The history of the Bear Day holiday. International Polar Bear Day (Polar Bear Day)
The polar bear is the biggest land predator on the ground. This is incredible huge beast. I realized that the worst thing is that it’s white: White shark, white noise, delirium tremens... Well, and a polar bear, of course. He is the largest of the land predators. The weight of a male can reach a ton, and the body length can be three meters. Can you imagine how this monster is coming at you? I'm scared to look at them at the zoo.
In fact, the polar bear is not white, but an albino: its fur has no pigment and is hollow inside. Therefore, a bear can be yellow, due to exposure sunlight, and green if he lives in a zoo in a warm climate (microalgae grow inside the hairs). It can also be red when it eats someone. Blue - I don’t know.
The polar bear is perfectly adapted to life at the pole. He has a 10-centimeter layer of fat on his body to keep him warm, and he doesn’t care about his figure. Still have polar bear on the heels there is wool, like a hobbit, and between the toes there are membranes so that he can swim well. He has three hobbies: killing, swimming and walking. He's terribly mobile.
The polar bear can move on drifting ice floes. The minds are so huge. They are not afraid, they will not drown or freeze. They hunt walruses, seals and other sea hares. They sit down near the hole and wait. Like winter fishing, only without a fishing rod. The seal comes up to take a breath of air, but before it has time to enjoy life, the bear hits it on the head with its paw:
“Oh,” is all the seal manages to say. The bear pulls her out and eats her.
One day, Russian submariners saw a polar bear swimming and decided to chase it in a submarine. I don’t even know who is smarter after this: Russian submariners or the polar bear.
“Get rid of it,” the polar bear yelled as it swam away. - I'm afraid of your iron seal!
But the submariners did not lag behind: it seemed to them that they were just funny jokers. As a result, the bear in the water reached a speed of about 6.5 kilometers per hour. Russian submariners finally appreciated his valor and fell behind.
And the most amazing swim was made on the Beaufort Sea polar bear— she decided to sail north from Alaska to the pack ice to hunt seals. So she swam 685 km in icy water in 9 days. After this, will anyone tell me that man is the crown of nature?
Males and females have complex relationships: polar bears are loners and egocentric. What can they do if there are few of them, and there are thousands of kilometers of ice and snow around? They are fine without a family. But even such stubborn, fat melancholic people are affected by spring. When does a bear start mating season, he runs hundreds of kilometers to find his wife. I have no idea how a polar bear finds out where the female is, maybe he doesn’t even know, but just runs anywhere, maybe he’ll get lucky.
“If you want to get married, you won’t have much time to run,” he mutters, overcoming the snow fields and drifting ice floes. - What kind of life is this? No bars, no nightclubs, not even a place to meet people.
When the polar bear does find the female, it turns out that several other males have found her. Nobody wants to give in and run around in the cold for several days again in search of a lady. That's when they start hitting each other. I would like to be a female polar bear for an hour to watch this epic action. After mating season the male leaves.
“Well, thank God, I got rid of it,” says the bear, who is also a loner and doesn’t need a husband. And he goes to give birth in the den.
Bear cubs are born tiny, half a kilo in total. To look at them, it’s so incomprehensible how such a little thing can turn into such a monster.
When a polar bear has nothing to eat, it can come to people. And in general, he is very curious. But you understand that when such a monster weighing a ton awakens curiosity along with hunger, this does not lead to good. He simply destroys everything he sees, and then figures out whether it can be eaten or not. The polar bear follows the scent, appears to people, and asks:
- What is this? Garbage dump? Yes, there are a lot of tasty things here. And what's that? Bucket? Inedible. And what's that? Your chef? Yeah, he tore his head off. Edible. What, it was necessary to eat not the cook, but the pies? You're probably lying. But come on.
We try not to kill polar bears that come to human habitation, but euthanize them and transport them back by helicopter. And in Canada, in the city of Churchill, there is a special prison for polar bears. They are put there to think about their behavior.
“Boss, don’t give me a deadline,” says the polar bear, who was caught in the trash heap, indignantly.
“Once you get better, we’ll let you out,” they promise him.
Polar bears are listed in the Red Book, which makes them incredibly happy, because previously they were hunted endlessly, and almost exterminated them all.
