Today on Earth there are quite a lot of animal species that require special attention for the reason that they are becoming rare and may be in danger of extinction in the near future. Animals such as polar bears are also included in this group. The Red Book is intended to keep records of rare species and some of its pages are dedicated to the polar bear.
Polar bear habitats
This species of animal is interesting because its representatives live in places that are not very suitable for life. It's about about the Arctic with its harsh climate. Low temperatures air, long winter, polar nights did not become an obstacle for the polar bear.
The expanses of the Arctic Ocean with its lifeless islands, the northern outskirts of Eurasia and North America- places where the polar bear lives.
The Red Book, various encyclopedias and many other sources, providing information about this animal, indicate its significant difference from other species of bears living on the planet. Even its name can indicate certain characteristics of an animal. From the language of some peoples or scientific sources it is known that the animal is called differently - sea, northern, polar bear.
Paths of evolution
Scientists for a long time It was believed that the development paths of the polar and brown bear diverged approximately one hundred and fifty thousand years ago. And this happened in the area of the planet occupied by modern Ireland. But recent research data has forced us to change this point of view. Today, science suggests that the separation of species occurred much earlier - on average, about six hundred thousand years ago. Over this long period, animals developed differences related not only to their habitat, nutritional conditions, but also to their appearance, although the genetic material indicates that these animals once had a common ancestor.
What is also common is the sad fact that all bears today are the White Himalayan and other species of these unique animals need the protection that only humans can give them. Although, it was he who became the main reason for the reduction in their numbers on Earth.
You can learn everything about the polar bear, as well as its relatives, on the pages of numerous publications, which contain research by scientists and stories of people who have encountered these unique and at the same time very dangerous animals in nature.
It must be said that the meeting did not always end happily, without sad consequences, if a person and a polar bear became its participants. The Red Book appeared because people sometimes tried to prevent the actions of a predator and destroyed it before it itself attacked a person or his home. But people’s actions were not always reasonable enough, and this ultimately led to a reduction in the number of polar bears.
Appearance and body structure features
A flat head is the main difference between a polar bear and a brown bear in body structure. The limbs of the animal have a pillar-like appearance. The feet are very wide. This helps bears move through deep snow without falling through. Due to the special structure of their feet and the fact that they are covered with fur, polar bears can easily move on an icy surface. Despite their enormous body mass, they easily overcome hummocks up to two meters high.
The bear's skin color is black, and the skin ranges from white to yellowish. The bear's fur acquires this color in the summer, when the effects of the sun's rays are especially strong.
Types of polar bears
Species of animals living in different regions vast territory of the Arctic, differ from each other. The largest polar bears live on the islands. Individual individuals weigh about 1000 kilograms with a body length reaching three meters.
Most existing species of polar bears reach 450 kilograms of weight with a height of about two meters. Females are slightly smaller than males. Their weight averages about 300 kilograms.
The habitat of the smallest representatives of these formidable animals, such as polar bears. The Red Book took everything under protection existing species bears living in the Arctic.
Adaptation to life in the Arctic
Shows special care for the owner of the ice deserts Polar bear lives only in the Arctic, most of which belongs to To the Russian state. In addition, polar bears are found on the mainland of Eurasia in the area of icy deserts.
The polar bear does not live in other places on Earth. There are cases when animals on ice floes ended up in warmer climatic conditions, and this caused them big problems.
How did the animal adapt to such harsh living conditions in the Arctic? Firstly, the body is covered with thick fur. Secondly, the structure of the hairs helps trap air in them, which makes the fur warmer. A significant layer of fatty fiber also saves the animal’s body from hypothermia. At the harshest time of the year, its thickness is about ten centimeters.
With such thermal insulation, bears are not afraid of storms, severe frosts, or the icy water of the ocean and northern seas. Polar bears are excellent swimmers. In search of prey, they can swim up to 80 kilometers a day. In this they are helped by the special structure of their paws, between the toes of which there are membranes. When swimming, the animal's limbs act like flippers.
