Because of the photogenic appearance, the polar bear evokes tenderness in people who know him only from TV programs about animals or from the brilliant cartoon "Umka". However, this predator is not at all harmless and goes head to head with its North American counterpart grizzly in terms of ferocity.
The weight of a polar bear (male) reaches seven hundred and fifty kilograms and even more. According to some reports, there are bears weighing a ton. It is the largest land predator in the world. The female is one and a half to two times smaller. The growth of the animal reaches almost three and a half meters. Due to the harshness of the climate and huge weight, this king of the Arctic deserts is constantly forced to eat something. There are cases when a hungry bear ate food weighing up to 10 percent of its own weight in one sitting, and in record time - in just half an hour!
The polar bear prefers to eat seals, this is his favorite food. But in the absence of these, it may well include hares, reindeer, lemmings, crabs, and even a person in its diet, if it is so careless that it is withinthe reach of a starving animal.
But the polar bear still prefers not to get involved with a person and attacks only if he is threatened with starvation. Experienced polar explorers say that getting rid of the culinary claims of a bear is easy. To do this, you just need not to behave like food. That is, do not run away headlong when a white giant appears. Newsreel footage is known in which a frail polar explorer, waving a rail torn from a packing box, puts to flight a snow giant, more than twice its size.
The polar bear has a phenomenal instinct. For example, he is able to “smell” a seal as far as thirty-two kilometers away. The bear is at the top of the food chain. This means that he has practically no natural enemies. And the enemy "unnatural" (that is, man) is now more busy preserving the bear population, only occasionally catching individual individuals for zoos.
Now in the world there are, according to various estimates, from twenty to forty thousand individuals. Most of the polar bear population lives in Northern Canada and Greenland. Under natural conditions, polar bears live up to twenty-two years.
The habitat of most bears is around large polynyas, where hunting for sea animals and fish is possible. But it is known that they can make long journeys on drifting ice. In October, female bears prepare dens where they will spend the winter and nurse their cubs. Interestingly, polar bears, like their brownbrethren go into hibernation. True, not always and not all. Mandatory
pregnant bears fall asleep, their hibernation lasts up to two and a half months. Before that, they feed up to two hundred kilograms of fat, which they will need for the normal development of the cub. Free-bearing females and males hibernate for shorter periods and not every winter.
Until 2012, it was believed that the polar bear as a species stood out about one hundred and fifty thousand years ago. This version was supported by genetic studies conducted by a group of scientists a year earlier. But additional extended studies made it possible to clarify the age of the species. It turned out that the first white bears separated from their brown ancestors about six hundred thousand years ago. Thus, the polar bear managed to survive several ice ages quite safely.