By the way, February 27 is International Polar Bear Day. I don’t know how to celebrate it: either dive into an ice hole, or run for several kilometers in the snow.
Today, February 27, 2018, is also celebrated as International Polar (Polar) Bear Day, Optimist Day and other events.
February 27, 2018 is celebrated folk holiday Kirill Vesnoukazchik. On this day, the Church remembers Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril (Constantine), the Slovenian teacher, who was popularly nicknamed the Spring Pointer because spring was judged by the weather of that day.
Saint Cyril (worldly name - Constantine) and his brother Methodius are equal to the apostles first teachers and educators. They were from Macedonia, the city of Thessaloniki. According to legend, from the age of 14 Kirill was raised with the imperial son. For his intelligence and outstanding knowledge he received intkbbee nickname Philosopher (Wise). In his youth, he accepted the rank of presbyter and went to Constantinople to the cathedral church, as a librarian and philosopher.
Soon he went to Methodius on Mount Olympus to find peace and solitude there. I didn't stay in that place for long. In 857, Emperor Michael sent both brothers on a missionary journey to the Khazars to preach the Christian faith (their path lay through Chersonesus, where the saints found the relics of the martyr Clement, the Pope). Thanks to the labors of the brothers, the Khazar prince and his people adopted Christianity. The ruler released all the Greek captives, and Saint Cyril returned to Constantinople with them.
In 862, the emperor sent saints to Mordovia to preach Christianity in the Slavic language. Together with his brother, Saint Cyril translated many books from Greek into Slavic, taught people to read and write, and became the creator of the first Slavic alphabet.
At the invitation of Pope Hadrian, Saints Cyril and Methodius went to Rome. They were greeted with great respect, as the brothers brought with them the relics of the Holy Martyr Clement, Pope of Rome.
In 869, at the age of 42, Saint Cyril died. He was buried in the Church of St. Clement.
According to signs, as much snow as there is on the field, there will be as much bread in the barn.
If it’s warm and sunny on Kirill, it means that frost may soon hit, and if frost hits, then the summer will be dry and hot.
The tits chirped - it will soon be warm.
It is believed that on the night of Cyril the Spring Pointer one has prophetic dreams.
International Polar Bear Day
international day polar bear international organization Polar Bears International February 27.
The white or polar bear is a large predatory animal, a descendant of brown bear. In 2013, there were 25 thousand individuals living in the world, and 5-6 thousand in Russia. Melting ice, pollution environment, poaching lead to a numerical decrease in their population. Experts predict that by 2050, two-thirds of polar bears will disappear.
Optimist's Day
In honor of the fighters against green melancholy and pessimism, a holiday was established - Optimist Day. It is celebrated annually on February 27th. Those who see everything around in “gray tones” should try to “see the sun through the clouds” this holiday and look at the world with new eyes. Spend this day with a smile on your face, enjoy the new day, notice only the good.
Beautiful Birth Festival in Australia
The Beautiful Birth Festival in Australia is celebrated on February 27th. The meaning of the celebration is to celebrate the birth of a new person. The goal is also to help women raise their children and attract the attention of interested organizations to the problems of motherhood. The festival can be seen in the capital South Australia, Adelaide. The Beautiful Birth Committee itself was founded in 2008. The most interesting thing is that the initiators of the event were five women who raised 17 children. All five had extensive experience in parenting. They volunteer to help expectant mothers and work in social assistance services.
Abraham, George, Isaac, Kirill, Konstantin, Mikhail, Raphael, Fedor.
- 1411 - one of the oldest universities was founded in the Scottish city of St. Andrews.
- 1598 - The Zemsky Sobor elected Boris Godunov as Tsar and swore an oath of allegiance to him.
- 1879 - the artificial sweetener saccharin is produced.
- 1900 - founded football club Bavaria.
- 1964 - the world's first tourist underwater vehicle was launched.
- 1997 - The successful cloning of Dolly the sheep was announced.
- Constantine the Great 272 - Roman Emperor.
- Nikolai Ge 1831 - Russian painter.
- Enrico Caruso 1873 - Italian opera singer.
- Pyotr Nesterov 1887 - Russian military pilot.
- Charles Best 1899 - Canadian physician.
- Gelena Velikanova 1922 - Soviet pop singer.