What is the food of the northern bear?
The polar bear is a predator, so it feeds on the meat of animals that live near it. The bear hunts both in water and on land. The predator can easily cope with smaller animals, such as seals, in the water. He stuns the victim with a blow of his paw and pulls him out onto the ice.
A polar bear can compete with a walrus only on land. The skin of a killed animal and fat are the main delicacy for a predator. If there is no severe hunger, then the bear leaves the meat untouched; it is eaten by other smaller predators.
Reasons for the decline in animal numbers
Any person, if he tries to find out everything about the polar bear, will easily find information that one female bear is capable of giving birth to no more than fifteen cubs in her life. When feeding offspring, the death of the young is inevitable - harsh living conditions make themselves felt. Comparing these two facts, it is not difficult to assume that a reduction in the number of animals is possible due to natural reasons.
To this we must add facts of illegal hunting, the object of which is increasingly becoming polar bears. The Red Book of our country and other countries of the world is trying to stop the process of reducing the number of these animals.
Animals of the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation
The polar bear, along with other animals, has been under state protection since 1956. Hunting for it is completely prohibited in Russia. In countries such as Canada and the USA, it is limited.
For the population living in the northern regions of the Earth, polar bears have long been the object of hunting. The Red Book of states interested in preserving the animal population tried to change the situation.
The meat and skin of bears, for the sake of which they were destroyed, modern world They are not the only source of food available to humans, nor are they the only material used to furnish a home or make clothing. Therefore, hunting bears was no longer considered a necessity. It is classified as poaching and is prosecuted by law.
As a result measures taken A rare animal was saved - a polar bear. The Red Book published a description of the numbers and types of the population in 1993. By this time, there was not only a restoration of individuals, but also a slight increase in the number of animals.
An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the three-dimensional, constantly changing space of water and ice, flexible in changing hunting tactics and without natural enemies, the polar bear is the real master of the Arctic.
Taxonomy
Russian name - polar bear, polar bear, northern bear, oshkuy, nanuk, umka
Latin name- Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimus
English name - Polar bear
Order - Carnivora (Carnivora)
Family - Bears (Ursidae) has 7 species
Genus - Ursus
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 in nature are declining - CITES II, IUCN (VU). In Russia, polar bear hunting has been prohibited since 1956 and is currently permitted only in very limited areas in the United States, Canada and Greenland.
Species and man
These animals were known to the ancient Romans at least in the first century AD. The archives of the Japanese emperors indicate that polar bears and their skins reached Japan and Manchuria already in the 7th century, but the population of these countries could have become 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 approximately 880 - then two bear cubs were brought from Norway to Iceland. In 1774, the polar bear was first described in scientific literature as an independent species. The author of this description is the English zoologist Constantine Phipps.
The peoples inhabiting the Arctic have long hunted these animals. As humans explored the North, the number of bears decreased, but after hunting was banned and protected areas were organized in the areas of their ancestral dens, they began to increase. However, it is currently declining again, as bears are suffering greatly due to climate change - in the Arctic, the ice cover necessary for successful seal hunting is being established late. As a result, the animals starve, and mother bears, in addition, cannot get to the places of their ancestral dens. Environmental pollution and disturbance factors play a negative role.
Polar bears are very curious, they examine any new object and often visit polar stations. However, they are not aggressive and, if people do not start feeding them, they leave.
Distribution area
The polar bear's world is limited to ice fields. This is an animal of the Arctic belt - it finds food and shelter among endless ice and hummocks. It happens that, together with floating ice, polar bears reach the shores of Iceland, even end up in the Okhotsk and Japanese sea. However, such animals always strive to return to their usual ice environment and, once outside it, make long journeys overland, moving strictly north.
Appearance, features of morphology and physiology
The polar bear is the most large animal not only among bears, but among all predators. Among the males there are giants whose body length reaches 280 cm, height at the withers - 150 cm, and weight - 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 flexible 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 fur. This type of fur covers the entire body of the animal and has a uniform white color that does not change with the seasons.
