Besides, they have strong front paws that help when paddling in the water, and fur on the bottom of its feet that not only helps to keep them warm but also gives the polar bear extra grip when moving on the ice. In the Arctic, polar bears are the largest carnivores and also top of the food chain. Usually, polar bears use sea ice as a platform to hunt seals.
They are also hunting walrus, beluga whale, birds, and fish. They have an excellent sense of smell, they can smell them out from a considerable distance away. The facts, polar bears can reach speeds up to 40 kph (25 mph) on land and 10 kph (6 mph) in the water.
When life in the North demanded teeth better shaped for ripping apart seals than munching berries, the polar bear’s molar teeth changed significantly from those of the brown bear. The bears also grew white fur, which camouflaged them in their snow-covered surroundings and gave them a hunting advantage.
Scientists believe that at first these bears scavenged seal carcasses that had washed ashore, and gradually began to hunt the seals by waiting at the water’s edge as the seals surfaced to breathe. This is believed to be an important step in the evolution of a new subspecies of bear — Ursus maritimus or the polar bear.
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The Bear Species of The World
Refer the evolution of polar bear, a polar bear is one of the bear species in the world. There’re several bear species that we should know. Below these the information of 14 the bear species of the world.
The Polar bear is the only bear to spend most of its time at sea, so the polar bear sometimes considered a marine mammal; like a walrus. Ursus maritimus Tyrannus is an extinct subspecies of polar bear, known from a single fragmentary ulna found in the gravels of the Thames at Kew Bridge, London.
It was named by the Finnish paleontologist Björn Kurtén in 1964 and is interpreted to represent a relatively large subadult individual: the ulna is estimated to have been 48.5 cm long when complete, recent studies only weigh in at 400 kg, for comparison modern subadult polar bear ulnae are 36–43 cm long.
Its skull shape is very different from other bears, as you might expect from the fact that it’s a short-faced bear: its snout is shorter and rounder than any living bear. The name comes from its distinctive facial coloration, which sometimes (but not always) makes it look like the bear is wearing glasses.
All of the short-faced bears, which included the cave bear and Florida short-faced bear, were enormous, probably the largest carnivores on the planet at that time. The spectacled bear is a mid-sized bear, technically the largest carnivore in South America, though it mostly eats plants and fruits (fruits, cactus, bamboo, orchid bulbs).
In some folktales, it is said that this shape represents the rising sun. They are also known as honey bears and Malayan sun bears. They eat consists of lizards, birds, rodents, insects, termites, fruit and honey.
The sun bear is handy for tearing open trees where insect and bee nest can be found and slurped up using their extra long tongue. They live in tropical temperatures; so they can be found in the tropical rainforest of southeastern Asia. They do not need to hibernate because of they able to mate at any time of year. Male and female sun bears live together while raising the cubs (child). Usually, they have two cobs at a time and care for them until two years.
They have very thick fur, despite being tropical animals, and have specializations for eating insects (a hard palate for crushing them, strong claws for digging, that kind of thing). They also have long floppy ears.In the wild, sloth bears are highly aggressive; they’ll attack humans without any real provocation, though they typically don’t hunt or eat them.
. Black bears with white-bluish fur are known as Kermode (glacier) bears and these unique color phases are only found in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Their population is estimated that there are at least 600.000 black bears in North America.
They are primarily found in forested areas with thick ground vegetation in habitat types, and they will sometimes forage in fields or meadows. Most black bears hibernate depending on local wheater conditions and availability of food during the winter months. Female black bears can birth to up to six cubs, and usually breed every other year, and they will raise the cubs for about 18 months.
Louisiana black bears survive mostly on berries and acorns – they are not active predators. Currently, the scientists estimate that between 500 and 750 Louisiana black bears roam the United States, approximately double the population size at the time of listing.
Florida black bears can be found in a variety of habitats throughout Florida, including mixed hardwood hammocks, cabbage palm forests, pine flat woods, uplands such as sandhills and sand-pine scrub and forested wetlands. They are excellent tree climbers and sustain themselves mostly on berries, fruits, and nuts with the occasional insect component and even meat such as opossum and carrion.