- Evgeny Urbansky 1932 - Soviet actor cinema and theater.
- Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - English-American film actress.
- Anne Veski 1956 - Soviet and Estonian singer.
- Tatyana Dogileva 1957 - Soviet and Russian actress.
International Polar Bear Day - Polar Bear Day is celebrated around the world on February 27th. This holiday was initiated by activists of the international organization Potal Bears International, whose activity is to preserve the polar bear population on our planet.
These amazing predators have the status of “vulnerable species” and are included in the Red Book.
About polar bears
On White Polar Bear Day in many educational institutions From kindergartens to universities, thematic hours are held dedicated to stories about these amazing animals.
Polar bears are the largest land predators currently living in the world. The length of an adult bear can reach three meters, and these beauties can weigh a lot. On average, the minimum weight of a young male is 400-450 kilograms. And the most “miniature” sizes of young bears are 2-2.5 meters in length.
The females of this type of bear are much smaller and more neat in appearance. The weight of young girls of marriageable age ranges from 200-300 kilograms, and their length is only 1.6-2.5 meters.
The largest bears grow on the island of Spitsbergen, and the smallest live on the shores Bering Sea.
How are polar bears different from others?
Although there are many varieties of these animals, only World Polar Bear Day is celebrated; there are no holidays for brown and black animals.
The main ones, noticeable at first glance even to non-specialists, external differences These animals have a long, powerful neck and a flat, rounded head. The skin, nose, and mouth color are black.
The “fur coat” of the bears is unique. If you watch animals in different seasons, then you can see that their color varies from shining snow-white to dirty yellow shades. In fact, the color of the coat does not change. The hair of a polar animal is completely devoid of pigmentation, and it is hollow inside. Thanks to this structure, fur hairs transmit only ultraviolet rays, which increases the thermal insulation properties of the “fur coat”. The fur becomes yellow due to long-term exposure warm air. For example, in zoos in the summer you can observe such a change in color. IN tropical climate bears can not only turn yellow, but also turn green in literally. This occurs due to the activity between photoautotrophic hairs single-celled organisms, in fact, the simplest algae. Once in a warm environment, they begin active reproduction, which creates optical illusion change of color by the bear.
The soles of polar beauties are also interesting. Their heels are covered with short, stiff hair, which helps the bears not slide on the ice. There are small membranes between the toes, thanks to which the animal’s underwater maneuverability is very high. Their claws are not just strong and strong, but also long. The bear often during spearfishing or fishing in shallow water, he strings prey on them like on a fork.
How many polar bears are there in the world?
International Polar Bear Day, celebrated on February 27, rarely goes by without mentioning statistics on the number of these unusual animals.
Of course, scientists’ calculations are not 100% accurate. There is no way to count wild animals and microchip them all. According to approximate data, the modern population of these predators varies from 20 to 25 thousand animals. About a third of the polar beauties live in the north of Russia; we have at least 6-7 thousand of them.
On the territory of Yakutia there are natural protected areas and reserves in which bears are observed and studied. These are the following places:
- resource reserve "Kurdigino-Krestovaya";
- natural reserves- “Bear Islands” in the Nizhnekolymsky region and “Kytalyk” in the Allaikhovsky conservation area.
Of course, employees of the reserves celebrate Polar Bear Day, because, in fact, it’s almost their professional holiday. Unfortunately, workers practically do not film the animals, do not take photographs, and the reserves do not have pages in in social networks.
Why is the population declining?
Held in various institutions on February 27, Polar Bear Day is rarely complete without information about the decline in the animal population and the reasons that caused it.
As a rule, disappearing from the face of the planet individual species Humans are to blame for both animals and plants. But in the case of polar bears, it is not so much human hunting for them that is to blame, but the melting of glaciers in the Arctic Circle, which occurs due to the so-called global warming.
Scientists' forecast is sad. They predict a significant decline in the population of these animals by 2050. Moreover, the forecast does not take into account the activity of poachers; calculations are based only on observations of melting Arctic ice.
About poachers
The biggest problem for polar predators in these days became poachers. Their activity knows no borders or languages; animals are dying in Russia, Canada, and other countries. The most dangerous nuance of poaching is that the prey of such people, as a rule, are female bears expecting offspring or already raising babies.
