The Polar Bear

POLAR bears usually have dense white fur. The fur permits heat to travel down to the bear's skin but does not allow it to escape easily thus keeping the animal warm. The fur cannot protect it while it is swimming in the freezing waters of the Arctic Ocean, but thick layers of fat beneath its skin keeps the cold away, enabling it to swim hundreds of miles out to sea.

The thick patches of fur between the bear's paw pads muffle the sound that it makes while walking on ice. Being able to walk silently is of great help, especially when it is out hunting its favourite food, the ringed seal, a small species of seal.

The polar bear has a keen sense of smell and can smell food as much as 16 km away. It knows exactly which holes to watch in the ice when it is waiting to catch a seal. As soon as a seal pokes its head through a hole for air, it kills it with its huge paw. One blow can kill a seal weighing 350 kg. Besides seals, the polar bear also eats sea birds, lemmings, fish, berries and grasses.

Like many other cold-climate creatures, the polar bear is considerably larger than its relations in warmer lands. The adult male polar bear measures from about 2.5 to 3.5 m in length. Some of them weigh about 450kg. The females are slightly smaller.

Polar bears rarely kill people though people threaten their very survival. Hunters shoot these bears for their attractive and valuable pelts. Restriction in the number of bears hunters can kill, is helping the polar bear population to increase gradually.