The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a bear Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere native largely within the Arctic circle The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. In 2010, it is the parallel of latitude that runs approximately 66° 33′ 39″ north of the Equator. The region north of this circle is known as the Arctic, and the zone just to the south is called the Northern Temperate Zone. The equivalent polar circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' (Latin carne meaning 'flesh' and vorare meaning 'to devour'), is an animal that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of vertebrate and/or invertebrate animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging. Animals that depend solely on animal flesh for their and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Omnivores (from Latin: omni all, everything; vorare to devour) are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively. Pigs are one well-known example of an omnivore. Crows are another example of an Kodiak bear, which is approximately the same size.[3] An adult male weighs around 350–680 kg (770–1,500 lb),[4] while an adult female is about half that size. Although it is closely related to the brown bear The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It weighs 70 to 780 kilograms (150 to 1,700 lb) and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land based predator, it has evolved to occupy a narrow ecological niche In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food resources and foraging methods. A shorthand definition, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae (the walrus), Otariidae (eared seals, including sea lions and fur seals), and Phocidae (earless seals) which make up most of its diet.[5] Although most polar bears are born on land, it spends most of its time at sea, hence its scientific name meaning "maritime A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, the term refers to a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean. It is also used sometimes to describe a large saline lake that lacks a natural outlet, such as the Caspian Sea bear", and can hunt consistently only from sea ice Sea ice is largely formed from ocean water that freezes. Because the oceans consist of saltwater, this occurs at about -1.8 °C, spending much of the year on the frozen sea.
The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve. The following is a very small, non-representative fraction of the 8,566 species listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with 8 of the 19 polar bear subpopulations in decline.[6] For decades, unrestricted hunting raised international concern for the future of the species; populations have rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are any ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection. However, several widely accepted formulations, which define the term indigenous peoples in stricter terms, have been put forward by prominent and internationally recognized organizations, such as the United Nations,, and the hunting of polar bears remains important in their cultures.
The IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation now lists global warming Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C between the start and the end of the 20th century.[A] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the as the most significant threat to the polar bear, primarily because the melting of its sea ice habitat reduces its ability to find sufficient food. The IUCN states, "If climatic trends continue polar bears may become extirpated from most of their range Categories: Demography | Ecology | Population | within 100 years."[7] On 14 May 2008, the United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, and to insular areas of the United States listed the polar bear as a threatened species Threatened species are any species which are vulnerable to extinction in the near future. World Conservation Union (IUCN) is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories: vulnerable, endangered, and critically endangered, depending on the degree to which under the Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. As stated in section 2 of the act, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.".
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Thanks to a very appropriately named event The Polar Bear Classic high school softball ...
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Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:00:00 GM
Polar Bear. are in danger due to global warming, primarily because the melting of its sea ice habitat reduces its ability to find sufficient food. If climatic trends continue . polar bears. may become extirpated from most of their range ...