They can be found in Sichuan province but they also in the neighboring provinces of Shanxi and Gansu. The giant panda does not always eat bamboo, they are omnivores which means their eating of both vegetation and meat. But bamboo by far is their favorite food. The facts giant pandas are shy animals that prefer to live alone.
Giant pandas could detect the scent for other giant pandas using by their heightened sense of smell. Pandas do not hibernate during winter months, but they may migrate short distances to lower elevations. Every March to May in spring season the giant pandas do mating and give birth five months later in a nest of bamboo. Baby giant pandas are born blind and they raised by her mother until 18 months.
The spirit bears are omnivores, they mostly eat fish and berries, but also deer, moose fawns, insects, plants, fruits, nuts, etc. The spirit bear depends on salmon runs in the fall to fatten themselves up for the long winter hibernation, where they can go without food for up to 7 months. During the late spring, they do mating and cubs are born in January or February. Their mother raised them about 8 months.
The grizzly bear looks different than other bears because of its long curved claws, humped shoulders, and a face that looks like it’s been pushed in. The large hump on their shoulders gives the grizzly the power to dig in the ground and tear apart dead logs to find food.
Grizzly bears are omnivores (they eat plants and animals) and find their food with their excellent sense of smell. They like to eat berries, rodents, roots, mountain sheep, goats, moose, and elk. The extra food can adds an extra layer of fat to its body. So, they can live about four months during the coldest winter.
It ranks more highly on the list than other brown bears because, bizarrely, it is believed to be the source of the Yeti legend. Himalayan red bear has sharp claw; they are long and strong enough to aid them in digging through hard soil for making dens.
They can be found in South-east Kazakhstan, Northern Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan, Northern India, Tibet, and Nepal. They are also omnivorous; like to eat sheep, goats, insects, grasses, fruits, and berries. These bears also hibernate intermittently during the winter months, they move into a self-made cave in October and come out in April or May.
Kodiak bears are the largest bears in the world. A large male can stand over 10′ tall when on his hind legs and 5′ when on all four legs. They weigh up to 1,500 pounds.
They are really omnivores (using a variety of foods). They actually spend more time eating grass, plants, and berries than meat. The favorite food the Kodiak bear is fish. Fish are an important part of their diets, but they also chase and kill animals.
They have the stocky body and large ears which are wide apart on their head. These bear spend around half of time in the trees. They have very powerful upper bodies and front legs for climbing the trees. They usually eat vegetables, fruits, nuts, insects, small mammals, and birds. Like the other bear, males weigh is up to 220g and the females just up to 130 kg. It’s mean that male is larger than female.
The Eurasia brown bear have varies in size, the biggest male was found to be 1,058 pounds and had a total body length of 8.2 feet. The Eurasian brown bear was used as a fighting animal in Ancient Rome, with the strongest bears coming from Caledonia and Dalmatia.
Now the largest of the population of Eurasian brown bear can be found in the Siberian forests of the Ural mountain range.
The male of the Marsican brown bear is generally much larger than females. It can exceed 2 meters in height for males and the females are considered more little. The mating season falls in late spring (May-June), during this period, the males follow the female for several weeks, trying to prevail over his rival and win the sympathies of the bear.
The cubs are born in the winter period. They usually stay with the mother for about a year and a half, and during this period the mother will raise them with care and attention. The population of these bear is about 40-60.
Females start to mate in October or November, most maternity is located on land where snow accumulates including along coastal bluffs, river banks or pressure ridges on sea ice. After mating, the male leaves the female and she alone raises the cubs until they reach about 20-30 pounds before emerging from the den in March or April.
Female polar bears only produce less of five children in their lifetime, which one of the lowest reproductive rates of any mammal.
The most recent International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report, there are roughly 26.000 polar bears. They are also found in the U.S. (Alaska). Russia, Greenland, and Norway (Svalbard). The IUCN lists the largest threat to polar bear survival are from the climate changes. “There is a high risk of extinction and the threat is serious,” said Dena Cator of the IUCN’s species survival commission. “You could consider polar bears to be a canary in the coal mine.
They are an iconic and beautiful species that is extremely important to indigenous communities. But changes to their sea ice habitat are already being seen as a result of climate change.” Research shows that it’s not too late to take action to save sea ice and polar bears by greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These simple steps will soon become habits and, eventually, part of a stewardship ethic that guides your daily choices and informs your everyday decisions.
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