But the skin of a polar bear is dark, almost black, which contributes to the least heat transfer. All year round, there is a thick 3–4 cm layer of fat under the skin; on the back part it can reach a thickness of 10 cm. Fat not only protects the animal from the cold and serves as an energy storehouse, but also makes its body lighter, making it easier to stay on the water.
The brain of this animal is noticeably different from the brain of other carnivores in its outline and more complex arrangement of grooves and convolutions. In this respect, it is similar to the brain of some pinnipeds, such as the fur seal. Greater development of the visual area of the brain than that of the brown bear and less development of the olfactory area may indicate that the polar bear has better developed vision and a 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.
An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the space of water and ice
An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the space of water and ice
An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the space of water and ice
An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the space of water and ice
An intellectual among bears, perfectly oriented in the space of water and ice
An 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 usual alternation of day and night. There is no pronounced daily activity of the animals inhabiting it. Hibernation, which is widely known for brown bears, not all whites fall in. Winter sleep is typical only for female bears about to become mothers and elderly males, who are thus waiting out the most difficult time of the year. Strong, healthy males and non-pregnant females are active all year round, hiding out in dens freshly dug out in the snow only during a severe 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 been satisfied, the predator immediately falls asleep after a successful hunt, and, waking up, wanders on. Meeting with a brother can happen in different ways. Well-fed animals are most often neutral in relation to each other. Females with small cubs try to avoid the sight of large males, who, being hungry, hunt the cubs. If a meeting is unavoidable, the bear will desperately protect her babies.
An experienced male can take away the prey of a young one and even try to kill and eat him. At the same time, dozens of bears sometimes gather near the carcass of a whale thrown up by the sea, feeding a few meters from each other, without showing any aggression to their brothers.
Females with small cubs are extremely loyal to orphaned cubs: there are cases where females accepted and raised them together with their 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, primarily the ringed seal. When hunting a seal, the bear shows amazing ingenuity and resourcefulness: it can sneak up on its prey across the field, watch for leads, or get close to the reins. The bear is very patient - it can sneak up on its 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 from the ice. Most often, the bear confines itself to only the subcutaneous layer of fat, eating it along with the skin, which is pulled off by the victim’s stocking. The meat is eaten by arctic foxes and gulls, which often accompany him on his travels. However, a very hungry bear eats a seal's name, and can eat up to 20 kilograms at a time. There is a high probability that the next portion of food will enter his stomach only in a few days.
Sometimes the bear hunts the young of large marine mammals - walruses, beluga whales and narwhals. The real feast begins when the sea washes up the corpse of a whale. Several predators gather at once; there is enough food for everyone.
Being on dry land, bears feed on bird eggs and grab lemmings. In addition, in the summer on the mainland and islands they eat cloudberries, and in the tidal zone they eat algae such as kelp and fucus. After leaving the den, she-bears dig up snow and eat willow shoots and sedge mud.
Reproduction and raising of offspring
Mating of polar bears occurs in spring or summer. The animals can stay in pairs for about two weeks, but more often up to 3 or even 7 males gather around the female, and fights arise between them.
In October-November, when the ice fields are suitable for fires, the females go out to the rocky shores. Here, in their favorite places in deep snow drifts, they make dens. The entrance to the den is always lower than the nesting chamber, making the den much warmer than outside. Blizzards and winds complete the construction of the “house”, forming a strong roof over it, sometimes up to 2m thick. Here, after 230–250 days of gestation (including the latent stage characteristic of bears, when the egg does not develop), cubs emerge in the depths 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 start teething. At this time they begin to emerge from their burrows, but only at 3 months of age are they able to follow their mother. Young animals do not part with each other for a year and a half. Ikhotsy do not take any part in raising children; on the contrary, they pose a serious danger to them - cannibalism of white bears is not uncommon.
For the first time, a female gives birth to one cub at the age of five or six; subsequently, she will most likely give birth to two cubs once every three years.
