10.03.2020

White (polar) bear. Reference. Interesting facts about polar bears Polar bear predator or not

predatory mammal polar bear, or polar bear(Ursus maritimus) is a close relative of the brown bear and the planet's largest land predator today.

Feature and description

The polar bear is one of the largest terrestrial mammals from the order of predatory animals.. body length adult is three meters with a mass of up to a ton. Average weight male, as a rule, varies between 400-800 kg with a body length of 2.0-2.5 m. The height at the withers does not exceed one and a half meters. Females are much smaller, and their weight rarely exceeds 200-250 kg. The category of the smallest polar bears includes individuals inhabiting Svalbard, and the largest specimens are found near the Bering Sea.

This is interesting! A characteristic difference of polar bears is the presence of a rather long neck and a flat head. The skin is black, and the color of the fur coat can vary from white color to yellowish shades. IN summer period animal fur turns yellow as a result of prolonged exposure to sunlight.

The wool of polar bears is completely devoid of pigmentation, and the hairs have a hollow structure. A feature of translucent hairs is the ability to transmit only ultraviolet light, which gives wool high thermal insulation characteristics. On the soles of the limbs there is also wool that prevents slipping. Between the fingers is a swimming membrane. Large claws allow the predator to hold even very strong and large prey.

extinct subspecies

A closely related subspecies of the now well-known and fairly common polar bear is the extinct giant polar bear or U. maritimus tyrannus. Distinctive feature of this subspecies were significantly larger body sizes. The body length of an adult could be four meters, and the average weight exceeded a ton.

On the territory of Great Britain, in the Pleistocene deposits, it was possible to find the remains of a single ulna belonging to a giant polar bear, which made it possible to determine its intermediate position. Apparently, a large predator was perfectly adapted to hunting fairly large mammals. According to scientists, the most likely reason for the extinction of the subspecies was the lack of food by the end of the icing period.

Habitat

The polar bear's circumpolar habitat is limited by the territory of the northern coast of the continents and the southern part of the distribution of floating ice floes, as well as the border of the northern warm currents seas. The distribution area includes four areas:

permanent residence;
habitat of a high number of animals;
place of regular occurrence of pregnant females;
the territory of distant calls to the south.

Polar bears inhabit the entire coast of Greenland, the ice of the Greenland Sea south to the Jan Mayen Islands, the island of Svalbard, as well as Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the Barents Sea, Bear Islands, Vay-gach and Kolguev, Kara Sea. A significant number of polar bears is observed on the coast of the continents of the Laptev Sea, as well as the East Siberian, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The main range of the highest abundance of the predator is represented by the continental slope of the Arctic Ocean.

Pregnant female polar bears regularly den in the following areas:

northwest and northeast Greenland;
southeastern part of Svalbard;
western part of Franz Josef Land;
northern part of the island of Novaya Zemlya;
small islands of the Kara Sea;
Severnaya Zemlya;
northern and northeastern coast of the Taimyr Peninsula;
the Lena Delta and the Bear Islands of Eastern Siberia;
the coast and adjacent islands of the Chukotka Peninsula;
Wrangel Island;
southern part of Banks Island;
the coast of the Simpson Peninsula;
northeast coast of Baffin Island and Southampton Island.

Dens with pregnant polar bears are also observed on pack ice in the Beaufort Sea. From time to time, as a rule, in early spring, polar bears make long-distance visits towards Iceland and Scandinavia, as well as the Kanin Peninsula, the Gulf of Anadyr and Kamchatka. With ice and when crossing Kamchatka, predatory beasts sometimes they enter the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.

Nutrition Features

Polar bears have a very well developed sense of smell, as well as organs of hearing and vision, so it is not difficult for a predator to notice its prey at a distance of several kilometers.

The diet of a polar bear is determined by the characteristics of the distribution area and the characteristics of its body. The predator is ideally adapted to the harsh polar winter and long swims in ice water, therefore, marine representatives of the animal world, including sea urchin and walruses. Eggs, chicks, baby animals, as well as carrion in the form of the corpses of marine animals and fish, which are thrown by the wave on the coast, are also used for food.

If possible, the polar bear's diet can be very selective. In captured seals or walruses, the predator primarily eats the skin and fat layer. However, a very hungry beast is able to eat the corpses of its fellows. Relatively rare large predators enrich their diet with berries and moss. Changing climatic conditions have had a significant impact on food, so recently polar bears are increasingly hunting on land.

Lifestyle

Polar bears make seasonal migrations, which are caused by annual changes territories and borders polar ice. In summer, the animals retreat towards the pole, and in winter, the animal population moves to the southern part and enters the territory of the mainland.

This is interesting! Despite the fact that polar bears mainly stay on the coast or ice, in winter period animals lie in dens located on the mainland or island part, sometimes at a distance of fifty meters from the sea line.

