The polar bear is a large Arctic bear that spends much of its life on sea ice, hunting seals. In the US, it lives only in northern and western Alaska. Under its white-looking fur, its skin is actually black.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Males are 6.6–8.2 ft (2–2.5 m) long and weigh 660–1,760 lb (300–800 kg). Females are much smaller, at 330–660 lb (150–300 kg). Each guard hair is hollow and clear, so the coat looks white or yellowish. The heaviest one on record was a male reported at about 2,209 lb (1,002 kg), taken at Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, in 1960.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Sea ice
- Arctic coasts
- Islands
- Range
- Found all around the Arctic: Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, Russia, and Norway's Svalbard. In the US, polar bears live only in Alaska, where they belong to two populations: the Southern Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea populations.
- Preferred conditions
- Depends heavily on sea ice, which serves as its hunting platform for seals.
Behavior
- Diet
- Mostly seals, especially ringed seals, plus bearded seals. It also takes young walruses, belugas, birds, and fish, and scavenges carcasses.
- Activity
- A patient hunter: it waits beside a seal's breathing hole in the ice, or stalks seals resting on the ice. A strong swimmer, it has been tracked swimming for days at a time.
- Senses
- Has an excellent sense of smell for finding seals from far away.
Life cycle
- Breeding season
- Mates on the sea ice, mostly March–May.
- Nest
- Only pregnant females den for the winter. They dig maternity dens in snow, entering them between September and December.
- Gestation
- 7–9 months from mating to birth, because the embryo waits several months before it starts to grow.
- Litter size
- Usually 2 cubs
- Time to maturity
- Cubs weigh about 21 oz (600 g) at birth and stay with their mother for 2–2.5 years. Females mature at about 4 years, males at about 6.
- Lifespan
- Up to about 30 years in the wild.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- VUVulnerableHigh risk of extinction in the wild
- Status
- Listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act since 2008, mainly because of the loss of sea ice as the climate warms. The Marine Mammal Protection Act also bans hunting or harassing polar bears, except for subsistence hunting by Alaska Natives.
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- The scientific name Ursus maritimus means “sea bear” in Latin.
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