Complete Polar Bear Facts

How Many Polar Bears and Where ?

How many polar bears are there? No one knows for sure how many polar bears there are because they are so difficult to count, but researchers think that there are about 30,000 polar bears in the world (estimates range from 22,000-40,000). About half of the world's polar bears live in Canada. It seems fitting that the polar bear was selected to be on the reverse of Canada's newest coin (introduced in 1996); the two dollar coin, or "twoonie".	Image Source: Royal Canadian Mint
Where did polar bears come from? Polar bears(Ursus maritimus) started evolving from Grizzly Bears (Ursus arctos) about 100,000 years ago when glaciers separated them from other grizzly bears. Polar bears are the "newest" type of bear. They adapted quickly to their surroundings. Grizzly bears and polar bears are so closely related that polar bears and grizzly bears can have healthy, and fertile cubs together. Their scientific name is Ursus Maritimus, which means Sea Bear in Latin, because they spend more time in the water than any other bear. Because polar bears are the largest animal on land in arctic, there is very little that will scare them.
Where do polar bears live? Polar bears live all around the north pole, this area is a called the Arctic. The countries in the Arctic are Russia, Norway, Denmark (Greenland), USA (Alaska) and Canada. The Arctic Ocean is where polar bears like to spend most of their time, because that's where their favourite food is - the seal. In the winter polar bears will walk out on the frozen ocean, and in the summer they will wait by the ocean's shore. Large sheets of ice are called ice floes. When polar bears walk out on an ice floe, they look for cracks and holes in the ice. Seals will come to those cracks and holes to breathe, and that's where a polar bear hopes to catch a seal. There are areas of water in the Arctic that don't freeze called polynyas and they are great places to find seals.
The Home Range: A Polar Bear Neighbourhood A polar bear's "neighbourhood " is called it's home range. Your home range might be the area from your house, to your school, to the grocery store and to the playground. Polar bears have very large home ranges, and may cover an area the size of Nova Scotia (50,000km², 20,000mile²) or more in a single year. Home ranges are always changing. A polar bear has to go to where the food is, and if that means a long walk, then the bear will go for a long walk. But, if there is food nearby, there is no reason for them to leave. Polar bears don't protect or defend their home range because the ice changes so much. If a bear protected a hole in the ice one day, the next day it may have frozen up and there would be nothing to protect. A polar bear always has to be ready to move on.
How cold is it up there? In the winter the temperature can drop to -40^oC (-40^oF) or lower and the summer can see temperatures reach 25^oC (77^oF) or more. That's a 65^oC (117^oF) degree difference in temperature that a polar bear will have to cope with.
Snow and Wind Although people think of snow when they think of polar bears, many areas of the Arctic actually get very little snow. When the snow does fall, it takes a long time to melt. The loose snow that is on the ground can be picked up by the wind, and blown around. Snowstorms can be made up of old snow. Sort of like a recycled snowstorm. Polar bears don't mind snowstorms at all and have been see playfighting in the fiercest blizzards.