This is typical for all types of poaching; for example, foresters on the Amur often pick up kittens next to skinned tigresses. This sad feature is due to the fact that mothers are passionate about training their offspring, obtaining food and monitoring both their babies and potential threats from the animal world. Feel the presence of a man with a gun." ranged”, not standing in the wind and not accompanied by a pack of dogs, the bear is not able to, like other animals.
Although the fight against poachers is ongoing, it is difficult to cope with this phenomenon due to the fact that the occupation brings great benefits. According to WWF, average cost the skin of a handsome polar bear costs 600 thousand rubles, and his head, which can be hung on a wall, costs 130,000. WWF activists regularly monitor advertisements for such sales on the Internet.
How is the population protected?
As for hunting polar beauties, it has been completely prohibited in our country since 1956.
Quotas for shooting these animals, that is, restrictions on the ability to hunt them, have been adopted in the following countries:
- Greenland;
- Canada.
Animals that have their own holiday - Polar Bear Day - are listed in both the international and Russian Red Books. However, the population is considered vulnerable natural views for several decades, despite the efforts made.
About the holiday
International Polar Bear Day, initiated by the non-profit, originally American, and now international organization Potal Bears International, has been celebrated since 2000, although at that time it did not have official status.
Scientists first spoke about the need to protect the population of these predators in the first half of the last century, but the first international protection document was signed only on November 15, 1973. This happened in Oslo, the “Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears” was signed by representatives:
- THE USSR;
- Denmark;
- Canada;
- Norway.
Although this document limited hunting, it did not concern environmental issues.
How is this day celebrated?
International Polar Bear Day is celebrated around the world with various events organized by activists of various environmental organizations.
The main and only purpose of highlighting this day in the calendar is to attract people's attention to existing problem concerning population survival unique bears. The media, as a rule, publish relevant articles on February 27, and TV channels showing documentaries about nature, be sure to pay special attention to bears.
Celebrate Polar Bear Day just like New Year or March Eighth, no need. If it is not possible to organize an educational event, you can make a small personal contribution - turn off all devices for at least an hour, household appliances and other household items that generate heat. This may seem naive to some, but if every person on our planet does this, then this action will bring results.
Working in kindergarten, you can dedicate a matinee to the bears, spend an educational hour, or at least just watch a cartoon about Umka with the kids, or read a book to the children.
In schools and universities it is quite possible to carry out thematic classes or lectures, set up stands, organize flash mobs or fundraisers. The initiative does not have to come from teachers. If several students approach their teachers with a similar proposal, they will certainly receive support.
VLADIVOSTOK, February 27 – RIA Novosti, Nadezhda Egorova. The polar bear, the hunting of which is prohibited in Russia, is nevertheless becoming an increasingly vulnerable species today. The attitude of city residents towards a predator as a cute creature often leads to the fact that the animal goes to national villages, where it is eventually killed, a senior told RIA Novosti Researcher Laboratory of Mammal Ecology of the Institute biological problems North Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and leading researcher national park"Beringia" Anatoly Kochnev.
Every year on February 27, the world celebrates International Polar Bear Day or Polar Bear Day. This holiday is intended to attract public attention to the problem of preserving the species. On this day, environmental and animal protection organizations remind about the problem of melting polar ice- the main threat to the polar bear. The predator is listed in the International Red Book and the Red Book of Russia. Since 1957, by resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, a ban on the hunting of polar bears has been introduced in our country.
Bear is not Umka
Kochnev has been studying polar bears since the early 1980s; he worked longest at Chukchi island Wrangel - from 1989 to 1999. In Chukchi the island is called Umkilir - “island of polar bears”. This piece of land is the “maternity hospital” of these animals, says Kochnev.
“On the coast of Chukotka, bears are less common, but nevertheless I see them every year. I notice a peculiarity: when bears gather in a large group, their behavior changes, they become more tolerant of each other and of people. Bears are interested, they come close , they try to play with you and taste it. When they are alone, they run away, they are afraid of people. Besides, bears have always been hunted in Chukotka, and here they avoid people,” the interlocutor says.
According to him, when bears are in big company and when they have plenty of food - for example, the corpses of whales or walruses - they begin to be friendly towards man, and he becomes such an "ugly bear" to them. Animals transfer their pattern of behavior towards their fellow creatures to humans - they play.
