In Nunavut, some Inuit have reported increases in bear sightings around human settlements in recent years, leading to a belief that populations are increasing. ", "Are polar bear populations increasing: in fact, booming? No need to register, buy now! Most maternity dens are in snowdrifts, but may also be made underground in permafrost if it is not sufficiently cold yet for snow. Polar bears appear to be less affected by infectious diseases and parasites than most terrestrial mammals. [131] Polar bears are especially susceptible to Trichinella, a parasitic roundworm they contract through cannibalism,[132] although infections are usually not fatal. [16] The bear is umka in the Chukchi language. [116] One scientist found that 71% of the Hudson Bay bears had fed on seaweed (marine algae) and that about half were feeding on birds[95] such as the dovekie and sea ducks, especially the long-tailed duck (53%) and common eider, by swimming underwater to catch them. Ursus labradorensis [73], Although polar bears are extraordinarily powerful, its primary prey species, the ringed seal, is much smaller than itself, and many of the seals hunted are pups rather than adults. Seal kill rates for polar bears followed a similar trend, becoming more frequent as spring progressed. It was believed that the "little nephew" (the brown bear) would not dare to attack a man wearing the tooth of its powerful "big uncle", the polar bear. In unusually warm conditions, the hollow tubes provide an excellent home for algae. [30] As the distance increases between the pack ice and the coast, females must swim longer distances to reach favoured denning areas on land. [43][211], For the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, polar bears have long played an important cultural and material role. While the algae is harmless to the bears, it is often a worry to the zoos housing them, and affected animals are sometimes washed in a salt solution, or mild. Thousands of new, high … Polar Bears International, Polar Bears and Astronauts: Muscle Atrophy. Nevertheless, polar bears are listed as "Vulnerable" under criterion A3c, which indicates an expected population decrease of ≥30% over the next three generations (~34.5 years) due to "decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat". In 1927, poisoning was outlawed while in 1939, certain denning sights were declared off limits. [73], Researchers tracked 52 sows in the southern Beaufort Sea off Alaska with GPS system collars; no boars were involved in the study due to males' necks being too thick for the GPS-equipped collars. [41] Bears sometimes swim to Iceland from Greenland—about 600 sightings since the country's settlement in the 9th century AD, and five in the 21st century as of 2016[update]—and are always killed because of their danger, and the cost and difficulty of repatriation. [205][206][207][208] Second, controls of harvesting were introduced that allowed this previously overhunted species to recover. [43] Sport hunting can bring CDN$20,000 to $35,000 per bear into northern communities, which until recently has been mostly from American hunters. The permit process required that the bear be taken from an area with quotas based on sound management principles. For the We Bare Bears character, see, Species of bear native largely to the Arctic Circle, Coat of arms of the Greenlandic Self-Rule government (, Conservation status, threats, and controversies. [2], The bear family, Ursidae, is thought to have split from other carnivorans about 38 million years ago. Polar bears hunt seals from a platform of sea ice. [67], The white coat usually yellows with age. [118] Polar bears have a generally polygynous mating system; recent genetic testing of mothers and cubs, however, has uncovered cases of litters in which cubs have different fathers. Third, the recent effects of climate change have affected sea ice abundance in different areas to varying degrees. [54] Adult females are roughly half the size of males and normally weigh 150–250 kg (330–550 lb), measuring 1.8–2.4 metres (5 ft 11 in–7 ft 10 in) in length. Sign up to receive polar bear news and updates. She stalked the seal from the water, silently paddling until she was close enough to emerge onto the sea ice and ambush her prey, cutting off its only access to safety. The shoulder height of an adult polar bear is 122 to 160 cm (4 ft 0 in to 5 ft 3 in). [31] The claws are deeply scooped on the underside to assist in digging in the ice of the natural habitat. [1], The polar bear is found in the Arctic Circle and adjacent land masses as far south as Newfoundland. The male's ornamental foreleg hair is thought to attract females, serving a similar function to the lion's mane. [103] Maternity dens, used by pregnant females and by females with infants, can also be disturbed by nearby oil exploration and development. [36], In addition to creating nutritional stress, a warming climate is expected to affect various other aspects of polar bear life: changes in sea ice affect the ability of pregnant females to build suitable maternity dens. [112] The polar bear's metabolism is specialized to require large amounts of fat from marine mammals, and it cannot derive sufficient caloric intake from terrestrial food.[114][115]. [149] The growth of the human population in the Eurasian Arctic in the 16th and 17th century, together with the advent of firearms and increasing trade, dramatically increased the harvest of polar bears. Ursus eogroenlandicus [47] Its preferred habitat is the annual sea ice covering the waters over the continental shelf and the Arctic inter-island archipelagos. The body condition of polar bears has declined during this period; the average weight of lone (and likely pregnant) female polar bears was approximately 290 kg (640 lb) in 1980 and 230 kg (510 lb) in 2004. In the wild, old polar bears eventually become too weak to catch food, and gradually starve to death. They will even attack adult walruses when their diving holes have frozen over or intercept them before they can get back to the diving hole in the ice. The Soviet Union banned all hunting in 1956. [191] In recent years, polar bears in the Arctic have undertaken longer than usual swims to find prey, possibly resulting in four recorded drownings in the unusually large ice pack regression of 2005. After killing the animal, its head and skin were removed and cleaned and brought into the home, and a feast was held in the hunting camp in its honor. [36] While they are rare north of 88°, there is evidence that they range all the way across the Arctic, and as far south as James Bay in Canada. The United States began regulating hunting in 1971 and adopted the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. Despite the risk, seals must haul out on the ice surface in May and June in order to molt their winter coats. [10], Because of expected habitat loss caused by climate change, the polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species. Polar bears have been observed to hunt the small Svalbard reindeer (R. t. platyrhynchus), which weigh only 40 to 60 kg (90 to 130 lb) as adults, as well as the barren-ground caribou (R. t. groenlandicus), which is about twice as heavy as the former. Importing products made from polar bears had been prohibited from 1972 to 1994 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and restricted between 1994 and 2008. [31] However, the feet are very large to distribute load when walking on snow or thin ice and to provide propulsion when swimming; they may measure 30 cm (12 in) across in an adult. [90] However, in the short term, some polar bear populations in historically colder regions of the Arctic may temporarily benefit from a milder climate, as multiyear ice that is too thick for seals to create breathing holes is replaced by thinner annual ice. [68] Males have significantly longer hairs on their forelegs, which increase in length until the bear reaches 14 years of age. As I crouched down to take samples from the remains, Andy investigated the site, and it soon became clear how the kill occurred. [129] Reduction in sea-ice cover also forces bears to swim longer distances, which further depletes their energy stores and occasionally leads to drowning. Constantine John Phipps was the first to describe the polar bear as a distinct species in 1774. 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