99 Fun Facts About Polar Bear

What is the scientific name for the polar bear?

The polar bear is Ursus maritimus; Constantine John Phipps described it as a distinct species under that name in 1774 after his voyage toward the North Pole.

Which of these regions, despite its ice and cold, is NOT a natural home for wild polar bears?

Antarctica has penguins but no bears; wild polar bears live only around the Arctic Ocean and its neighbouring seas, entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.

What color is a polar bear's skin underneath its fur?

A polar bear's skin is black, which helps it absorb the sun's warmth beneath its pale coat; newborn cubs, by contrast, have pink skin.

Polar bears feed primarily on which part of the seals they catch?

Polar bears eat the blubber first and often abandon the rest of the carcass; a seal's fat layer packs far more calories than its muscle or organs.

What is an adult female polar bear called?

An adult female polar bear is a sow, as in every bear species; an adult male is a boar and the young are cubs.

What conservation status did the 2015 IUCN Red List assessment give the polar bear?

The 2015 IUCN Red List assessment classed the polar bear as Vulnerable, projecting a population decline of more than 30 percent over three generations as Arctic sea ice shrinks.

Unlike many other bear species, polar bears generally do NOT do what during the winter months?

Most polar bears do not hibernate. Only pregnant females will enter a maternity den to give birth and nurse their cubs, while other polar bears remain active and continue hunting seals on the sea ice.

In what year did the five polar bear nations sign the Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears?

The Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears was signed in Oslo in November 1973, a year after the 1972 US Marine Mammal Protection Act curbed polar bear hunting in Alaska.

Which animal routinely follows polar bears to scavenge scraps from their kills?

Arctic foxes routinely trail polar bears across the sea ice to scavenge leftovers from seal kills; the bears are opportunistic scavengers themselves, gathering at whale carcasses.

What specialized feature do polar bear paws have that helps them grip ice and avoid slipping?

Polar bear paw pads are studded with small bumps called papillae that grip the ice, and stiff fur between the pads adds further traction on slippery surfaces.

Polar bears are most closely related to, and can still interbreed with, which other ursid species?

The polar bear's closest relative is the brown bear; the two lineages diverged within roughly the last million years and can produce fertile hybrids where their ranges overlap.

Knut, the hand-reared celebrity polar bear cub, lived at the zoo of which city?

Knut was born at Berlin Zoo in December 2006, rejected by his mother and raised by keepers; he became a global celebrity and died in March 2011.

Which of these countries is one of the five 'polar bear range states'?

Norway, through Svalbard, is one of the five range states alongside Canada, Denmark (for Greenland), Russia and the United States; Iceland is not, though bears occasionally drift there on sea ice.

What is considered the biggest threat to polar bear survival?

Sea ice loss from a warming climate is the chief threat: bears hunt seals from the ice, and a 2007 US Geological Survey study projected two-thirds of polar bears could be gone by 2050.

Polar bear fur looks white, but what are the individual guard hairs actually like?

Clear and hollow hairs with no pigment scatter incoming light, which is what makes the coat look white; the hollow guard hairs also trap heat and help the bears float.

How many offspring are in a typical polar bear litter?

Litters run from one to three cubs, with twins the most common outcome; single cubs are the next most frequent, and triplets are uncommon.

Which of these is NOT a physical adaptation that helps polar bears conserve heat?

Polar bears have small ears and a short, compact tail to minimize heat loss. A long, bushy tail would increase surface area and lead to more heat dissipation.

Roughly how many polar bears did the IUCN's 2015 assessment estimate worldwide?

The IUCN's 2015 Red List assessment put the world's polar bears at 22,000-31,000 individuals, with roughly two-thirds of them living in Canada's Arctic.

A 2011 study traced living polar bears' maternal lines to extinct bears of which country?

A 2011 mitochondrial DNA study traced every living polar bear's maternal line to extinct brown bears of Ireland, dating the hybridisation to roughly 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.

During which months do pregnant female polar bears typically enter their maternity dens to give birth?

Pregnant females enter maternity dens between September and December, most often in October or November, and give birth inside the den in midwinter.

Which of these is the polar bear's main technique for catching seals from winter into early spring?

Waiting still at breathing holes is the sit-and-wait method that dominates from winter into early spring, and it suits an animal that spends twice the energy of most mammals just moving around.

How long do polar bear cubs typically stay with their mother?