Duration hibernation polar bear, as a rule, varies between 50-80 days, but hibernate, most often pregnant females. Males and young are characterized by irregular and rather short hibernation.

On land, this predator differs in speed, and also swims excellently and dives very well.

Despite the apparent slowness, the slowness of the polar bear is deceptive. On land, this predator is distinguished by agility and speed, and among other things, a large animal swims excellently and dives very well. To protect the body of a polar bear, a very thick and dense coat is used, which prevents getting wet in icy water and has excellent heat-preserving properties. One of the most important adaptive characteristics is the presence of a massive layer of subcutaneous fat, the thickness of which can reach 8-10 cm. The white color of the coat helps the predator successfully camouflage against the background of snow and ice..

reproduction

Based on numerous observations, the rutting period of polar bears lasts about a month and usually begins in mid-March. At this time, predators are divided into pairs, but there are also females, accompanied by several males at once. The mating period lasts a couple of weeks.

polar bear pregnancy

It lasts approximately eight months, but depending on a number of conditions, it can vary between 195-262 days. It is visually almost impossible to distinguish a pregnant female from a single polar bear. Approximately a couple of months before giving birth, behavioral differences appear and females become irritable, inactive, lie on their stomach for a long time and lose their appetite. A litter often contains a pair of cubs, and the birth of one cub is typical for young, primiparous females. A pregnant female bear comes out on land in autumn, and spends the entire winter period in a snowy lair, located, most often, near the sea coast.

Bear care

In the first days after childbirth, polar bear almost all the time lies curled up on his side. Short and sparse hair is not sufficient for self-heating, so newborn cubs are located between the mother's paws and her chest, and the polar bear warms them with her breath. The average weight of newborn cubs most often does not exceed a kilogram with a body length of a quarter of a meter.

Bear cubs are born blind, and only at the age of five weeks open their eyes. Monthly bear cubs are fed sitting. The mass exit of bear females occurs in March. Through a hole dug outside, the she-bear begins to gradually lead her cubs for a walk, but with the onset of night, the animals return to the lair again. On walks, bear cubs play and dig in the snow.

This is interesting! In the polar bear population, approximately 15-29% of cubs and about 4-15% of immature individuals die.

Enemies in nature

IN natural conditions polar bears, due to their size and predatory instinct, have practically no enemies. The death of polar bears is most often caused by accidental injuries as a result of intraspecific skirmishes or when hunting for too large walruses. The killer whale and polar shark also pose a certain danger to adults and young individuals. Most often, bears die of starvation..

Man was the most terrible enemy of the polar bear, and such peoples of the North as the Chukchi, Nenets and Eskimos have hunted this polar predator for centuries. Fishing operations that began to be carried out in the second half of the last century became disastrous for the population. During one season, St. John's wort destroyed more than a hundred individuals. More than sixty years ago, hunting for the polar bear was closed, and since 1965 it has been included in the Red Book.

Human danger

There are well-known cases of polar bear attacks on people, and the most striking evidence of predator aggression is recorded in the notes and reports of polar travelers, so you need to move in places where a polar bear may appear with extreme caution. In the territory settlements located near the habitat of the polar predator, all containers with household waste must be inaccessible to a hungry beast. In cities Canadian province specially created so-called "prisons" in which the temporary maintenance of bears approaching the city limits is carried out.

The polar bear is one of the largest predators living on land. Its height at the withers (from the ground to the neck) is 1.5 m, the size of the foot is 30 cm long and 25 wide; polar bear males weigh 350-650 kg, some even more, females 175-300 kg. The bear lives 15-18 years.

Polar bears live in the Arctic - at the North Pole.

The color of the fur of this animal is from snow-white to yellowish, thanks to which the bear is almost invisible in the snow, but the skin of the polar bear is black, but it is not visible through thick wool, except perhaps quite a bit - on the nose. Polar bears are very hardy and can cover long distances at a fast pace. Their feet are covered with wool, which gives greater stability when moving on ice and snow. Polar bears can run, but they usually move on foot.

Polar bears are excellent swimmers, they jump into the water head first or slide off the ice floe, and swim with the help of their front paws. Dive with closed nostrils and open eyes. They know how to fish. After leaving the shore, they immediately shake off the water.

Polar bears spend most of the year on ice-bound shores along the coast. They usually hunt alone. They search for food day and night. Polar bears hunt seals, lying in wait for them at the holes through which the seals inhale the air, or approach animals lying on the ice. Polar bears have a very sensitive sense of smell. They are able to smell seals lying in a shelter under the snow.

These animals are very curious and intelligent. While stalking a seal, a polar bear covers its black nose with its paw, blocks the prey's path to retreat, or even pretends to be an ice floe passing by. A bear can experience emotions from rage to joy: after a successful hunt and a hearty meal, he sometimes begins to frolic like a kitten.