“Once I watched how 11 bears gathered in a heap near the shore, splashed, played, fought, there were also females with cubs - in general, happy bears. And they show interest in humans - they try to approach, especially the cubs. But in This situation is still dangerous, because any game between a bear and a person can end badly for the person,” says Kochnev.
Earlier, pictures of a polar bear “playing” with an arctic fox were published on the Internet. And they show that after a while the animal is already dead. Similar sad story was when a polar bear "petted" huskies in Canada - their owner organized an attraction for tourists, tying up the pets and allowing the bears who lived nearby to come and play with them. However, everything ended badly, says Kochnev. Came new bear, who was not used to dogs, and killed them.
“Neither people nor domestic animals should flirt with bears. And being touched by such things is bad. For last decades people to wildlife They begin to be overly cutesy. And this does a disservice to the animals themselves. The spread of such an attitude - supposedly bears are not dangerous, they are cute, and so on - is fraught, because people come to build facilities in the north, work here and behave with bears like a cartoon animal, like Umka,” says the specialist.
Around the years when this cartoon was published, a similar trend began to spread, says Kochnev. At that time it was done famous photo, where a hunter in the north gives a mother bear and her cub a can of condensed milk.
"This publication caused trouble. The hunter lived in a village on Cape Schmidt. He decided to feed a mother bear and her cub, and then this animal was killed. Maybe this man knew bears and was not afraid of them, but he set an example for other people who went to feed the animal with condensed milk , the bear shushed them, they got scared and shot her. It would be better if the hunter didn’t touch the bear - she would have lived her own life,” the interlocutor notes.
The problem of ethnic villages
According to him, videos and photos of builders and oil workers feeding bears are also circulating on the Internet. The authors of the photographs boast about this, and the bear begins to perceive humans as a source of food and goes to villages, including national ones, for food.
“And there are people with absolutely no cuteness, they will kill this beast. The Chukchi and Eskimos have a consumerist view of this. If a bear comes to a village, they kill it and don’t tell anyone about it. Indigenous peoples eat bear meat. In Russia for 60 years The hunting of bears is prohibited, but during this time they have not stopped hunting them. The Beringia National Park is working with local residents on this issue, because the animal is vulnerable, and the attitude towards it needs to be changed. If it is possible to ensure that the bear leaves alive, we must do this until the last moment,” Kochnev is sure.
The scientist notes that in addition to the reduction of ice - the main habitat and hunting habitat of the polar bear - the way of life in ethnic villages leads to conflicts with people. Traditionally, the remains of hunted mammals are thrown into a trash heap on the shore, the hunted meat is stored in sheds, and the bear it's winter to the village, attracted by these smells.
“There are hundreds of such cases - bears take food from dogs in villages and drag away the dogs themselves. We need to reconsider the overall lifestyle in the village so that food waste did not lie openly. In the 1980s, there was a maximum number of polar bears, but there was a lot of ice, so the animals almost didn’t go ashore and didn’t know people. Now there is no ice, the bear goes ashore in search of food sources, and all national villages are traditionally located next to walrus rookeries. And that’s where the bears come,” says Kochnev.
Kill with respect
According to him, despite the work of specialists with local population, over the past 20 years, the most that they have been able to do is create bear patrols in two villages to drive away the animals. But in general, the lifestyle there does not change: the locals do not have money for refrigerators or metal buildings for storing meat.
“In addition, for them, a bear entering the village is additional meat. Traditionally, there were no ways to drive bears away from the village. Those who remember the old beliefs say that if a polar bear came to the village, then it brought meat and skin to the people Therefore, it is necessary to kill it, and then honor and thank it. Previously, when hunting this animal, they performed many rituals: they held a feast, invited the whole village, performed rituals with its head, thanked it, escorted it off with honors, “fed” the bear’s head, asking for its soul. to acquire meat and skin and return, they beat tambourines and staged dances,” notes Kochnev.
On the one hand, local residents killed the bear, and on the other, they treated the animal with absolute respect. The ban on hunting animals over the years has seriously changed the mentality of the local population. The scientist notes that in 2010, a quota for polar bear hunting was allocated to Russian and American indigenous people. Today it is used in Alaska, but in Russia the ban on hunting the animal has not yet been lifted.