Cubs stay with their mother until they are around two years old, sometimes two and a half, learning to hunt seals before she leaves them to breed again.

What role do a polar bear's back legs play while it swims?

The broad front paws do the paddling, and bears have been recorded swimming more than 60 miles without rest and at speeds of up to 6 km/h.

The Arctic habitat of polar bears is primarily characterized by what kind of ice?

Sea ice is the polar bear's essential habitat: it is the platform from which the bears hunt seals, travel, rest and find mates, and it melts back each summer.

Polar bears prefer sea ice lying over which kind of seabed, where seals are plentiful?

Polar bears favour annual sea ice over the shallow continental shelf, where seals are most abundant; the deep central Arctic basin holds far fewer seals and bears.

Polar bears are considered the largest extant species of what kind of animal by body mass?

The polar bear is the largest extant land carnivore by body mass: adult males commonly weigh 350 to 700 kg, rivalled only by the Kodiak brown bear.

Besides stopping it slipping on ice, what else does the stiff fur on the sole of each polar bear foot do?

Bears also secrete scent from their foot pads into their tracks, letting individuals keep tabs on one another across the ice.

Polar bears are capable swimmers; roughly how fast can they swim?

Polar bears swim at roughly 6 km/h (3.7 mph), paddling with their front paws; one radio-collared female swam 687 km across the Beaufort Sea over nine days in 2008.

What term describes 'ice-loving' animals, like polar bears, that depend on sea ice?

Polar bears are described as 'pagophilic,' a term meaning 'ice-loving,' which reflects their profound dependence on sea ice for hunting, travel, and breeding.

Which type of seal is the most commonly taken prey of polar bears?

Ringed seals are the most commonly taken prey for polar bears. They are abundant and small enough to be overpowered by even smaller bears.

The largest polar bear on record, a male shot at Kotzebue Sound in 1960, reportedly weighed how much?

The Kotzebue Sound bear of 1960 reportedly weighed 1,002 kg (2,209 lb) and, mounted, stood 3.39 m on its hind legs; typical adult males weigh 300 to 800 kg.

What is the primary material used by pregnant female polar bears to construct their maternity dens?

A pregnant female usually digs into a snowbank in October or November and stays inside through the birth and the cubs' first months without leaving.

In what year did the US list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the polar bear as a threatened species throughout its range in 2008, primarily due to the threat of sea-ice loss from climate change.

Polar bears carry unusually few copies of the gene for which digestive enzyme?

Polar bears carry fewer copies of the amylase gene than brown bears, matching a diet with almost no starch, while genes for breaking down fatty acids show strong selection.

Compared with its closest relative, the polar bear has a more slender build, a narrower skull and a longer what?

The polar bear's neck is longer than that of other bears, helping it keep its head above water when swimming; its teeth are also more carnivorous, with longer canines and smaller cheek teeth.

When the sea ice disappears each summer, where are polar bears forced to go?

Forced onto land, bears use forests, tundra, rocky coasts and lakeshores; in the 2000s a rising share of Beaufort Sea bears summered ashore instead of following the retreating ice north.

Polar bears have a less diverse set of which sensory receptor genes than other bears?

Polar bears carry a less diverse set of olfactory (smell) receptor genes, likely because the Arctic holds few odours; even so, a bear can locate a seal's snow-covered lair from a distance.

In the United States, which state is home to polar bear subpopulations?

In the United States, Alaska is home to two polar bear subpopulations: the Chukchi Sea and the Southern Beaufort Sea populations.

Polar bear milk, the richest of any bear species, is roughly how much fat?

Polar bear milk is about 36 percent fat, the richest of any bear; on it cubs grow to more than 20 pounds by the time they leave the den in spring.

Roughly how fast does a polar bear usually walk?

A polar bear's usual walking pace is about 5.5 km/h (3.4 mph), a lumbering gait that conserves energy; it breaks into a gallop only when charging or fleeing.

What is the main reason polar bears do not mark or aggressively guard a fixed territory?

Home ranges are huge and overlap freely; bears stay faithful to a general region but follow the ice rather than defending ground, and they can travel up to 38,000 square kilometres in a year.

Besides seals, which marine mammals do polar bears occasionally hunt, especially the young?

Besides seals, polar bears, particularly adult males, occasionally hunt walruses, targeting calves and young animals because an adult walrus's size and tusks make it formidable.

What is the approximate weight of a newborn polar bear cub?