In winter, when standing very coldy and polar night, the bear can hibernate. The she-bear also lays down for the winter in an ice lair together with cubs. For five months she does not eat any food and at the same time feeds the born cubs, usually two, with milk. Bear cubs, covered with sparse whitish fur, are born helpless, blind and deaf. Their length is 17-30 cm, and their weight is 500-700 g. Mother bear warms with her body. And in the spring, grown-up cubs come out of the den. Fathers - bears do not take any part in raising children. And even they themselves can pose a serious threat to them.

In summer, the food of bears is more varied: small rodents, polar foxes, ducks and their eggs. Polar bears, like all other bears, can eat and plant food: berries, mushrooms, mosses, herbs.

There are not very many polar bears left on earth and hunting for them is limited.

Questions about the report about the polar bear

1. What does a polar bear look like?
2. Where do they live?
3. What do they eat?
4. How do they reproduce?

Polar bear (Russia) - the most big representative of his large family. Moreover, it is the largest predatory mammal in the world. The growth of a polar bear (male) can reach 3 meters. Its weight sometimes exceeds a ton.

Giant polar bear

This huge animal lived on our planet more than 100 thousand years ago. The view is now lost. Its size can be judged by the ulna found in the UK. His height exceeded 4 meters, and this giant polar bear weighed about 1200 kg. Most likely, he was something between a brown beast and the northern one that we can see today.

Description of the polar bear

Images of this dangerous predator are familiar to many from childhood. They are frequent guests on the pages of books for kids. Even the wrapper of sweets beloved by many is decorated with a portrait of this giant. The giant polar bear has black skin, like its brown counterpart. But the color of the skin can vary from white to light yellow. The wool of this giant has salient feature: her hairs are hollow inside.

Sometimes the description of a polar bear gives the wrong impression about this animal. The bear is represented as a clumsy and clumsy bumpkin. But this is fundamentally wrong. Despite their more than impressive dimensions, polar bears in the Arctic run fast enough, and besides, they are excellent swimmers.

In passes more than 30 km. His paws are unique. This beast does not care about deep snow. The size of his feet and pillar-like legs allow him to overcome ice and snow obstacles very quickly and quite dexterously. The resistance of these animals to cold is striking. Not only hollow hairs protect the bear from the cold. This is facilitated by a thick layer (up to 10 cm) of subcutaneous fat.

Therefore, white bears - big lovers take an ice bath. Absolutely painless predator overcomes up to 80 km in icy water. It is not uncommon for a giant polar bear to sail to the mainland on an ice floe in summer. In this case, he is euthanized and sent back by helicopter.

The polar bear is the closest relative of the brown inhabitant of our forests. The bear, which lives in the north, has a streamlined body - it is ideally adapted to life in the water. He has a small head, powerful and long legs, feet with hairy soles, allowing him to feel quite comfortable on ice or snow. The nose, nails and eyes are black. On the paws between the fingers there are swimming membranes. No other bear can boast of this.

As already mentioned, the giant polar bear does not have a very large head (in relation to the body). It is narrow and somewhat flat. The muzzle is pointed in front. The nostrils are always wide open and the ears are rounded. There are no eyelashes on the eyelids. The tail is small, barely noticeable.

In the North, polar bears feel quite comfortable. In the Arctic, they are reliably protected by thick white fur. It helps to maintain the thermal balance of the body. Young cubs differ from their parents not only in size, but also in their coat. Their coat is very beautiful, with a silvery tint, while in older animals it is yellowish. Its color does not depend on the season.

Nutrition

The main food of the northern predator is seals. For a year, an adult eats up to 50 of these animals. It's not an easy job to catch a seal, but the giant polar bear has mastered it to perfection. He can spend hours guarding his prey at the hole, waiting for a seal to appear in it. As soon as the unfortunate animal comes up to take a breath of air, the bear instantly beats it with its paw and throws it onto the ice. During the meal, first of all, the predator eats fat and skin. He usually leaves everything else, although if he is very hungry, which often happens in winter, he eats the whole carcass.

It is interesting to observe how easily the bear moves from one ice floe to another, deftly jumping over the crevices. He is in search of a seal. If the hunt does not go well, he will not give up seals or fish. In very rare cases a bear can attack a white whale, arctic fox, walrus or birds. As soon as he has noticed his future prey, he begins to follow it from behind an ice or snow shelter. If the animal feels something is wrong and becomes alert, the predator freezes for a while, literally pressing into the snow.

seal hunting

It's funny that at the same time he closes his nose and eyes, which can give him away. Left unnoticed, a huge predator crawls very close to its prey and even then makes a decisive throw. Sometimes he has to dive, then to appear in front of an unsuspecting seal, which is conveniently located on an ice floe. Paradise time comes for our hero with the advent of spring. Marine animals have babies. Inexperienced and still very weak, they do not resist the white giant, often do not even try to run away from him.

reproduction

The offspring of a polar bear occurs once every three years. Pregnant female bears leave the sea ice in November. They need to find a secluded place for a lair where they can raise their offspring. While the bear is feeding the baby, she practically does not leave the den and during this time she loses half her weight.

