Interesting facts about the polar bear: a description and features

Sure, polar bears are some of the most amazing animals that have ever wandered around our planet. For one fact that these magnificent creatures manage to survive in extreme climatic conditions, they are already worthy of admiration. Polar bears are formidable predators, but they can be irresistibly sweet, show remarkable ingenuity and surprise again and again. We offer to read interesting facts about polar bears to children and adults, to see these extraordinary animals in a new light!

Native Seamen

Interesting facts about polar bears tell us that although these animals are born on land, they spend a good part of their time traveling to the sea. It's not for nothing that their scientific name sounds like Ursus maritimus and means "the sea bear". These mighty beasts are excellent swimmers, able to overcome distances over 100 km and swim for longer than a day. In this they are helped by large paws (up to 30 cm in width), with which they work as oars.

Polar bears can swim at a speed of 10 km / h, which is almost twice as fast as the known record holders of the competition. Even the Olympic champions show results at 6 km / h. However, this is still not enough to catch a seal in open waters. Therefore, the bear prefers to catch prey on a hard surface, where it has an advantage in speed and agility.

On land, a polar bear prefers to move with a leisurely gait at a speed of about 5 km / h. But this predator can not be called slow: when he wants, he can accelerate to 40 km / h.

But this is not all interesting facts from the life of polar bears. Go ahead.

Rarely, but aptly

With luck, polar bears usually catch prey every four to five days. If fortune turns away from the predator, its subcutaneous fat acts as a reserve energy storage system. The ice expanses of the Arctic can not be called a rich hunting ground. But a thin nose helps to find the victim. An animal can smell a seal that has climbed on the ice for 20-30 km.

Like ten people

Do you want to learn more interesting facts about the polar bear? This polar animal is the largest land predator on our planet. He does not even have natural enemies. And it is not surprising: an adult male, armed with sharp fangs and claws, usually weighs from 351 to 544 kg, which corresponds to a weight of 5-7 people.

But there are also real giants. The largest ever recorded polar bears living in the northwest of Alaska in 1960, weighed about 1,000 kg!

Males reach their maximum size at the age of 8 to 14 years, while females - in 5-6 years. The latter weigh twice as much as their knights - up to 290 kg.

Pregnancy for later

The amazing biological process, known as delayed implantation, provides polar bears with the birth of cubs at the most favorable time of the year, when their chances of survival are greatest. The mating period for these animals lasts from April to May, but the development of embryos is inhibited at an early stage and lasts only to the autumn, when the female is gaining enough weight and will be ready for the arrangement of the winter lair.

But on this interesting facts about the polar bear did not end.

The size of a kitten

Polar bears almost never hibernate, like their brown relatives. An exception is made only by pregnant females, who are forced to build lairs and spend time in them until February-March. After all, their cubs, like other bears, are born very small and helpless, and they have to be protected from the harsh conditions of the Arctic. Curiously, at birth, the largest land predators on the planet have a body length of about 30 cm and weigh only a pound, almost like a guinea pig.

Bear cubs, as a rule, give birth to a pair of young. However, it happens when the baby is only one or three of them.

While the offspring will not get stronger, the bear remains in a lair in a state of hibernation: nothing eats and does not drink. Later the cubs stay with their mother for about two years, during which they learn the skills necessary to successfully survive in the harsh Arctic.

Close relatives

Over time, all new interesting facts about the polar bear in the Arctic are being clarified. For example, in 2006 an unusual beast was found on the territory of this region, it turned out to be only half the polar bear.

Geneticists claim that the polar bear had to separate itself as a species hundreds of thousands of years ago. This is shown by the relevant studies. But, despite this, it turned out that polar bears are able to have joint offspring with brown bears. And this offspring will be prolific, unlike other descendants of interspecific crossing (for example, mules). Such hybrids appear both in the wild and in captivity, but very rarely.

The first such beast, born in the wild, was discovered in 2006. However, by that time scientists had already had the opportunity to watch a similar animal in captivity, at the zoo in Osnabruck in Germany, where polar and brown bears lived in the same enclosure. As of 2010, it was already known about 17 hybrid bears. And in 2012, there were five reports of observations of such hybrids in the wild.

Black polar bears

Polar bears look white, but, as folk wisdom says, appearance can be deceiving. The wool of the bear (the so-called guard hair) and its undercoat are actually almost transparent. But the fact is that inside each guard hair there is a cavity filled with air. Due to this complex structure, light waves of any length are well reflected from the wool. As a result, the polar bear looks white.

However, depending on the season and the position of the sun, the animals may look yellowish or even brown. Sometimes, in an unusually warm climate, bears even green due to the algae settling in their wool.

However, if you shave off his bear's fur, an amazing sight will open: in fact, a polar bear has a skin of black color. It effectively absorbs the heat of the sun, helping the beast to maintain a stable body temperature, even in the fierce arctic cold. Now that the next time you see the black nose of a polar bear, remember the interesting facts about the polar bear: in fact, this is its true color.