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The polar bear was given its common name by Thomas Pennant in A Synopsis of Quadrupeds (1771). It was known as the "white bear" in Europe between the 13th and 18th centuries, as well as "ice bear", "sea bear" and "Greenland bear". The Norse referred to it as isbjørn ' ice bear ' and hvitebjørn ' white bear '. The bear is called nanook by the ...
The species was formerly placed in the genus Plautus, [11] but in 1973 this name was suppressed by the commission of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature [13] [14] [15] and now the little auk is the only species placed in the genus Alle that was introduced in 1806 by the German naturalist Heinrich Friedrich Link.
Ringed seals are both predators and prey. A predator to zooplankton and fish, the ringed seal is considered a primary consumer as well as a secondary consumer. But the tertiary consumer, or top predator, in the Arctic is the polar bear, feeding mostly on seals, including the ringed seal.
The English word "bear" comes from Old English bera and belongs to a family of names for the bear in Germanic languages, such as Swedish björn, also used as a first name. This form is conventionally said to be related to a Proto-Indo-European word for "brown", so that "bear" would mean "the brown one".
Bear habitats are generally forests, though some species can be found in grassland and savana regions, and the polar bear lives in arctic and aquatic habitats. Most bears are 1.2–2 m (4–7 ft) long, plus a 3–20 cm (1–8 in) tail, though the polar bear is 2.2–2.44 m (7–8 ft) long, and some subspecies of brown bear can be up to 2.8 m (9 ...
The brown bear is the top predator in Alaska. The density of brown bear populations in Alaska varies according to the availability of food, and in some places is as high as one bear per square mile. [2] Alaska's McNeil River Falls has one of the largest brown bear population densities in the state. [2]
Natural predators of the bearded seal include polar bears, who rely on these seals as a major food source. [21] Killer whales also prey on these seals, sometimes overturning ice floes to reach them. Walruses also eat these seals, mainly pups, but such predation is rare. [22] Bearded seals are believed to live up to 31 years. [23]
In the English language, many animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups. The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is The Book of Saint Albans , an essay on hunting published in 1486 and attributed to Juliana Berners . [ 1 ]