The first "publication" occurs at the age of 3 months. The cubs follow the she-bear, who immediately begins teaching them about survival, hunting, and other skills they will need during their adulthood. Meanwhile, the mother never forgets about the protection of the cubs and their nutrition.

Population and protection

The high mortality of young animals and the low birth rate made this animal easily vulnerable. True, in last years the population is considered stable and even weakly growing.

There are about 7,000 polar bears in our country today. At the same time, we must not forget that every year poachers shoot up to 200 individuals. Due to the fact that the population of Dikson has decreased, the extermination white predator decreased slightly.

Human danger

From the reports and notes of polar explorers, there are known cases of polar bear attacks on humans. For example, members of the expedition of Willem Barents, a Dutch navigator and explorer, when the group spent the night on Novaya Zemlya (1597), people were forced to repeatedly fight off polar bears using muskets.

Once in places where a meeting with a polar bear is possible, care must be taken. When it comes to populated villages, it is necessary to ensure that there are as few landfills as possible in these territories, where the animal can easily find food waste.

You need to know that polar bears do not have facial expressions, so its attack cannot be predicted. In the Canadian province of Manitoba, there is a special "prison" where polar bears approaching the city are temporarily detained. I must say that Greenpeace activists are sounding the alarm about the threat of extinction of these animals.

More recently, a procession of animal advocates was held in the capital of Great Britain, led by a giant polar bear. True, it was mechanical. Its weight was three tons. They made it for several months, and it took 35 puppeteers to revive the bear.

An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in a three-dimensional, constantly changing space of water and ice, flexibly changing hunting tactics and having no natural enemies, the polar bear is the real master of the Arctic.

Systematics

Russian name - polar bear, polar bear, northern bear, oshkuy, nanuk, umka
Latin name- Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimus
English title- polar bear
Squad - Predatory (Carnivora)
Family - Bear (Ursidae) has 7 species
Genus - Ursus

The status of the species in nature

The polar bear is listed in the International Red Book and the Red Book of Russia as a species whose numbers are declining in nature - CITES II, IUCN (VU). In Russia, polar bear hunting has been banned since 1956 and is currently only allowed in very limited areas in the US, Canada and Greenland.

View and person

These beasts were known to the ancient Romans at least in the first century AD. The archives of the Japanese emperors testify that polar bears and their skins came to Japan and Manchuria already in the 7th century, but the population of these countries could get acquainted with these animals much earlier - bears sometimes reach the shores of Japan along with floating ice. The oldest written source containing information about polar bears and relating to the north of Europe dates back to about 880 - then two bear cubs were brought from Norway to Iceland. In 1774, the polar bear was first described in scientific literature as independent species. The author of this description is the English zoologist Constantine Phipps.

The peoples inhabiting the Arctic have long hunted these animals. With the development of the North by man, the number of bears decreased, but after the ban on hunting and the organization of protected areas in the places of ancestral dens, it began to increase. However, it is now declining again, as bears are suffering greatly due to climate change - in the Arctic, the ice cover is established late, which is necessary for successful hunting for seals. As a result, the animals are starving, and the bears, in addition, cannot get to the places of the birth lairs. Pollution plays a negative role natural environment and the anxiety factor.

Polar bears are very curious, they examine any new object and often visit polar stations. At the same time, they are not aggressive and, if people do not start feeding them, they leave.

Distribution area

The world for the polar bear is limited to ice fields. It's a beast Arctic belt- and food and shelter he finds among endless ice and hummocks. It happens that together with floating ice, polar bears reach the shores of Iceland, even get into the Okhotsk and Sea of Japan. However, such animals always strive to return to their usual ice conditions and, once outside it, make large land crossings, moving due north.

Appearance, features of morphology and physiology

The polar bear is the largest animal not only among bears, but also among all predators. Among the males there are hulks, the body length of which reaches 280 cm, the height at the withers is 150 cm, and the weight is 800 kg; females are smaller and lighter. The polar bear has an elongated body, narrow in the front and massive in the back, a long and mobile neck and a relatively small head, with a straight profile, a narrow forehead and small high-set eyes. This animal has very strong paws with large claws. The bear's feet are wide, but the calluses are almost invisible under the thick dense coat. Such wool covers the entire body of the animal and has a monochromatic white color that does not change with the seasons of the year.