“At the time when the quota was allocated, illegal bear hunting had almost stopped in our country - people were afraid that if they were caught poaching, they would not receive the quota. But until now permission has not been given, local residents write applications every year, but to no avail. They they gave up and live as they lived; as a result, illegal fishing resumes,” the specialist notes.
Kochnev adds that if bear hunting is allowed, then the situation with illegal hunting will be resolved only with serious control from the state and within communities.
When a bear is rushing towards you
Over the years of his work with bears, the scientist had many encounters with this predator, but he especially remembered one - it could have been the last in his life. This happened in 2003 on Kolyuchin Island.
“26 bears lived there, and there weren’t enough walruses; in addition, they went out to a place under the rocks that was inconvenient for predators. And the bears really couldn’t provide themselves with meat. Once I sat under a slope and watched the walruses. Quite by accident, on the verge of consciousness I caught some sound, turned around and saw that from above, 20 meters away, a bear was rushing towards me along the slope. Its eyes were burning, saliva was flying, it was almost licking its lips,” says the scientist.
Kochnev only had a stick with him, and he managed to take a few steps away from the slope.
"The bear jerked in my direction, I lunged at him with a stick and hissed. When bears hiss - just like cats - they warn that they can bite. The animal paused and thought, there was misunderstanding in his eyes. He looks at the walruses that are nearby in the water , and at me. He smelled the walrus and from a distance decided that I was also a walrus and he could grab me. The bear backed away a little, sniffed the stone where I was sitting, and then it dawned on him - he smelled me. He turned to me, him. the eyes focused, and understanding was visible: yeah, this is a person,” Kochnev recalls.
After this, the animal rushed into the water, pushed aside the walruses and swam away. The scientist says that it is absolutely clear to him that the animal was hunting a walrus, and not a person. But for anyone else, this story will be evidence of an attempt by a predator to attack a person.
"Understanding the intentions of animals is complicated story. People can walk with a stick and think that they will drive away a bear, but in order to behave this way, you need a deep understanding of the psychology of the animal, it is important to clearly understand from his gaze, from his movement, from any turn of his head, what he is up to. I wouldn’t advise people who don’t have the appropriate knowledge and experience to do this (drive them away with a stick), it’s better to let them shoot the bear and stay alive,” the interlocutor added.
Bear Conservation Plan
As a representative of the government of Chukotka told RIA Novosti, today there is a plan of priority measures for the conservation of the polar bear in the region, it is designed until 2020. According to the document, a corresponding commission is working, and interaction between different structures is organized. Every year, up to 260 joint raids with law enforcement officers are carried out to suppress cases of poaching.
In addition, the authorities are preventive work with the local population to prevent conflicts between people and polar bears. Work is underway to develop a network of specially protected natural areas, and restrictions on economic activity are introduced in bear habitats.
“The expert estimate of the population size is from 2 thousand to 5 thousand individuals,” the interlocutor said, calling main threat for the species, climate change and, as a consequence, an increase in the number conflict situations between man and predator.
According to him, a number of measures have also been developed to reduce the incidence of bears entering villages. To local residents It is recommended to remove waste in a timely manner, abandoned buildings in the villages are conserved or demolished, and lighting from the coast is also organized. Also from among experienced hunters create mobile groups to scare away animals.
Every year on February 27, the world celebrates International Polar Bear Day, which in our country is more often called Polar Bear Day.
The initiator of the holiday was the organization PBI (Potal Bears International), which is actively fighting to preserve the population of this bear. the most beautiful predator, living only in Arctic latitudes, near the North Pole.
The main purpose of the Day is to disseminate information about the life of polar bears and attract public attention to the need for their protection. By this date, environmental and environmental organizations Various public events and educational events are being prepared.
By rough estimates scientists, today there are approximately 20-25 thousand polar bears in the world.
The main threat leading to the disappearance of polar bears is the melting of polar ice, which occurs as a result of global warming on our planet.
If the rate of polar ice melting does not slow down, scientists estimate that the polar bear population will decline by two-thirds by 2050.
Another problem life threatening polar bears is a development oil fields with subsequent environmental pollution.