Newborns are altricial, with woolly hair and pink skin, and by the time the family leaves the den in late winter the cubs weigh 10–15 kg.

How many polar bear subpopulations did the IUCN specialist group recognize in 2015?

The IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group recognized 19 subpopulations across the circumpolar Arctic in 2015, from the Chukchi Sea to Hudson Bay; a 2022 study proposed a twentieth in Southeast Greenland.

What happens to the weight of polar bears during the year?

Weight can swing by up to 50 percent over the year: bears gorge on seals in spring and early summer, then fast for months when the ice is gone; a fattened pregnant female can reach 500 kg.

Which of these land animals might a polar bear occasionally prey upon when food is scarce ashore?

Polar bears stranded ashore occasionally kill reindeer, as documented on Svalbard; bears in the far south of the range around Hudson Bay spend all summer without ice and lean hardest on land food.

The thick padding of fat on a polar bear can measure up to what approximate thickness?

The fat layer can reach about 10 cm (4 inches) thick, giving warmth and an energy store; so well insulated are the bears that they sometimes overheat and cool off in the water.

Which Arctic whale do polar bears sometimes kill when it is trapped in ice openings?

Polar bears sometimes kill beluga whales confined to small openings in the ice, hauling them out with their claws; narwhals trapped the same way are also taken.

At what age do female polar bears typically first breed?

Females first breed at about four to five years old and usually produce a litter only every three years thereafter; males mature later, at around six.

Which Canadian jurisdiction introduced polar-bear-shaped licence plates in 1970?

The Northwest Territories introduced its polar-bear-shaped licence plate in 1970, a design Nunavut also used from its creation in 1999 until it adopted its own plate in 2012.

What do the Inuit call the polar bear?

Nanook is the Inuit word; the 1922 film Nanook of the North borrowed it, and its star, the hunter Allakariallak, was renamed because Flaherty thought it sounded more marketable.

Which Manitoba town on Hudson Bay is nicknamed the 'Polar Bear Capital of the World'?

Churchill, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, sees bears gather nearby each autumn as they wait to return to the sea ice; the October-November bear season is its biggest tourist draw.

Polar bear liver is dangerous to eat because it is loaded with which nutrient?

Polar bear liver holds so much vitamin A that one meal can cause hypervitaminosis A; explorers ate the meat instead, some calling it a 'royal dish', others finding it too strong to stomach.

Beyond Svalbard's settlements, what are people advised to carry as a last resort against bears?

Outside Svalbard's settlements people are advised to carry a firearm as a last resort against bears; locals also leave houses and cars unlocked so anyone can dive inside to escape one.

International Polar Bear Day falls on which date each year?

International Polar Bear Day is 27 February, set by Polar Bears International to coincide with the season when mothers and cubs are tucked away in their snow dens.

Which Canadian coin, introduced in 1996, carries a polar bear on its reverse?

The two-dollar coin, the toonie, debuted in 1996 with Brent Townsend's polar bear on the reverse; the bimetallic coin replaced the paper two-dollar bill, which was withdrawn the same year.

In warm zoos, what can turn a polar bear's fur green?

Those guard hairs are normally what traps heat and helps the bear float.

Roughly how long can a wild polar bear live?

Wild polar bears can live up to about 30 years, though few pass 25; adult survival is high and the dangerous years are subadulthood, when inexperienced hunters have kills stolen by bigger bears.

Gus, the Central Park Zoo's obsessive swimmer, was the first zoo animal treated with which drug?

Gus was put on Prozac in 1994 after swimming figure-eights for up to 12 hours a day; the zoo also paid $25,000 for a behavioural therapist and redesigned his enclosure.

Bears locked in Manitoba's 'polar bear jail' are released when what happens?

The inmates are mostly adolescents that keep loitering near town; they are tranquillised on the way in.

Aurora, the giant polar bear marionette paraded at climate protests, was built by which group?

Greenpeace built Aurora, a polar bear puppet the size of a double-decker bus, for its 2013 Save the Arctic march in London; WWF took a cuddlier route, selling plush bears for its 'Arctic Home' campaign.

Why does Greenland's coat-of-arms bear break heraldic tradition with the paw it raises?

Greenland's bear raises its left forepaw because Inuit lore holds that polar bears are left-handed, a change adopted with the 1989 arms; the same bear in Denmark's royal arms raises its right.

At beached whale carcasses, polar bears usually back down to which smaller but pushier animal?