Lifespan
In captivity, a polar bear can live more than 30 years, but in nature it is less.
Keeping animals at the Moscow Zoo
Throughout the existence of the zoo, there were only very short periods when we did not have 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 gave birth to cubs, but, unfortunately, due to concern from people, the mothers refused to feed them, and the first cubs born in captivity died. In subsequent years, the zoo received mostly cubs brought from polar stations. In 1938, the zoo kept 8 polar bears at a time. From them the offspring were obtained and raised. During the harsh war years, zoo enthusiasts made truly heroic efforts to preserve the animals, but some of them still died during the bombing. Early 1945 The zoo accepted another bear cub as a gift from the famous polar explorer Papanin.
Now there are three adult polar bears living in the zoo, only one of which was born in the zoo; the rest, left without parental care, were picked up and given to the zoo by winterers. Wrangel and Chukotka. They have been allocated two enclosures, the water of which, in addition to the obligatory swimming pool, has an installation from which summer days It's snowing. The installation is a gift from the Moscow government, and it has greatly brightened the lives of our furry pets. Bears love to rest near a snowdrift and hide leftover food in it, and children happily play in the snow.
The females each live in their own enclosure, the male moves, and is resettled only shortly before the time comes for the pregnant females to go into hibernation. During this time, expectant mothers try to disturb them as little as possible. The cubs are born in October-November, but zoo visitors can see them in the enclosures no earlier than February. They spend the first 3–4 months of their lives, as is expected of all cubs, in their own den. At the age of about one year, the cubs leave for other zoos.
The feeding of polar bears at the zoo is very varied. They prefer meat to everything else; they prefer large fish. Bears primarily choose a variety of vegetables and greens. green salad. They also eat various cereals.
Of course, life in a zoo is easier than in nature, but it is more boring. “Foreign” objects that you will see in the enclosures are bear toys. If you don't find the bears sleeping, you will very likely see them playing.
The weight of a polar bear is 300-700 kg, the length reaches 2.4-3.0 m, and the height in the club reaches 1.3-1.5 m. Standing upright, an adult male can reach a height of almost 3.35 m. The female is usually half the size and her weight ranges from 150-300 kg, and her length is 1.9-2.1 m. After birth, young cubs weigh only 600-700 grams.
The places where polar bears live are floating ice and a small edge of the Arctic coastline, beyond which they almost never go. On drifting ice floes, animals reach the shores of southern Greenland, Iceland, and the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. It was also established that animals live in the immediate vicinity North Pole, where not only adult individuals are found, but also young cubs. Polar bears are the most numerous animals in those areas where there are most often areas of water not covered with ice - because there you can quickly meet and easily catch a seal.
These polar predators are considered excellent swimmers and, if necessary, divers. They are not afraid of vast expanses of water at a distance of a hundred or more kilometers from the shore or the nearest body of ice. Swimming northern bears, thanks to their front paws acting as oars, are able to reach speeds of up to 5-6 km/h. They dive, jumping from ice floes or icebergs, almost without splashing and silently. Stay underwater for no more than two minutes with open eyes, but with compressed ear openings and nostrils. On land, animals move in a straight line, easily jumping over ice cracks up to 3.5 m wide and two-meter hummocks. At the same time, they never break through the ice, since by spreading their paws widely, they evenly distribute their weight.
Being an unsurpassed hunter of sea animals, predators have excellent hearing, acute vision and an excellent sense of smell, and can smell the scent of prey at a distance of 7 km. Polar bears hunt for seals (especially nerpas), lying in wait for them near holes. Animals cause swipe with a paw on the victim's head emerging from the water and instantly throwing the carcass onto the ice. First of all, they eat the fat and skin, and the rest only in case of great hunger. It is not uncommon for all kinds of carrion, sea debris, dead fish and chicks to be used as food. In addition, they rob the warehouses of hunters and travelers. During one feeding, an adult male usually eats 6-8 kg, sometimes up to 20 kg of food.