First of all, International Polar Bear Day is important for the five countries in which polar bear populations live - Russia, Norway, Canada, Greenland and the United States of America (Alaska).
In May 2008, the United States listed the polar bear as an endangered species on the Red Book. Canada and Russia have designated the polar bear's status as "vulnerable."
Polar bear ( Ursus maritimus, translated from Latin as a sea bear) appeared on Earth about five million years ago, and its ancestor, oddly enough, was a brown bear.
The polar bear is the largest land predator on the planet (its length can reach 3 m). Typically, adult polar bears weigh between 400 and 800 kilograms; the largest male polar bear recorded in the history of observing these animals weighed one ton. Females noticeably fewer males, and on average weigh from 150 to 300 kilograms.
In the process of long evolution, the polar bear has perfectly adapted to life in the Far North, among sea ice. This one is most comfortable large predator feels at an ambient temperature of minus 45 degrees and below. Two layers of thick fur and a thick (10 cm) layer of fat protect the bear from hypothermia, and small ears and tail lose little heat.
Polar bears suffer more from body overheating, especially when running after prey.
The white color of the skin helps camouflage the predator against the background white snow and ice. The color of a polar bear's coat varies from white to yellowish; In summer, the fur may turn yellow due to constant exposure to sunlight. The polar bear has no fur pigment color, and the hairs are hollow. Translucent hairs allow only ultraviolet rays to pass through, giving the wool thermal insulation properties. In ultraviolet photography, a polar bear appears dark. Due to the structure of the hairs, a polar bear can sometimes turn green. This happens in warm climates (in zoos), when microscopic algae grow inside the hairs.
The soles of a polar bear's feet are covered with thick hair to prevent them from freezing and slipping on ice. There is a swimming membrane between the bear's toes, and its powerful claws can hold even strong prey.
Despite their apparent clumsiness, polar bears move very quickly and dexterously even on land, and in water they swim and dive easily. Very thick, dense fur protects the bear's body from cold and getting wet in icy water. According to the memoirs of Vice Admiral A.F. Smelkov, a swimming polar bear pursued by a submarine is capable of reaching speeds of up to 3.5 knots (almost 6.5 km/h)
Polar bears are solitary animals, except for the breeding season, which usually lasts from March to June. As a rule, bears are peaceful towards each other, but clashes occur between males during the mating season. Adult males can attack cubs, while the female bear protects them to the last.
With long-term lack of food large males become cannibals (attack smaller males, and even females and babies).
The polar bear lives on drifting and fast ice sea ice, where it hunts its main prey: the ringed seal, sea hare, walrus and other marine animals. He catches them, sneaking up from behind shelters, or near holes: as soon as the animal sticks its head out of the water, the bear stuns the prey with a blow of its paw and pulls it out onto the ice. Sometimes the ice floe on which the seals are located topples over from below. A walrus can only be dealt with on land. First of all, it devours the skin and fat, the rest of the carcass only in case of severe hunger.
The remains of the prey are eaten by Arctic foxes. If there is a lack of basic food, the polar bear picks up carrion, dead fish, eggs and chicks, and can eat grass and seaweed, in inhabited areas it feeds on garbage dumps and can even rob food warehouses of polar expeditions.
The polar bear makes seasonal migrations in accordance with annual changes boundaries of polar ice: in summer it retreats with them closer to the pole, in winter it moves south, entering the mainland. Although the polar bear stays mainly on the coast and ice, in winter it can lie in a den on the mainland or on islands, sometimes 50 km from the sea.
IN hibernation, lasting 50-80 days, are mainly inhabited by pregnant females. Males and single females hibernate on short term and not every year.
Polar bears have a low reproductive potential: a female bears her first offspring only at the age of 4-8 years, a female bear gives birth once every 2-3 years and has 1-3 cubs in a litter. Thus, during her life, a polar bear gives birth to no more than 10-15 cubs. Newborns are helpless, like all bears, and weigh from 450 to 750 grams.
The female takes the children out of the den at the age of 3 months and they begin a wandering life. The cubs stay with their mother until they are 1.5-2 years old, and all this time the caring mother bear feeds them milk and teaches them all the skills of hunting and the art of survival in harsh conditions Arctic. The mortality rate among bear cubs reaches 10-30%.