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The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can interbreed.The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear and land carnivore, with adult males weighing 300–800 kg (660–1,760 lb).
A polar bear and its cub. Animals that are active in the winter have adaptations for surviving the intense cold. [55] A common example is the presence of strikingly large feet in proportion to body weight. These act like snowshoes and can be found on animals like the snowshoe hare and caribou.
[69] [83] The polar bear mainly preys on seals, stalking them from the ice or breaking into their dens. They primarily eat the highly digestible blubber. [84] [81] Large mammalian prey is typically killed with raw strength, including bites and paw swipes, and bears do not display the specialized killing methods of felids and canids. [85]
A grizzly–polar-bear-hybrid (also named grolar bear, pizzly bear, zebra bear, [1] [2] grizzlar, or nanulak) is a rare ursid hybrid that has occurred both in captivity and in the wild. In 2006, the occurrence of this hybrid in nature was confirmed by testing the DNA of a unique-looking bear who had been shot near Sachs Harbour , Northwest ...
Brown bears will also commonly consume animal matter, which in summer and autumn may regularly be in the form of insects, larvae such as grubs and including beehives.Most insects eaten are of the highly social variety found in colonial nests, which provide a likely greater quantity of food, although they will also tear apart rotten logs on the forest floor, turn over rocks or simply dig in ...
According to the local report agency, at least 52 bears entered the area near Belushya Guba, the main settlement on the island. [2] Footage shows the polar bears looking for food in the rubbish at a local dump. [1] Polar bears cannot subsist on a garbage-based diet because of a lack of enough protein and fat. [2]
The polar regions are characterised by truncated food webs, and the role of viruses in ecosystem function is likely to be even greater than elsewhere in the marine food web. Their diversity is still relatively under-explored, and the way in which they affect polar communities is not well understood, [139] particularly in nutrient cycling.
The key danger for polar bears posed by the effects of climate change is malnutrition or starvation due to habitat loss.Polar bears hunt seals from a platform of sea ice. Rising temperatures cause the sea ice to melt earlier in the year, driving the bears to shore before they have built sufficient fat reserves to survive the period of scarce food in the late summer and early fall.