Adult males live on their own and roam the vast expanses of ice all year round, covering several tens of kilometers a day. Mother bears live more sedentary lives, in small family groups with their cubs. IN hibernation Only pregnant females dive. The rest can also not lie down in the den for long, but only in severe food shortages.
At the beginning of the mating season, female bears become restless, and their walking routes increase. When males come across urine trails or droppings from a female, they take her trail. After mating season in early October, females make dens on land. In mid-November, once the fertilized egg develops, they hibernate during the coldest winter months, obtaining energy by burning stored fat reserves.
The den is very warm (up to + 30 °C), and cubs appear here in December. Typically, a female bear gives birth to 2-3 babies every 3 years. The cubs are born hairless, weak, blind and feed on their mother's rich milk. A month after birth, they open their eyes, and two weeks later they take their first steps. With the end of the polar night, the babies, already with thick and dense fur, emerge with their mother from the ice den.
Polar bear (lat. Ursus maritimus) - carnivorous mammal bear family. It is a typical inhabitant of the Arctic, only occasionally entering the continental tundra. The polar bear is the largest representative not only of the family, but also of the entire order of predators. Some males have a body up to 3 meters long and weigh more than 700 kilograms. Despite their enormous weight and apparent clumsiness, polar bears are fast and agile even on land, and in water they swim easily and far and dive freely.
The polar bear's body is elongated, narrow in the front and massive in the back, the neck is long and mobile, the head is relatively small, with a straightened profile, a narrow forehead and small, high-set eyes. The polar bear has very strong paws with large claws. The unusually thick, dense wool perfectly protects the bear’s body from cold and getting wet. ice water. This type of fur covers the entire body of the animal and has a uniform white color that does not change with the seasons. The skin of a polar bear is dark, almost black, which contributes to the least heat transfer. All year round, a thick - 3-4 cm - layer of fat lies under the skin; on the back of the body it can reach a thickness of 10 centimeters. Fat not only protects the animal from the cold and serves as an energy storehouse, but also makes its body lighter, allowing it to easily stay afloat.
Currently, there are three populations of polar bears: Kara-Barents Sea (Svalbard-Novaya Zemlya), Laptev and Chukchi-Alaskan.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
We have already looked at it in detail and were surprised. Let's now take a closer look at the familiar Polar Bear in more detail.
Polar bear- the biggest bear, he is the most large mammals order of predators in the world. The body length of an adult male can be up to 3 meters, and the weight can reach a ton. The most major representatives polar bears were spotted along the shores of the Intracoastal Sea.
The polar bear is listed in the IUCN Red Book and the Russian Red Book. Bear hunting is allowed only to the indigenous population of the North.
The skin of a polar bear is black, just like a brown bear. But the color of the skin is from white to yellowish. Also, the polar bear’s fur has a peculiarity: the hairs inside are hollow.
The bear seems clumsy due to its size and dimensions, but this is only an appearance. Polar bears can run quite fast and swim well too. The North bear travels 30 km per day. The bear's paw is unique. No deep snow can stop the bear, thanks to its size of the foot and column-shaped legs, even compared to other polar animals it very quickly and deftly overcomes any snow and ice obstacles. The resistance to cold is simply 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 polar bear can easily travel 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 Greece and Norway, Canada and Alaska.
The main food of the polar bear is seals. One bear eats about 50 seals per year. However, catching a seal is not easy. northern Bear can watch its prey at the hole for hours, waiting for the seal to appear on the surface. After the seal surfaces to take a breath of air, the bear instantly hits the prey with its paw and throws it onto the ice. The predator eats the skin and fat, preferring to leave the rest, although in winter, in case of hunger, the bear eats the entire carcass. The bear is often accompanied arctic foxes, who get the remains of the seal. Polar bears also do not disdain carrion; the bear can smell the smell of prey from several kilometers away. For example, beached whale will definitely become a meeting place for several bears. 2 bears or 3 bears may not share the food, then a skirmish occurs. It is unknown how many bears may be encountered. This is why a bear can enter the territory of human habitation. More often, of course, this is simple curiosity, although evil hunger can drive the beast into a hopeless situation. Although a bear can be a vegetarian, they like cereals, lichens, sedges, berries and mosses.
