The polar bear, also known as the white bear, is the largest individual among bears. It is huge, with a body length of more than 2.5 meters. When walking, its shoulder height is 1.6 meters and its weight can reach half a ton. The largest polar bear can reach 900 kilograms. Polar bears are amazing in strength and endurance, running at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, but they can't last long. Its limbs are thick and flexible, especially its front palm, which is so powerful that one palm can kill people. Knocking down or killing prey with the forefoot is its usual method. There are very sharp bear claws on the palm of your hand, which can hold food tightly. Polar bears also have an unusually sensitive sense of smell. They can smell the fat of barbecued seals from 3.2 kilometers away, and can accurately judge the position of prey by their sense of smell from several kilometers away. After "sniffing" the prey with a familiar smell, you can jump from the ice to hunt at a fairly fast speed, and the distance of jumping and running in one step can reach more than 5 meters.
Polar bears often live on the ice sheet and live an amphibious life. They usually feed on seals, fish, birds and other small mammals. If they are lucky enough to see a dead whale, they can have a good meal. In the long cold winter, polar bears usually spend their time in their nests. Polar bears don't come out until February and March of the following spring, and polar bears are most active from March to May. In warm summer, polar bears come out of their holes and look around for prey.
After the short honeymoon between the mother bear and the male bear, the husband and wife parted ways. Female bears usually give birth to twins, occasionally 1 or 3. Little polar bears are born like mice. After the bear is born, it will breastfeed in the nest for 4 months; Then he learned to hunt with the big bear. After two years with the mother bear, he ran away from home and lived independently. Adult cubs, like their parents, act alone and generally do not associate with their companions in order to enjoy hunting alone. Therefore, people can only see a polar bear, or a female bear moving on the ice with one or two cubs.
The polar bear's claws and teeth are the best. Bear claws are like iron hooks, and bear teeth are like knives. When the sea freezes in winter, seals dig holes everywhere to breathe the air. In order to catch the seal, the polar bear waited for the seal motionless by the cave with amazing endurance. When the seal shows a little, it immediately grabs the seal with its claws.
At present, there are no more than 20,000 polar bears in the Arctic.
Polar bears are the largest carnivores in the Arctic, so they are the natural owners of the Arctic. If the penguin is the symbol of the South Pole, then the representative of the North Pole is naturally the polar bear. However, from the perspective of ecological balance, people may ask such a question: Since wolves have captured the largest herbivores in the Arctic, such as reindeer and musk oxen, why do they need polar bears? Yes, if you only look at it from the land, the existence of polar bears is indeed a bit redundant. This behemoth will also die on the grassland, which will not only pose a great threat to the survival of a few reindeer and musk oxen, but also compete with wolves for food and make them hungry. But the thoughtful creator has his own ingenious arrangement, which makes the polar bear's life center on the ice sheet, because there are a large number of walruses and seals here, except for a few killer whales, there are basically no natural enemies. Their huge and fat bodies must be swallowed up by a powerful and greedy animal, and polar bears just found a place to use. In this way, polar bears have established their undisputed dominance in this boundless world of ice and snow, and become the masters of this white kingdom, so they don't have to go to land to compete with poor wolves for food. Nevertheless, polar bears are still land animals.
Polar bears are covered with thick white hair, even ears and feet, with only a small black nose. Moreover, its wool structure is extremely complicated, and its interior is hollow, which plays an excellent role in heat preservation and insulation. So polar bears can easily walk on the ice floes without worrying about the cold in the Arctic. Polar bears are streamlined and good at swimming. Their claws are as wide as sculls. Therefore, in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean, they can paddle along with their two front legs and hind legs, control the direction of progress, and act as a rudder. They can swim 40 to 50 kilometers at a time, so they are good swimmers. Its bear melon is like an iron hook, and its bear teeth are extremely sharp. With a wave of its front palm, it can smash people's heads and separate them, which can be described as infinite strength. It runs like lightning at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour, but it won't last long. It's only a short sprint, so in a wide land, if people and bears run a long-distance race, polar bears will definitely lose.
Polar bears are carnivores. Their main food is seals, mainly ring seals, because these seals are widely distributed in the Arctic, and even the Arctic is where they live. Every spring and early summer, groups of seals lie on the ice to bask in the sun. Polar bears will carefully observe their prey and then skillfully use the geographical situation to approach the seals step by step. When they are within the effective fishing range, they will rush like arrows. Although seals are always cautious, it is too late to find them, their huge claws will be photographed in lightning speed, and their brains will be wiped all over the floor. Sometimes, especially in winter, polar bears will wait for seals for hours at the breathing hole of the ice sheet with amazing endurance, concentrating and motionless, just like a snowdrift, and will cover their noses with their paws to prevent their own smells and breathing sounds from scaring off the seals. As soon as the long-awaited seal appears, the long-awaited polar bear will slap the seal on the head at an extremely fast speed. The poor seal hasn't figured out what happened yet, so his brain is flying and he is dead. At this time, the polar bear immediately bit the seal hard to prevent it from sinking, and then dragged it out of the water. Because of the size of the ice cave, seals' ribs and pelvis are often crushed, and polar bears have great strength, which can also be seen. For those seals lying on ice floes, polar bears also have a set of ways to deal with them. It will give full play to its swimming skills, quietly and secretly approach seals from the water, and it is particularly interesting that sometimes it will push an ice floe as a cover. After catching the seals, they will have a good meal and then leave. The cleverness of a polar bear is that if it meets a seal while swimming, it will be indifferent, just like turning a blind eye. This is because it knows that it is no match for seals in the water. Instead of fighting to the death, it is better to release the seal without consuming your own physical strength. When the prey is abundant, polar bears will be choosy, eat only the fat of seals, and generously leave the rest to their followers ―― Arctic fox, Bai Ou, etc. When it can't find prey, it will eat carrion, seaweed, swallows, dried fruits and even garbage of stranded whales.
