Polar+Bear

=//__Polar Bears__//=

**__Habitat__**

 * The polar bear can be found in places like Norway, Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. It's ecosystem is an Arctic ecosystem, ice and snow covered. The Normal tempatuer is about -40C in the winter and about 0C in the summer.The Tundra is well developed and marked by a tree and shrub line.Alot of mammals live there including musk ox, reindeer, caribou, fox, hare, wolf, bears and more. Marine mammals include whales seals and polar bears.Weather also includes of many many blizzard winds and can plunge into total darkness.**

__**Characteristics**__

 * The polar bear is also known as Nanook, Ice King, and Ice Bear.The polar bear is bigger than most bears and an average male can weigh up to 1100 pounds,the female** **bears are considerably smaller.The polar bears also have good eye sight, a good sense of smell, and a good sense of hearing.**
 * the male bear is also know as a boar and the female bear is also known as a sow.**
 * The polar bear has a white coat to blend in with the snow and hide from enemies.**
 * To help keep warm during the winter the polar bear actually has two coats of warm fur; it has a short coat of under hair next to its skinto trap boddy warmth and a longer outer coat of shining coarse guard hairs which repels water ice and snow. With all that hair it somtimes gets to hot in the summer so polar bears shed their winter coat or they dig a den ;it digs deep into the ground down where the soil is still frozon to keep cool.**

__**Mother and Babies**__

 * The polar bear usually has its cubs in November and December, so in the fall instead of hunting the polar bear goes out to build her den where she will give birth and nurse her cubs.Choosing the right location is im**
 * portant so she heads inland away from the flat coast, and lookes for low sloping land the will be covered by driffting snow. Then she digs her den which is about as long and wide as a single bedand about one meter high.Then one night in November or December the cubs are born! Its -29C outside but its cozy and comforitable****inside the den.**
 * By the time the time** **cubs are about a year oldthey are about the size of a St. Bernard dog.But they still need their mother to protect them from wolves and larger bears. They will stay with their mother u****ntil they are one and a half or older, then they will start life on t****heir own.**

__**Feeding**__

 * To survive polar bears need to eat about nine pounds of meat a day.**
 * The polar bear mainly eats seals,but seals aren't so easy to catch they are fast moving cleve**
 * rand cautious.To catch enough seals to survive ,the polar bear needs to come up with unusual hunting methods. One way a polar bear catchs a seal is they wait paitiently near one of the holes in the ice where the seal comes up**
 * to** **breath i****f a seal comes out of the hole the polar bear h****as to try to grab it if the polar b****ear****misses it the polar bear has to find adifferent hole and start the process all over again.The polar bear also hunts by swimming under the ice.**

__Enemies__

 * The polar bears doesn't have a land enemy accept for the human. Hunting for bears to use thier fur for rugs and other decore.Also hunted for fur coats and boots.The polar bear does have another enemy though, the walrus is an enemy that under water can do some serious bodily harm to the polar bear even causing death.**

**__Protecting Itself__**

 * They can deffend themselves with their claws and teeth.**

__**Comunicating**__

 * Like other bears, polar bears use thier sense of smell , thier lips and thier whiskers to explore objects. Polar bears use a "chuffing" sound in the form of greeting.They can also clack thier teeth and make quite a loud roar.**

__**Life span**__

 * The polar bears average life span in the wild is about 25 - 30 years.In captivity a female bear lived to be 45 at a zoo in Detroit in 1999**.

__**Role in Ecosystem**__

 * Polar bears are the top carnivor in the arctic. The remains of seal kills left uneaten by bears are likely a source of food for younger less experiened polar bears and also arctic foxes.**

__**Population**__

 * In 1993 the estimated population world population was 21 479 to 28 370 bears.**

__**Hibernation**__

 * Polar bears usualy**

**Polar bears by: Caroline Greenland 1986 Grolier Limited**
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_a_Polar_Bear_protect_itself [] [] [] [] http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidw/2132684141/sizes/m/in/photostream/
 * Polar bear alert by: Debora Pearson 2007 D.K. Publishing**
 * Pictures from:**