Spring is a heavenly time for bears. Baby sea animals are born, which, due to inexperience and weakness, do not provide adequate resistance and often do not even run away.
The polar bear has incomparable resistance to cold. Its thick, long fur consists of hairs that are hollow in the middle and contain air. Many mammals have similar protective hollow hairs - an effective means of insulation - 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 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. For every bear there are approximately 50 seals per year. However, hunting seals is not easy. Ice conditions change from year to year, and seal behavior is unpredictable. Bears have to travel thousands of kilometers in search of best places for hunting.
In addition, the hunt itself requires skill and patience. The bear watches the seal at the hole for hours, waiting for it to come up for air. He instantly strikes with his paw 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 the killed animals. Polar 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 several kilometers away. And if suddenly a whale gets into shallow water, dries out and dies, it will immediately come running from all sides the whole company white bears who are always hungry.
Hunting seals is no easier. Shy seals, at the slightest danger, dive under the ice and emerge in another hole to breathe. And the bear rinses its face in icy water in vain. But in the spring, a fertile time comes for the bear - cubs of sea animals are born, which have never seen a polar bear before and therefore do not realize the danger. But even here the clumsy bear has to show miracles of ingenuity. In order not to scare away the cubs, the bear has to be very careful, because even the slightest crunch can give away its presence and deprive it of food.
Difficulties in obtaining food are aggravated by climate changes on Earth. As a result of climate warming, the ice in the bays begins to melt earlier than usual, summers become longer every year, winters become milder, and the problems of polar bears become 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 polar bear hunting season has been shortened by two to three weeks. As a result, the weight of the animals decreased: if previously a male weighed about 1000 kg, now, on average, 100 kilograms less. The females also lost weight. This, in turn, has an extremely negative impact on population reproduction. Increasingly, females are giving birth to only one cub...
However, polar bears are not only suffering from warming temperatures and a shortened hunting season. In the recent past, the polar bear was an important commercial target. Fur and bear paws, which are the most important components of popular and expensive oriental soups, prompted members of polar expeditions to mercilessly exterminate this beautiful animal. The profits from such business are so great that the international black market continues to flourish, despite all attempts to stop it. The fight 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 continents and islands. On land they become vegetarians. They feast on cereals, sedges, lichens, mosses and berries. When there are a lot of berries, the bear does not eat any other food for weeks, gorging on them to the point that his face and butt turn blue with blueberries. However, the longer the bears starve, forced to prematurely move to land from the melting ice as a result of warming, the more often they go in search of food to people who have been actively exploring the Arctic in recent decades.
The question of whether an encounter with a polar bear is dangerous for a person is difficult to answer unequivocally. Sometimes bears attacked people out of curiosity, quickly realizing that they were easy prey. But most often, tragic incidents happen at campsites, where bears are attracted by the smell of food. Usually the bear goes straight to the smell, crushing everything in its path. The situation is complicated by the fact that the animal, in search of food, tears into pieces and tastes everything it comes across, including people who turn up by chance.
It should be noted that bears, unlike wolves, tigers and others dangerous predators, there is practically no facial muscles. 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 that wander into the city in search of food, resorting to temporarily tranquilizing shots from a special gun. The sleeping animal is weighed, measured and recorded. On inner side A colored tattoo is applied to the lips - a number that remains for the entire 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 living a full life in natural environment a habitat. Moreover, females with cubs are transported first.
For a polar bear, the world is limited by ice fields, and this primarily determines the characteristics of its behavior. Judging by animals kept in captivity, this bear, compared to the brown one, seems less intelligent and not so dexterous; he is less trainable, more dangerous and excitable, and therefore can be seen relatively rarely in the circus arena. True, he is characterized by a certain “straightforwardness” in his actions, due to a rather monotonous lifestyle, narrow food specialization, and the absence of enemies and competitors. But it is enough to observe this animal in its natural environment even for a short time to be convinced of high level his psyche, his 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 most passable paths among piles of hummocks, confidently move across young, fragile ice fields or areas of ice , replete with cracks and streaks.