At Alaskan whale carcasses polar bears usually yield to the smaller but far more aggressive grizzly bear; several polar bears will otherwise tolerate each other at a big beached carcass.

Who voiced the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison in the 2007 film The Golden Compass?

Ian McKellen voiced Iorek Byrnison in The Golden Compass (2007); Ian McShane voiced the rival bear, renamed Ragnar Sturlusson for the film to avoid confusion with Iorek.

Which classic Hollywood star famously posed on a polar bear rug?

Marilyn Monroe's pin-up photographs lounging on a white polar bear rug became iconic; centuries earlier such rugs covered the floors of Scandinavian churches.

How long can a polar bear stay underwater on a single dive?

A polar bear can stay under for about three minutes; the longest timed dive, 3 minutes 10 seconds, was filmed off Svalbard in 2014 as a bear stalked seals on an ice floe.

What is the estimated top running speed of a polar bear?

Polar bears can run at an estimated 25 mph (40 km/h) over short distances, but their insulation makes them overheat quickly, so they cannot keep that pace up for long.

After birth, a polar bear cub's eyes stay closed for about how long?

By the time the family leaves the den in late winter, the cubs can walk alongside their mother.

In 2011, Canada listed the polar bear under its Species at Risk Act with which status?

Canada listed the polar bear as a species of special concern under the Species at Risk Act in November 2011, the lowest at-risk category, following COSEWIC's 2008 assessment.

Polar bears mostly mate during which months?

Polar bears mate on the sea ice between March and May; males search in twisting paths, which helps them find females while dodging rival males, whereas females travel in straighter lines.

A stalking polar bear keeps its head low, possibly to hide which giveaway?

A stalking bear keeps its head low, possibly to hide its dark nose and eyes against the ice; once close enough it charges, racing to reach the seal before it slips into its hole.

In 2019, 50-plus polar bears swarming a town forced an emergency in which Russian archipelago?

In February 2019 Novaya Zemlya's main settlement, Belushya Guba, declared a state of emergency after more than 50 polar bears invaded; hungry bears, especially subadults, are drawn to garbage dumps.

Which future admiral joined Phipps's 1773 voyage and failed in a hunt for a polar bear coat?

Midshipman Horatio Nelson, aged 14, sailed on HMS Carcass in Phipps's 1773 Arctic expedition and failed in a bid to kill a bear whose skin he wanted for his father.

Denned up for winter, a pregnant polar bear does what with her bodily waste?

The den's entrance tunnel can be over two metres long, and the inside stays far warmer than the air outside.

Coca-Cola's first polar bear advertisement, in 1922, ran in which country?

The first Coca-Cola polar bear appeared in a 1922 print advertisement in France, squirting Coke into the mouth of a thirsty, anthropomorphised sun; the famous animated bears arrived in 1993.

What is the soft, pulsing call a mother polar bear uses to stay in touch with her cubs?

Chuffing is the soft, pulsing call a mother uses to keep in touch with her cubs; males also chuff when courting females, and cubs hum while nursing.

Binky, the Anchorage zoo bear who mauled two visitors in 1994, was photographed clutching what?

He kept the Australian tourist's shoe for three days, and the photo spawned T-shirts reading 'Send another tourist, this one got away'.

Which show jokingly named the 2006 'pizzly' hybrid the top threat to US security?

On The Colbert Report's 'ThreatDown', Stephen Colbert named the 2006 hybrid the number-one threat to America; the hunter who shot it held a polar bear licence and faced a fine had it been ruled a grizzly.

In His Dark Materials, the armoured bears' armour, which they regard as their soul, is made of what?

The panserbjørne forge their armour from meteoric iron, 'sky-iron', and regard it as their soul; they have opposable thumbs and no dæmons, and Iorek repairs the Subtle Knife without specialist tools.

Who gave the polar bear its English name in A Synopsis of Quadrupeds (1771)?

Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant coined 'polar bear' in A Synopsis of Quadrupeds (1771); before that Europeans called it the white bear, ice bear, sea bear or Greenland bear.

The oldest known polar bear fossil, a jaw found in 2004, came from which Norwegian island?

The jawbone, found in 2004 at Poolepynten on Prince Charles Foreland in Svalbard, is 110,000 to 130,000 years old, making it the oldest polar bear fossil known.

What is the most teeth a polar bear can have?

Polar bears have up to 42 teeth, the full count for bears; a wide gap between the canines and cheek teeth may help it bite into prey, though its bite is not especially strong.