But the skin of a polar bear is dark, almost black, which contributes to the least heat transfer. All year round under the skin lies a thick - 3-4 cm layer of fat; on the back, it can reach a thickness of 10 cm. Fat not only protects the beast from the cold and serves as an energy storeroom, but also makes its body lighter, making it easier to stay on the water.
The brain of this animal differs markedly from the brain of other carnivores in its outline and more complex arrangement of furrows and convolutions. In this respect, it is similar to the brain of some pinnipeds, for example, fur seal. The greater development of the visual region of the brain than that of the brown bear and the smaller development of the olfactory region may indicate that the polar bear has better developed vision and worse sense of smell than its brown counterpart.

The structure of the digestive tract is specific and different from other bears - the intestines are shorter, and the stomach is much larger than that of other members of the family, which allows a hungry predator to eat a whole seal at once.

Intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the space of water and ice

Lifestyle and social organization

In the harsh conditions of the Arctic, there is no alternation of day and night that we are accustomed to. There is no pronounced daily activity of the animals inhabiting it. Winter hibernation, widely known for brown bears, White does not fall far away. Winter sleep is typical only for she-bears who are about to become mothers, and for elderly males, who thus wait out the most hard times of the year. Strong, healthy males and non-pregnant females are active all year round, sitting out in freshly dug dens in the snow only during a strong snowstorm.

Polar bears do not adhere to certain individual areas, they own the entire Arctic. Adult animals, as a rule, roam alone. Having caught a seal and having had enough, the predator sleeps off right there, on the site of a successful hunt, and, waking up, wanders further. Meeting with a brother can take place in different ways. Well-fed animals are most often neutral in relation to each other. Females with small cubs try to stay out of sight of large males, who, being hungry, hunt cubs. If the meeting is unavoidable, the she-bear will desperately protect her cubs.

A seasoned male can take away the prey of a young one and even try to kill him and eat him. At the same time, sometimes dozens of bears gather near the carcass of a whale thrown out by the sea, which feed a few meters from each other, not showing any aggression to their brothers.

Females with small cubs are extremely loyal to orphaned cubs: there are cases when females accepted and fed them together with relatives.

Feeding and feeding behavior

The polar bear, unlike its omnivorous relatives, is a predator that actively hunts large animals. Its main victim is arctic seals, first of all, ringed seal. When hunting for a seal, the bear shows amazing ingenuity and resourcefulness: it can sneak up on its prey, watch for leads, or get close to its reins. The bear is very patient - he can sneak up on his prey for several hours, as well as lie near the hole waiting for the animal to emerge to breathe. With a powerful blow of the front paw, the predator kills its prey and in one movement pulls it out of the ice. Most often, the bear is limited to only the subcutaneous layer of fat, eating it together with the skin, which it pulls together with a stocking from the victim. The meat is eaten up by arctic foxes and gulls, which often accompany it on travels. However, a very hungry bear eats a name from a seal, and at one time it can eat up to 20 or more kilograms. It is highly likely that the next portion of food will enter his stomach only after a few days.

Sometimes the bear preys on the young of large marine mammals - walruses, white whales and inarwhals. The real feast begins when the sea throws the carcass of a whale ashore. Utushi gathers several predators at once - there is enough food for everyone.

Being on dry land, bears feed on bird eggs, grab lemmings. In addition, in the summer on the mainland and islands they eat cloudberries, in the intertidal zone they eat algae such as kelp and fucus. Bears, after leaving the den, dig up the snow and eat shoots of willow or sedge leaves.

Reproduction and rearing of offspring

Polar bears mate in spring or summer. Animals can stay in pairs for about two weeks, at night up to 3 or even 7 males gather near the female, between which fights arise.

In October-November, when the ice fields are suitable for fires, the females come out of the rocky shores. Here, in their favorite places in powerful snow drifts, they arrange dens. The entrance to the den is always lower than the nesting chamber, due to which the shelter is much warmer than outside. Blizzards and winds complete the construction of the “house”, forming a solid roof over it, sometimes up to 2 m thick. Here, after 230-250 days of pregnancy (including the latent stage, characteristic of bears, when the egg does not develop), cubs appear in the middle of the Arctic winter. Newborns are as helpless as other types of bears, and weigh about 700 g. The ability to see and hear appears in them only at the age of one month, after another month the cubs erupt teeth. By this time they begin to leave the dens, but only at the age of 3 months they are able to follow their mother. In the snow, young animals do not separate for a year and a half. Ihotsy do not take any part in the upbringing of children, on the contrary, they pose a serious danger to them - cannibalism of polar bears is not uncommon.

For the first time, a female gives birth to one cub at the age of five or six, and then, most likely, she will give birth to 2 cubs once every three years.

