to successfully hunt for their usual food, as well as young ones, who have not yet mastered the hunting techniques properly. Females who protect their young are also quite dangerous. The polar bear can also show aggression when it unexpectedly meets a person or in the event that it is being chased.

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