Polar bears
Why everyone’s talking about...
Tell me about polar bears – and quick, before they’re wiped out…
For years, their plight has been an emotional symbol of climate change with scare stories that packs forced out of the Arctic might end up marauding down the Thames. The latest is a study from the University of Toronto which says they could be all but extinct by 2100. But researchers are accused of using an extreme worst-case scenario for how much coal the planet burns; and assuming the bears won’t adapt. So while things will get tough for the estimated 26,000 left in the wild, it might not be so catastrophic.
So how did the scientists estimate how long polar bears have got?
By working out the energy that they get from eating food against what they have to expend to get it, especially if ice caps shrink and they have to travel further. In good times, bears feast on the blubber of seals, caught when they surface for air though holes in the ice. (Polar bears can smell a seal 12 miles away.) In bad times, bears eat anything: reindeer, seaweed, even resorting to cannibalism. They’ve also been seen eating dolphins, freezing leftovers for later. They can fast, too, for up to eight months.
Remarkable!
That’s not the half of it. Pregnant bears who don’t put on enough weight can reabsorb the foetus, so as not to waste the energy bringing it to birth. When cubs are born, they arrive while the mother is hibernating and are about the size of a guinea pig – talk about an easy birth! Yet adults can grow up to 125 stone. The bears are able to swim for days and run up to 30mph. In fact, their 4in fat layer means they’re more likely to overheat through such exertion than freeze in the -30F Arctic chill.
And they look so cute with their snow-white fur…
In fact, their fur is translucent and their skin black. It’s a trick of the light that makes them appear white. Algae can turn polar bears green in captivity. Incidentally, the notion they cover their black noses with their paw so as not to be seen while hunting is, sadly, a myth.
Any other polar bear facts?
Courtesy of the QI panel show: authors J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis once went to the same party dressed as polar bears. And it wasn’t even fancy dress…