Polar Bear Pictures
Flying Turtle Zoo
Polar Bear
Family Tree
Ursidae (the bear family).
Size and Life Expectancy
Polar bears often weigh up to 1,500 lbs (680kg) and can be up to ten feet (3 meters) long. These sizes are for males, females are about half as big. Polar bears live for 15 to 30 years. In a zoo one once lived 45 years.
Range and Habitat
Arctic regions. Polar bears are found in Alaska, Canada, Russia, Norway and Greenland
Diet
Seals.
Predators
Humans
Extra Fun Facts
They usually swim at about 6 mph (10 km/hr) and can run at up to 25 mph (40 km/hr). They are at home in the arctic where it gets up to about 50 F (10 C) in the summer and goes down to -22 F (-30 C) in the winter. They have many features that help them to stay warm such as a thick layer of fat (as much as 4 inches or 10 cm) and a thick coat of fur with an inner layer of fur that keeps water out and black skin under their fur that is good at absorbing the sun’s rays. Polar bears are so well protected from the cold that they tend to move slowly even in extreme cold to keep from overheating. They also have huge paws (up to a foot or 30 cm wide) that spread their weight out over the ice and snow so they don’t break the ice or slip down in the snow and tiny bumps on the padding of their paws which help to keep them from slipping on the ice. Polar bears like to eat seals and they catch them most often when the seals come up to breathe through holes in the ice. The bears find these holes with their sense of smell. In the summer the ice disappears in more southern areas and the polar bears follow the ice up north, sometimes going hundreds of miles