Today, is #internationalpolarbearday and like so many animals the polar bear is endangered. This is why WWF are encouraging people to adopt a polar bear. They are magnificent, enormous creatures. I remember seeing one in a zoo once. It was awesome. But it's not an animal you see in zoos, by and large. In England the only zoo that has polar bears is Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster. Unfortunately, their oldest polar bear, Victor, died last year, aged 22. They can live up to 30 years old in the wild although this hardly ever happens. The average age at which they die tends to be 25 although it's unclear why they die in the wild since they are not susceptible to disease. There are currently 4 polar bears at the YWP, Pixel, Nissan, Nobby and Rasputin. In captivity polar bears are not as big as those in the wild because they don't need their blubber which keeps them warm in the Arctic.
Polar bears or sea bears are victims of climate change which has altered their habitat by melting the ice they live on making it harder for them to find food. They are known as marine mammals which shows how much they depend on the ocean ecosystem for survival. Polar bears live off seals and need to eat huge amounts of them because they require a great deal of energy. With the ice melting polar bears have to travel further to catch their prey which means they expend more energy for the same amount of food. As it is their hunting attempts barely ever succeed so they have to scavenge or eat smaller animals and vegetation. This means that they have insufficient food for their needs which can be seasonal. For instance, it's easier for them to catch young seals than older ones who have learnt how to evade them. The polar bear isn't territorial because this would be impractical since it travels great distances and ice is an everchanging landscape. Thin ice means the polar bear has to lower it's centre of gravity by lowering its body and spreading their front legs to reduce the pressure on the ice due to their weight. Their paws are so designed that they grip the ice. But it's a waiting game catching seals.
Added to which, drilling for oil in the area also means that the seals they do catch and eat can be contaminated with chemicals so poisoning the bear. Oil spills also poison the polar bear which can affect its reproductive system reducing the birth of baby polar bears and thereby threatening their survival. Furthermore, oil spills destroy the polar bear's fur insulation which means the bear uses up more energy to keep warm so needing more food which has now become scarce due to global warming. They like to have a snow bath to keep their fur clean and dry because it insulates them when it's in that condition. An interesting illusion about the polar bear is that it's white. Their fur seems white but that's because it reflects light, the skin underneath is indeed black despite the fact that the polar bear has evolved from the brown bear which doesn't have black skin. It can mate with grizzly bears which are a type of brown bear. (Not all brown bears are grizzly bears.) This results in a hybrid called pizzly. I have a handout on Spinoza on my academia page on pizzly bears.
When a polar wants to participate in a shared meal with another polar bear it asks by touching noses. I think this is a sweet fact about polar bears.
Having read around about the polar bear I'm dissatisfied with the scant knowledge we have about them. Apart from the obvious facts about polar bears, and despite scientists tracking them, it seems to me that there is much we don't know about this fascinating sea bear.
Sources:
https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/polar-bears
https://polarbearsinternational.org/news/article-polar-bears/7-surprising-polar-bear-facts/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-53873525
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42909866
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