Lifespan

In captivity, a polar bear can live for more than 30 years, less in nature.

Keeping animals in the Moscow Zoo

Throughout the existence of the zoo, there were only very short periods when we did not keep polar bears. There is evidence that the first polar bear appeared in 1871. In 1884 Emperor Alexander donated two more polar bears to the zoo. They had cubs, but, unfortunately, because of the concern on the part of the people, the mothers refused to feed them, and the first born captive cubs died. In subsequent years, the zoo was visited mainly by cubs brought from polar stations. In 1938, the zoo kept 8 polar bears at the same time. From them, offspring were obtained and grown. During the harsh war years, zoo enthusiasts made truly heroic efforts to save the animals, but some of them still died during the bombing. At the beginning of 1945 the zoo accepted another bear cub as a gift from the famous polar explorer Papanin.

Now three adult polar bears live in the zoo, only one of which was born in the zoo, the rest, left without parental care, were picked up and transferred to the zoo by winterers. Wrangel and Chukotka. They have been allocated two enclosures, the water of which, in addition to the obligatory pool, has an installation from which hot summer days it is snowing. The installation is a gift from the Moscow government, and it has greatly adorned the life of our furry pets. Bears like to rest near a snowdrift and hide leftovers of food in it, and their children play contentedly in the snow.

Females live each in their own enclosure, asamets move, resettle him only shortly before it is time for pregnant females to hibernate. At this time, expectant mothers are trying to disturb as little as possible. The cubs are born in October-November, but zoo visitors can see them in enclosures not earlier than February. The first 3-4 months of their life they, as it should be for all cubs, spend their time in a den. At the age of about one year, the cubs leave other zoos.

The feeding of polar bears in the zoo is very diverse. They prefer meat to everything else, they like fish, mostly large ones. From a variety of green vegetables, first of all, the bears choose green salad. They eat various cereals.

Of course, life in a zoo is easier than in nature, but more boring. "Foreign" objects that you see in the enclosures are bear toys. If you don't see the bears sleeping, you will most likely see them playing.

We have already examined in detail and were surprised. Now let's take a closer look at the well-known Polar Bear and in more detail.

Polar bear- most A big bear, it is the largest predatory mammal in the world. The body length of an adult male can be up to 3 meters, and the mass can reach a ton. The largest representatives of the polar bear were seen along the shores of the Coastal Sea.

The polar bear is listed in the IUCN Red Book and the Red Book of Russia. Bear hunting is allowed only to the indigenous population of the North.

The skin of a polar bear is black, like a brown bear. But the color of the skin is from white to yellowish. Also, the fur of a polar bear has a feature: the hairs are hollow inside.

The bear seems clumsy due to its size and dimensions, but this is only an appearance. Polar bears can run fast enough, and even swim well. Bear north passes a day from 30 km. The bear's paw is unique. No deep snow can stop a bear, thanks to its size of feet and columnar legs, even compared to other polar animals, it very quickly and deftly overcomes any snow and ice obstacles. Cold tolerance is amazing. In addition to hollow hairs, the polar bear also has a subcutaneous layer of fat, which in winter can be up to 10 cm thick. Therefore, a white bear can easily overcome up to 80 km in icy water. In the summer, a bear can even swim to the mainland on an ice floe, then it is euthanized and sent back by helicopter.

In Russia, polar bears are found on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, in Greenland and Norway, Canada and Alaska.

The main food of the polar bear is seals. One bear eats about 50 seals a year. Catching a seal, however, is not easy. The northern bear can watch for prey at the hole for hours, waiting for the appearance of a seal on the surface. After the seal has surfaced to take a breath of air, the bear instantly beats the prey with its paw and throws it onto the ice. The predator eats the skin and fat, prefers to leave the rest, although in winter, in case of hunger, the bear eats the whole carcass too. The bear is often accompanied arctic foxes, who get the remains of the seal. Polar bears also do not disdain carrion, the bear smells the smell of prey at a distance of several kilometers. For example, beached whale will definitely become a meeting place for several bears. 2 bears or 3 bears may not share food, then there is a skirmish. How many bears can meet is unknown. That is why a bear can enter the territory of human habitation. More often, of course, this is a simple curiosity, although an evil hunger can drive the beast into a hopeless situation. Although the bear may be a vegetarian, they like cereals, lichens, sedges, berries and mosses.

Spring is the time of paradise for bears. Young marine animals are born, which, due to inexperience and weakness, do not offer proper resistance and often do not even run away.

The polar bear has an incomparable resistance to cold. Its thick long fur consists of hairs that are hollow in the middle and contain air. Many mammals have this protective hollow hair, an effective insulator, but those of the bear have their own characteristics. Polar bear fur retains heat so well that it cannot be detected by aerial infrared photography. Excellent thermal insulation is also provided by the subcutaneous layer of fat, which reaches 10 cm in thickness with the onset of winter. Without it, the bears would hardly be able to swim 80 km in the icy Arctic water.