What tint does a polar bear's coat often take on with age and sun exposure?

Polar bear fur often takes on a yellowish tint, especially in summer and in older animals, as the unpigmented hairs are stained by seal oils and weathered by sunlight.

Polar bears are especially prone to which parasitic roundworm, picked up through cannibalism?

Trichinella roundworms infect a large share of polar bears, passed on when they eat other bears; adult males also kill cubs, both to bring the mother back into heat and simply for food.

Debby, certified by Guinness as the world's oldest polar bear at 41, lived at a zoo in which city?

Debby lived at Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo from 1967 until her death in 2008; her favourite treats included veggie dogs and smoked goldeye, and a statue of her at the zoo contains some of her ashes.

The first DNA-confirmed wild polar-bear hybrid ('pizzly') was shot in 2006 on which Arctic island?

The hybrid was shot near Sachs Harbour on Banks Island in April 2006 by an American hunter; DNA testing confirmed a polar bear mother and a grizzly father.

The Tower of London got a polar bear as early as 1252 under which king?

Henry III received the bear in 1252 as a gift from Haakon IV of Norway; it was let out on a chain to fish in the Thames. Frederick I of Prussia later kept declawed bears for mock fights.

In Inuit astronomy, which star cluster is seen as a polar bear trapped by dogs?

The Pleiades are seen as a polar bear beset by dogs in Inuit star lore; a second bear scene puts the hunters, dogs and a wounded bear among Orion's Belt, the Hyades and Aldebaran.

Edwin Landseer's 1864 painting of two polar bears amid Arctic expedition wreckage is titled what?

Man Proposes, God Disposes (1864) imagines the fate of Franklin's lost expedition, bears tearing at a ship's remains; it hangs at Royal Holloway, University of London, where it is covered with a flag during student exams.

Wapusk National Park, a key denning area, takes its name for 'white bear' from which language?

Wapusk is the Cree word for 'white bear'; pregnant females den in the park's peatlands south of Hudson Bay's shore and emerge with cubs each March.

Which Russian island, 'island of polar bears' in Chukchi, has the world's highest density of dens?

Wrangel Island, Umqilir in Chukchi, hosts the world's densest concentration of maternity dens; it straddles the 180th meridian, so the International Date Line bends around it to keep the island on Russian time.

Steven Amstrup won the 2012 award dubbed the Nobel of animal conservation, named for which city?

The Indianapolis Prize, run by the Indianapolis Zoo, went to Steven Amstrup in 2012; before joining Polar Bears International he led the USGS team whose 2007 reports underpinned the US threatened listing.

Some taxonomists once placed the polar bear in its own genus, called what?

Thalarctos maritimus was used by some taxonomists into the mid-20th century; Ursus won out because the fossil record and fertile wild hybrids show how recently the polar bear diverged.

Björn Kurtén's 1964 fossil subspecies U. m. tyrannus was based on a fragment of which bone?

Kurtén named Ursus maritimus tyrannus from a single large ulna dug up at Kew Bridge, London; a later reassessment concluded the bone more likely belonged to a brown bear.

In Netsilik Inuit naming, which polar bear is an arnaluk?

Arnaluk is the Netsilik name for a gestating female; adult males are anguraq, lone females tattaq, newborns hagliaqtug and dormant bears apitiliit.

On radio's Jack Benny Program, Mel Blanc voiced Benny's pet polar bear, named what?

Carmichael, Jack Benny's pet polar bear, was a running gag who supposedly ate the gas man; Mel Blanc, better known as the voice of Bugs Bunny, supplied the growls.

The oldest evidence of polar bear hunting, 8,000 years old, is from Zhokhov Island in which sea?

Zhokhov Island lies in the De Long group in the East Siberian Sea, where 8,000-year-old remains show Mesolithic hunters taking polar bears; the oldest picture of a bear hunt is a Siberian petroglyph at Pegtymel.

Which 1539 map, possibly the first to show a polar bear, places one on Iceland?

Olaus Magnus's Carta marina of 1539, the earliest detailed map of the Nordic countries, shows a white bear on an ice floe off Iceland.

In 1609, sailor Jonas Poole gave two polar bear cubs from Svalbard to which monarch?

Jonas Poole, sailing for the Muscovy Company, brought two polar bear cubs from Svalbard to James VI and I in 1609, six years after James's accession to the English throne.