The strength of this beast is amazing. He is capable of dragging and lifting up a slope a walrus carcass weighing over half a ton, and killing a large one with one blow of his paw. sea hare, having almost the same mass as its own, and if necessary, it is easy to carry it in the teeth for a considerable distance (a kilometer or more).
Polar bears are eternal nomads. Ice transports them over vast distances. It often happens that even such experienced “travelers” suffer disaster. Thus, animals caught in 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 melts, and most polar bears, despite all their dexterity, die.
It would seem that living in the deserted polar spaces, the polar bear should not suffer from humans. However, it is not. The Arctic is already quite settled. Sailors, hunters, and people of other professions now constantly meet with polar bears, and these “contacts” do not always end favorably for the huge, but very curious and generally harmless animals.
And the biology of the beast itself has “weak” sides. IN marriage time the male has to travel enormous distances to find a female, and often endures a battle with a rival. Often searches are not crowned with success at all and no family is formed. Mother bears bear offspring (one or two cubs) every two years and become sexually mature only at the age of about four years.
The presence of food (seals and fish), suitable places for breeding and the absence of human disturbance are the main conditions for the existence of polar bears in the Arctic. But strangely enough, 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 dens on the northeastern islands of Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, northeast and northwest Greenland, southwest Hudson Bay and some Arctic islands of Canada. The main territory of the Arctic is essentially unsuitable for habitation, much less breeding, of this species.
All pregnant female polar bears spend the winter in snowy shelters, which are relatively identical in structure and located, with rare exceptions, on land; Everywhere in the Arctic they go into dens and leave them at almost the same times. The physiological state of animals in dens is similar to that of brown bears, i.e. it is shallow sleep or torpor with a slight decrease in body temperature, respiratory rate and pulse, but not hibernation (as, for example, in marmots, gophers, etc.) . Apparently, at the beginning of winter, female bears lying in dens are more active than in the middle of winter, although in the spring in most dens one can see traces of the digging activity of females of varying ages.
The question of the winter activity of males, spawning females and young individuals is not clear enough. Obviously, in a significant part of their range, especially in the south of the Arctic, they are active all year round, with the exception of periods of severe snowstorm, from which the animals take refuge among hummocks or coastal rocks; finding here before. the layer of snow is quite deep, they even dig shallow shelters in it. With the end of the blizzard, bears leave such shelters and continue to roam and hunt.
IN high latitudes Arctic, especially in places with harsh climates, frequent and strong winds, and perhaps even where animals experience great difficulty in feeding, most of them lie down in dens relatively regularly. 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 the whole range, 70-80% of all bears spend the winter in shelters, and older males go to shelters earlier and leave them earlier.
In the Canadian Arctic, male polar bears use refuges from early August to late March (most frequently in September, October, and January); young ones, as well as females with one-year-old cubs, were found here in shelters from early October to early April. The state allocates funds to build shelters made of laminated waterproof plywood, this significantly helps the animals.
In the north of the Taimyr Peninsula (Cape Chelyuskin area), all animals spend the winter in dens, but the duration of their stay there varies and depends on gender, age and whether the female is pregnant or barren. At the very short term(according to the latest dates 52 days - from mid-December to early February) young bears go to shelters in the north of Taimyr; There are almost as many adult males in them. Females with young of the year spend 106 days in dens, spawning females - 115-125, and pregnant female bears - 160-170 days.
There is information in the literature about encounters of male polar bears in dens 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 caught outside dens, which means that they remained active throughout the winter. The dens of such animals (obviously, the refuges of barren females and young bears) are often located on sea ice and in structure (shape, size) are more diverse than the dens of pregnant bears. It is also obvious that the timing of their use is relatively variable.