By the way, polar bears are the only large predators on Earth that still live in their original territory, in natural conditions. This is largely due to the fact that seals, their favorite and main food, live on drifting ice in the Arctic. There are approximately 50 seals per bear per year. However, hunting seals is not easy. The state of the ice changes from year to year, and the behavior of seals is unpredictable. Bears have to walk thousands of kilometers in search of the best places for hunting.

In addition, the hunt itself requires skill and patience. The bear spends hours guarding the seal at the hole, waiting for it to come up to get some air. He instantly strikes with his paw on the head of a sea animal that has emerged from the water and immediately throws it onto the ice. First of all, the predator devours the skin and fat, and the rest of the carcass - only in case of great hunger. A bear hunting a seal is usually accompanied by one or more arctic foxes, eager to take advantage of the remains of dead animals. White bears themselves do not disdain carrion, thus compensating for the lack of seal fat and meat. The owners of the ice kingdom can smell carrion for several kilometers. And if suddenly a whale, having fallen into shallow water, dries up and dies, a whole company of polar bears, always hungry, will immediately come running from all sides.

Hunting for seals is not at all easier. At the slightest danger, shy seals dive under the ice and emerge in another hole for breathing. And the bear vainly rinses his face in ice water. But in the spring comes for the bear fertile time- cubs of marine animals are born who have never seen a polar bear and therefore do not realize the danger. But even here the clubfoot bear has to show miracles of ingenuity. In order not to frighten off the cubs, the bear has to be very careful, because even the slightest crunch can betray its presence and deprive it of food.

Difficulties with the extraction of food are exacerbated by climate change on Earth. Due to the warming of the climate, the ice in the bays begins to melt earlier than usual, the summer is getting longer every year, the winter is getting milder, and the problems of polar bears are becoming more acute. Summer, in general, is a difficult time for polar bears. There is very little ice left and it is almost impossible to get close to the seals. Over the past 20 years, the hunting season for polar bears has been reduced by two to three weeks. As a result, the weight of animals has decreased: if earlier the male weighed about 1000 kg, now, on average, 100 kg less. The females also lost weight. This, in turn, has an extremely negative effect on the reproduction of the population. Increasingly, only one bear cub is born to females ...

However, polar bears suffer not only from warming and shortening of the hunting season. In the recent past, the polar bear was an important target for hunting. Fur and bear paws, which are the most important component of popular and expensive oriental soups, pushed members of polar expeditions to ruthlessly exterminate this beautiful animal. The profits from such a business are so great that the international black market continues to thrive, despite all attempts to stop it. The struggle in this area has reached the same intensity as the fight against drug smuggling.

In July, many of the polar bears that traveled with drifting ice move to the coasts of the continents and islands. On land, they become vegetarians. They feed on grasses, sedges, lichens, mosses and berries. When there are many berries, the bear does not consume any other food for weeks, eating them to the point that his muzzle and buttocks turn blue from blueberries. However, the longer the bears starve, forced to move to land ahead of time from melting ice as a result of warming, the more often they will go in search of food to people who have been actively developing the Arctic in recent decades.

It is difficult to answer the question whether a meeting with a polar bear is dangerous for a person. Sometimes bears attacked people out of curiosity, quickly realizing that they were easy prey. But most often, tragic incidents happen on campsites, where bears are attracted by the smell of food. Usually the bear goes immediately to the smell, crushing everything in its path. The situation is complicated by the fact that the animal, in search of food, tears to pieces and tastes everything that comes across to it, including people who have turned up by chance.

It should be noted that bears, unlike wolves, tigers and other dangerous predators, mimic muscles are practically absent. They never warn of impending aggression. By the way, circus trainers claim that because of this feature, it is most dangerous to work with bears - it is almost impossible to predict what to expect from them in the next moment.

Now, thanks to the efforts of Greenpeace, they try not to kill bears wandering into the city in search of food, resorting to temporarily sleeping shots from a special gun. The sleeping animal is weighed, measured and recorded. On inside lips applied color tattoo- a number that remains for the whole bear's life. Females, in addition, receive a collar with a miniature radio beacon as a gift from zoologists. The euthanized bears are then transported by helicopter back to the ice so that they can continue their normal lives in natural environment a habitat. Moreover, females with cubs are transported in the first place.

