Why polar bears are endangered

Because of this, polar bears tend to get very sick if they become wet or warm at the wrong times. One of the most important adaptations for the cold climate that polar bears have is their sense of smell. Although there is no way for a polar bear to get scent information from the water, they can mark their territory by eating scented marks.

For example, black bears will make scented marks with berries, pine cones, or grasses. Other animals can also make scented marks. Scented marks are used to warn other bears of a new meal. One question often asked by children, veterinarians and wildlife enthusiasts are what do polar bears eat? Polar bears are known to consume a wide range of food. Some of the food they enjoy eating includes seal meat, berries, small fish and carrion.

Bear hunting is very popular in many areas of the Canadian Arctic and Alaskan Inuit regions. When polar bears are active, they hunt for their prey on the sea ice. When there are lots of seal eggs to hunt polar bears will devour large quantities of meat from seals. In years when food is scarce, young polar bears will be allowed to hunt on the open sea ice, but once they become adults, they must eat seal meat.

When there are a lot of seal eggs to hunt, polar bears will only eat the seal meat, leaving the carcass of the animal for scavengers like foxes, ravens, snowbirds and even smaller bears. In order to have a full stomach during their winter hibernation, polar bears must consume a lot of seal meat and seal eggs. Polar bears also eat fish, walrus skin, berries, insects, roots, berries, tree bark, small fish, carrion and sometimes carrion of other species.

If they have not eaten for a long time, polar bears may occasionally eat carrion, but not before using the carcass to sharpen their claws. It is not uncommon for polar bears to use antlers and even brambles to sharpen their claws. In the spring when the sea ice melts and the bears come out of their dens to hunt, they consume a variety of plant life. Grubs, mushrooms, roots, nuts and seeds are amongst the most popular foods.

Their diet greatly depends on the season, type of prey available and availability of the plant life. In addition to eating plants, polar bears also drink plant juices or steam plant food to supplement their diet. In summer, when food is abundant, polar bears eat algae, phytoplankton and worms.

They also eat vegetation that is very nutritious, such as stems of grass, reeds, grass blades and leaves, flowers and berries. If there is no seal meat or seal eggs in the vegetation, polar bears will search for insects on the ground or in the water. They will eat anything they can find.

In order to stay warm, polar bears must keep their body temperature above freezing. This means they must store fat in their stomachs for periods when food is scarce. In winter, when food is hard to find or is unavailable, polar bears must turn to other food sources. Because polar bears are cold-blooded and have no muscle mass to help them move around, they must use fat stored in their bodies as a source of energy.

Fat is metabolized at a much higher rate than other types of calories. It is also easily converted to glucose, the form of sugar used for energy. In autumn, polar bear mothers give birth to a litter of young. These young bears, known as sows, grow quickly, reaching adulthood in less than one year.

The mother bear will take care of her young for about one-half years while the father stays with the mother foraging on the surrounding lands and hunting for carrion. After the sows have been weaned, the mother bear will again hunt for carrion and come back to take care of her young. When the polar bear mother comes back to eat, she will not have eaten for two weeks. Welcome to our complete News Portal about animals, nature and environment in general.

Take your time and immerse yourself in this amazing experience! Animalatto Magazine. This means that they end up collecting up all the pollutants which the other animals have been exposed too. Because of this polar bears are the most highly polluted animals in the Arctic. Polar bears are also at risk of oil pollution if there was an oil spill at one of the many oil stations now working in the Arctic. Oil spills collect around the areas of sea ice which polar bears use for hunting.

The oil can damage the fur of the polar bears. This being the fur that the polar bears use to keep themselves warm. When this fur is damaged by the oil the polar bears struggle to keep warm and can die from hypothermia. Traditionally polar bears were hunted in vast quantities. This has died down recently as the world community has reacted to the vulnerability of the polar bears by banning hunting outright or installing quotas on the number of polar bears that can be hunted per year.

You can read more about the challenges facing polar bears here. However it is more likely than not to occur that white bears fall into the category of endangerment. Scientists claim that polar bears face high risk of endangerment in the next 20 years or so possibly due to rapid climate change , human hunting , and scarcity of food. On the contrary recent findings show that the overall global population of polar bears has been stable.

It clearly suggests the divided opinion of scientists on polar bear status. Endangered species are those species that are likely to become extinct in the next few decades if the appropriate conservation efforts are not made.

Studies show that there is a slightest chance of polar bears getting extinct—not at least in the next 20 years.