Spring in the Arctic (March and April) is the mating period of polar bears, usually about two weeks, sometimes as long as 1 month. Sexually mature female polar bears (over 4 years old) and male polar bears (over 5 years old) may meet thousands of miles away, or they may have a heart-to-heart relationship. After meeting, the two sides will walk together on the crystal clear ice sheet. Sometimes, the petite female bear walks in front, and the stout male bear follows, the distance is less than two or three steps. Sometimes because of feelings, the two sides are quite close. Of course, sometimes the female bear is not satisfied with the male bear. At this time, the male bear often takes violent actions, so the two sides fight. But is the weak female bear an opponent of the big and strong male bear? In the end, the mother bear was not only black and blue, but also had to compromise and become a bride against her will. In a sense, the behavior of male polar bears is a bit rough, but it is extremely beneficial to the reproduction of their entire race. As soon as the mating period is over, the two sides will go their separate ways, live a single life, and be forced by life to run around all day, so it is difficult to meet again, and the mating period is fleeting. If we don't seize this opportunity to reproduce, I'm afraid it will be postponed for another year. It's hard to predict whether we can have this opportunity at this time next year. Therefore, it is wise for male polar bears to seize every reproductive opportunity in order to ensure the continuity of generations and not to become extinct.
In the dead of winter (February 65438-June 654381October), the mother bear gives birth in her cave, usually twins, and occasionally singletons or triplets. PANDA KID, who was just born, was naked, his eyes were completely blackened, and he couldn't hear the sound in his ears. She weighs only a few hundred grams, which is about 1% of the female bear's weight. After birth, it grows quite fast. It can grow to 9 ~ 13.5 kg after breastfeeding for 3 ~ 4 months. Prior to this, the mother bear and PANDA KID lived together day and night, inseparable, stationed in the cave, relying entirely on the nutrients stored in the body to maintain life, but also breastfeeding PANDA KID. The fat content of polar bear's milk is as high as 30%, which is unmatched by any carnivore. Therefore, PANDA KID can develop very well. After 3 ~ 4 months, the mother bear left the cave, let her go out to see the world and lead them back to the cave for the night.
PANDA KID followed the mother bear for about two years, during which she had to learn how to hunt and how to survive in the harsh environment of the Arctic. After the age of 2, their strength began to be eclipsed, and once they grew up, they rarely found their own companions, coming and going in the snow all day, tossing and turning between ice floes and land. Because of their special way of eating and considerable food intake (polar bears can hold 50-70 kilograms of food in their stomachs), they always wander around alone, just like a lonely wanderer.
At the age of 4-5, polar bears reach sexual maturity, start to get married and have children, and establish a new home. Its reproductive age can last until 20 ~ 25 years old. At present, it is impossible to determine how long the wild polar bear can live, which is estimated to be 20 ~ 30 years, but once a captured polar bear lived in the zoo for 40 years; However, only in the zoo can polar bears eat and drink, and the managers take good care of them. They seldom get sick, and even if they get sick, they will be treated, so that they can live longer. If you are in the North Pole, those old polar bears often have poor eyesight and hearing, flat teeth, it is difficult to catch their prey, they are cold and hungry, and they will die soon.
Polar bears also hibernate in winter. But like many animals in Xiong Ke, it is only a long sleep, not a real hibernation. When they go to sleep, the nutrients and water that keep their bodies running continuously come from long-term stored fat. In the season of food shortage, these fats are also the key factor to keep them alive.
Like other animals in Xiong Ke, polar bears usually live a single life and only spend some time with the opposite sex during the love season from March to June every year. However, polar bears love and marriage in a violent way. Male bears not only have to fight with each other for their spouses, but also express their love to the opposite sex through fierce fighting even when facing their favorite single women (although both sides will be scarred, alas ...). Because polar bears also have delayed implantation phenomenon, this makes pregnant female bears pregnant 195-265 days. From the end of 1 1 in that year to around 1 in the following year, two babies are usually born in their mother's "hibernating" nest (there are also 1-4 children) and will stay in the nest with their mother until spring comes. When the little ones were born, they weighed only 600-700 grams. Their eyes were not open yet, but their whole bodies were covered with soft hair. Thanks to the nutritious breast milk, these little things grew rapidly in their mother's cave, and by the time they came out with their mother in spring, they already weighed 10- 15 Jin.
Children will live with their mothers for 2-3 years before they can live independently. After independence, the polar bear cubs will not reach sexual maturity until they are 5 to 6 years old, and the boys will not grow into terrible adults until they are 9- 10 years old.
Polar bears living in the wild live for about 25-30 years, and naturally live longer in captivity. The longest known polar bear is a female, who lives in Detroit Zoo. 1999 lived to be 45 years old.
At present, there are more than 20,000 polar bears living in the world, and the number is relatively stable. In order to protect their survival, as early as 1972, the United States promulgated a law prohibiting the hunting of polar bears except for survival needs. 1973, countries in the Arctic Circle, including the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark and the former Soviet Union, further signed an international convention for the protection of polar bears, which not only restricted hunting and trade, but also further put forward provisions for the protection of their habitats and cooperative research. At present, CITES has listed polar bears in Appendix II, and IUCN Red Book has officially listed them as "endangered" recently (early May 2006). With the increase of global temperature, the ice floes in the Arctic gradually began to melt, and the former homes of polar bears were destroyed to some extent, and their prey decreased accordingly. In addition, even if they are excellent swimmers, they can't stay in the sea for a long time. The increasingly open sea surface increases their risk of drowning. I'm afraid the future of polar bears will have to depend on whether more human protection measures are needed.