The cold arctic is covered with snow all year round, and there is a kind of existence at the top of the food chain here. Polar bear! Do you know what polar bears usually feed on? Let me introduce you. I hope you like it.

Brief introduction of polar bear

The polar bear is the largest animal in Xiong Ke, with a body length of 2.5m, a height of 1.6m and a weight of 500kg. Polar bears are not only good at swimming in cold sea water, but also good at jumping quickly on ice. In order to resist the cold, its ears and tail are small, and its whole body is covered with thick white hair except the soles of its feet and the tip of its nose, while its skin is black. Polar bears have a keen sense of smell and can judge the position of their prey. Powerful, a fatal blow. Polar bears feed on the carcasses of seals, fish, birds and whales. The mother bear gave birth in a sheltered snow cave. When Xiong Gang was born, she was only 0.3 meters long. She can't open her eyes and can't hear the sound. It took 3 to 5 years to grow into a beast. As the "king of the Arctic Circle", polar bears have almost no natural enemies except humans.

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 the 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 to enjoy the fun of 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. It is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

At present, global warming and melting of Arctic glaciers have adversely affected the survival and reproduction of polar bears. The polar bear is the largest carnivore in the Arctic, so it is also the natural owner of the Arctic. Polar bears seldom go to land. They mainly live on the ice sheet in the center of the Arctic, because there are a large number of walruses and seals here, and their fat bodies become the best food for polar bears.

Apart from whales, they have basically no natural enemies. So the polar bear became the ruler of this white kingdom, and no longer had to go to land to compete with foxes and wolves for food. Giant polar bears can reach 3 meters in length and 800 kilograms in weight. They eat 40 kilograms at a time, that is to say, a reindeer can't fill their stomachs. Why are there so many things on land for them to enjoy?

Since you live at sea, you must learn to swim, but polar bears are good swimmers. In the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean, they can swim freely for forty or fifty kilometers continuously. Of course, the posture is not beautiful, the dog is running, using its two front legs as paddles and struggling to paddle forward. The hind legs together are like a rudder, holding the direction of progress. Polar bears are still a little self-aware, and they will never be tempted even if seals surround them when swimming. Because in the water, they are no match for seals, which they have always known.

In the world, bears in other places have the habit of hibernating, which is called "squatting warehouse" in Northeast China. By consuming the fat stored in the body, they can sleep comfortably for several months. However, polar bears do not hibernate. They only sleep for a few hours in the worst weather. Their thick fluff and almost the same thick fat layer play an excellent role in heat preservation. They can sleep well in spite of the heavy snow and storm.

Polar bears mate in March and April, but fertilized eggs are stored in fallopian tubes and do not develop. They don't enter the uterus until autumn, and they begin to grow and give birth at the end of the year. The cub weighs only a few hundred grams, which is equivalent to one thousandth of the mother's weight. However, it develops very fast after birth, and the fat content in its breast milk exceeds 30%, which is unmatched by any other carnivore. Little bear has more than 1 year to live with the mother bear, learn the predation and survival skills in the harsh Arctic environment, and then start to live independently. Males usually leave the mother bear earlier than females. Polar bears are real carnivores, and they can't find any plants in their diet. This is also forced by the environment, because even moss and lichen can't grow on the vast ice sheet. They have a better life in summer. They can catch birds, eggs, fish and shrimp, and occasionally catch lemmings as snacks when they come to land. But these things are too small to finish, so change your taste. Their staple food is seals, mainly ring seals, because these seals are widely distributed and can be found near the North Pole. Polar bears usually stand downwind of the breathing hole to avoid the seals being scared away by their own smell. They are always absorbed, waiting patiently for hours, motionless. As soon as the seal's head is exposed, it will pat its head like lightning, break its skull, and then bite it immediately, so that it will not sink into the water. Then try your best to drag it out of the ice cave several meters deep and have a good meal. Because of this very special way of predation, polar bears always act alone, and they may be the loneliest animals on earth; Of course, they are also animals living in the northernmost part, because someone found their trail only a few kilometers from the North Pole.

For Eskimos, besides famine, polar bears are their biggest enemies. Especially before the guns are handed in, if you want to deal with this behemoth with your bare hands, there is little hope of survival. Therefore, their legends and stories are full of awe and fear of polar bears. However, at the same time, polar bears have also become a "touchstone" to test the courage and ability of hunters. Eskimos are proud that they can catch a polar bear.

What do polar bears usually eat?

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 died before he knew what had happened. 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 picky and eat the fat of seals, and the rest will be generously left to their followers-Arctic fox, Bai Ou and so on. When it can't find prey, it will eat carrion, seaweed, swallow, dried fruit of stranded whales, and even garbage from residential areas. As can be seen from the above, there are other animals in the Arctic, such as seals, arctic foxes and Bai Ou.