The world for the polar bear is limited by ice fields, and this primarily determines the features of its behavior. Judging by the animals kept in captivity, this bear, in comparison with the brown one, seems less quick-witted and not so dexterous; he is less trainable, more dangerous and excitable, and therefore it is relatively rare to see him in the circus arena. True, he is characterized by some “straightforwardness” in actions, due to a rather monotonous lifestyle, narrow food specialization, and the absence of enemies and competitors. But even a short time to observe this beast in a natural setting is enough to make sure that high level his psyche, exceptional ability to assess the conditions of the natural environment, including the quality of ice, adapt to them and, depending on them, flexibly change hunting tactics, find the easiest and passable paths among heaps of hummocks, confidently move through young, fragile ice fields or ice patches , replete with cracks and stains.

The power of this beast is amazing. He is able to drag and lift up the slope the carcass of a walrus weighing over half a ton, with one blow of his paw to kill a large bearded seal, which has almost the same mass as his, and if necessary, easily carry it in his teeth a considerable distance (a kilometer or more).

Polar bears are eternal nomads. Ice carries them over great distances. It often happens that even such experienced "travelers" are in distress. So, animals that have fallen into the zone of the cold East Greenland Current are carried on drifting ice along the southeast of Greenland, and in the Davis Strait the ice is melting, and most polar bears, with all their dexterity, die.

It would seem that living in the deserted polar expanses, the polar bear should not have to suffer from a person. However, it is not. The Arctic is already fairly settled. Sailors, St. John's wort, people of other professions are now constantly meeting with polar bears, and these "contacts" do not always end favorably for huge, but very curious and generally harmless animals.

Yes, and the very biology of the beast has "weak" sides. During the mating season, the male has to travel great distances to find a female, and often endure a battle with a rival. Often searches are not crowned with success at all and families are not formed. Bears bring offspring (one or two cubs) every two years and become sexually mature only at the age of about four years.

The availability of food (seals and fish), suitable breeding sites, and the absence of human disturbance are the main conditions for the existence of polar bears in the Arctic. But there are not so many places like this at first glance. The unique "maternity hospital" of these animals is Wrangel Island. In addition, polar bears make lairs on the northeastern islands of Svalbard, on Franz Josef Land, in the northeast and northwest of Greenland, in the southwest of Hudson Bay and on some of the Arctic islands of Canada. The main territory of the Arctic, in fact, is not suitable for habitation, and even more so for reproduction of this species.

All pregnant female polar bears spend the winter in snowy shelters, relatively similar in design and located, with rare exceptions, on land; everywhere in the Arctic, they enter and leave their dens at almost the same time. The physiological state of animals in dens is similar to that of brown bears, i.e., this is a shallow sleep or torpor with some decrease in body temperature, respiratory rate and pulse, but not hibernation (as, for example, in marmots, ground squirrels, etc.) . Apparently, at the beginning of winter, the she-bears lying in the dens are more active than in the middle of winter, although in the spring in most dens one can see traces of the burrowing activity of females of different age.

The question of the winter activity of males, barren females, and young individuals is not clear enough. Obviously, in a significant part of the range, especially in the south of the Arctic, they are active all year round, with the exception of periods of strong snowstorm, from which the animals hide among hummocks or coastal rocks; finding here before. a fairly deep layer of snow, they even dig shallow shelters in it. With the end of the snowstorm, the bears leave such shelters and continue to roam and hunt.

In the high latitudes of the Arctic, especially in places with a harsh climate, frequent and strong winds, and possibly where the animals experience great difficulties in feeding, most of them relatively regularly lie down in dens. On the northern coast of Greenland, 90% of all animals spend the winter in shelters, in the northern part of Baffin Island - 50% and in the south of Greenland - 30%; in general, 70-80% of all bears overwinter in shelters throughout the range, and old males lie down in shelters earlier and leave them earlier.

In the Canadian Arctic, male polar bears use the shelter from early August to late March (most often in September, October and January); young, as well as females with one-year-old cubs, were met here in shelters from early October to early April. The state allocates funds for buildings made of laminated waterproof plywood, which greatly helps the animals.

In the north of the Taimyr Peninsula (the region of Cape Chelyuskin), all animals spend the winter in dens, but the duration of their stay there is different and depends on sex, age, and whether the female is pregnant or barren. For the shortest period (at the latest 52 days - from mid-December to early February), young bears lie in shelters in the north of Taimyr; almost the same number of adult males are in them. Females with underyearlings spend 106 days in dens, barren females - 115-125, and pregnant she-bears - 160-170 days.

There is information in the literature about encounters in the dens of male polar bears on Franz Josef Land, in the east of Taimyr, in the Kolyma Territory, etc., although everywhere here animals of various sex and age categories were observed and hunted outside the den, which means that they were active throughout the winter. The dens of such animals (obviously, the shelters of barren females, young bears) are often located on sea ice and are more diverse in structure (shape, size) than the dens of pregnant bears. It is also obvious that the terms of their use are relatively inconsistent.