Polar bears mainly prey on seals, especially ringed seals, bearded seals, saddle seals and crested seals. Polar bears are real carnivores in Xiong Ke fauna, and 98.5% of their food is meat. In addition, they also catch walruses, beluga whales, seabirds, fish, small mammals and sometimes clean carrion.

In summer, they occasionally eat berries or plant roots. In late spring and early summer, I will go to the seaside to collect seaweed and supplement the minerals and vitamins I need.

The most common hunting method of polar bears is "waiting for the rabbit". They will find the seal's breathing hole on the ice in advance and wait patiently for several hours. As soon as seals appear, they will launch a sudden attack and drag them up from the breathing hole with sharp claws.

If the seals are on the shore, they will hide out of the sight of the seals and then climb over to attack. The other mode is to dive directly under the ice until the seals near the shore attack, which has the advantage of directly cutting off the retreat of the seals. After eating and drinking enough, polar bears will carefully wash their hair and remove all food residues and blood.

Extended data

Global warming affects the survival of polar bears.

According to the observation data of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in the past 40 years, the sea ice area in the Arctic in summer has been reduced by nearly half, and now it is only about 3.5 million square kilometers.

Once the area of the Arctic ice sheet begins to shrink year by year, a large amount of fresh water stored in the Arctic ice sheet will flow into the ocean, causing the sea level to rise. The large-scale melting of Arctic sea ice will weaken its ability to reflect sunlight, which will further aggravate the impact of climate change. In this way, the situation of polar bears will be more threatened.

First of all, the sea water temperature in the Arctic continues to rise, which makes the ice surface of the Arctic Ocean disappear at an unprecedented speed. This increases the distance between sea ice and land, and gradually exceeds the swimming distance limit of polar bears. In order to find food, polar bears swim longer and consume more energy. Some polar bears even drowned in the sea because of physical exhaustion.

Secondly, the continuous melting of sea ice makes polar bears lack the support of ice surface and cannot easily reach from one ice sheet to another as before. Hunting is more difficult, and the food obtained is difficult to supplement the energy needed by the body every day. A research report by the US Geological Survey predicts that if the Arctic sea ice melts at the current rate, the number of polar bears will decrease by two-thirds in the middle of this century.

Climate change in the Arctic has also greatly reduced the food on which polar bears depend. Seals are polar bears' favorite food. Polar bears need to eat an adult ring seal with fat every 18 to 12 days to maintain their weight. The most successful time for polar bears to hunt is between April and July. At this time, seals will raise their cubs and shed their skin on the ice. Seals are also highly dependent on sea ice, and their numbers may also drop sharply due to the decrease of sea ice.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Polar Bear

People's Network-Climate change may reduce the number of polar bears by two-thirds in the middle of this century.