Download Aow: Polar Bears and Climate Change

Where do polar bears live?
Do you know where polar bears live? Polar bears live only in the northern Arctic. They are suitable to the cold
Arctic ice and snow. They are mostly common found on coastal area and groups on islands in the Arctic
Region. The polar bear likes the annual ice near the coastlines of continents and islands; there are large numbers
of ringed seals for the bears to eat. They spend their entire life associated with pack ice. Females may prefer ice
along the shoreline while others prefer moving sea ice at the floe edge -usually within 180 miles of shore. They
spend their entire life associated with pack ice. Females may prefer ice along the shoreline while others prefer
moving sea ice at the floe edge -usually within 180 miles of shore. Polar bears must migrate according to the
thawing of the Arctic ice. Then in the fall, as temperatures become colder, polar bears migrate south, following
the pack ice. Polar bears move according to the weather.
Where Polar Bears Live?
Polar bears like the cold and snowy weather. They mainly live in the northern Arctic, but you’ll find most of
them living in the Arctic tundra. (Arctic tundra is a treeless plain in the Arctic regions.) The reason is because
the Arctic tundra is cold all year around. In 2002, the maturity of polar bears where living by Canada in
Churchill and Manitoba. Other places polar bears can be found are Russia, Norway, Hudson Bay, Greenland,
and the northern part of Alaska. In the fall when temperatures become colder, polar bears migrate south,
following the packed ice. If the temperature of the Arctic keeps going up polar bears are going to become more
and more extinct.
Polar bears/ there biology
This paragraph is going to be about polar bears and their biology and some fun facts at the end. The size of a
male polar bear is 2.5 to 3m long. The weight of a male polar bear is, at the maximum of weight is 650km or
722 to 1433lb. A female polar bear weighs 150 to 250km. Polar bears are active all year round. Their senses are
hearing, eyesight, tactile, taste, and smell. Hearing: polar bears can hear a little better that a human but not by a
lot. Polar bears eyesight is similar to a human’s eyesight. A polar bears touch is really sensitive he/she
normally touches with their nose, tongue and claws. They taste to find out how important the food is. Polar
bears can smell a seal form more than 1km away. The average lifespan of a polar bear that lives in the wild is
around 25 years old that is short. The oldest captivated polar bear lived to be around 43 years old that is pretty
old. Breeding takes place in the month march to June on the seas ice. But the main time It accurse is from April
to May. The male polar bears will fight to get a woman polar bear, lt the one that wins will chase the others
away and they will be the one that gets the girl polar bear. Most of the male polar bears do not successfully
mate until 8 to 10 years old.
Polar bears diet
Do you know what loves to eat seals? A Polar bear! They can eat up to 150-200 pounds at a time. A polar bear
eats seals, Ringed seals and bearded seals. When a polar bear eats a seal it ends up eating the skin and blubber
first and then they will eat the meat of the seal. They NEED to eat an average of 1 seal every 4-5 days. They
are known as carnivores. A polar bears favorite part out of a seal is the fat and blubber. Polar bears prefer seals
sometimes, if they can’t find one they will end up eating beluga whales, walruses if they can’t find anything on
the iceberg in water, they will look for land animals such as reindeer, raiding birds’ nests (eggs are
there…FAVORITE)
Polar bears diet and eating habits
Did you know Polar bears are both herbivores and carnivores is? That means they eat both plants and
meat. Polar bears feed mainly on ringed and bearded seals. polar bears also eat it whenever there hungry also
eat harp and hooded seals and scavenge on carcasses of beluga whales, walruses, narwhals, and bowhead
whales whenever needed.
They will (whenever food is unavailable) in the wild kill and eat any food they can get they will eat reindeer,
small rodents, seabirds, waterfowl, fish, eggs, vegetation (including kelp), berries, and human garbage. They
(the polar bears) can hold 15% to 20% of its body weight. Food can be hard to come by them for much of the
year. They like to eat seals because (by catching) they are a particularly energy-rich food source, especially for
hungry mothers and growing cubs. polar bears can detect a carcass from nearly 20 miles away. Occasionally,
the bears will hunt beluga whales and adult walrus. Did you know Polar bears can eat 150-200 pounds at a
time?
Adaptations for polar bears
Polar bears have special features so they can survive in the artic. Some of those features are that a polar bear has
a layer of fat, that keeps the bear warm and let’s heat out from the body little at a time. It also soaks in the sun’s
rays. Above that layer of fat is fur, the fur dose three things for that polar bear. One is that the fur is white so it
blends in with the artic. Second the fur is hollow so it makes the bear more buoyant in water. Third it is water
proof. The polar bears need to eat so they have to swim, they have webbed feet so they can travel through the
water more easily. Plus on their paws there is fur and that helps them have a better grip on the ice.
Hair between the pads of the bear’s feet helps keep its feet warm all the time. Big and small hairs (on a cub or a
mature bear) also help the bear’s feet in cold water, and keep the bear from slipping on ice. Polar bears have
hollow fur which provides a coat of insulation keeping the polar bears’ body warm. Hollow fur means that the
guard hairs are actually hollow on the inside. Polar bears have small and rounded ears to stop water from
freezing the inside of their eardrums. A bear will dig a den that is over 4 feet deep to protect themselves from
the Arctic, and sometimes they find dens made from other creatures which the soon to be mother bear will give
birth. Polar bears are strong swimmers which can, but not always, help them catch prey. They can swim over 5
miles per hour, and can run over 30 miles per hour. Polar bears have a thick layer of fat, also known as blubber,
under their skin. Their layer of fat can get over 10 centimeters thick. This fat also keeps the bear insulated and
in some cases the bear can overheat which is why the polar bear rests often. Some of the “extra heat” goes to
where the bear really needs it such as the nose, ears, feet, and the pads on the polar bear. The skin under the fur
of a polar bear is black which helps the bear absorb more heat, helping it stay warm during the cold winters.
Polar Bear Cubs
Polar bears cubs are not only cute and adorable, they are interesting animals. First a female polar bear will
build a den of snow and ice. While she is in the den she will give birth to a litter of cubs. Most females will
have 2 to 3 cubs. Newborn cubs weigh about 1 to 1 ½ pounds. They are born with their eyes shut and have
very little fur. Their eyes will open at 33 days; their sense of hearing develops at 26 days. While in the den the
cubs feed on mother’s milk which is high in fat protein. This continues for about a year then the cubs begin to
share what she eats. At about three months old she takes them out of the den. She teaches them how to hunt
for themselves and if they learn quickly they will have a good chance of survival.
Polar Bear Cubs
Polar bear cubs are usually born in November or December, late fall or winter. Female Polar Bears can only
become pregnant from the period April-May and when she becomes pregnant she has to build up her deposits of
fat. She first makes a maternity den where she will spend the winter. Building up her fat deposits in crucial
because she will spend the seasons fall-spring in the maternity den. In the maternity den, when the cubs are
born, they are usually born in litters of 1 to 3 cubs. Each cub, born with hardly any fur and with their eyes shut,
will usually weigh about 1- 1 ½ pounds (that’s less than one kilogram). The baby polar bears feed on the
mother’s milk while still in the maternity den. Milk from the mother is full of protein and fat which helps them
survive in the maternity den for the 4-5 months they are in there. They will stay in the den until April comes,
when the mother polar bear thinks the cubs are ready for the tundra outside. When the mother bear breaks the
ice covering the hole to get out to the frozen tundra, the cubs are about 3 to 4 months old. While on the ice the
cubs learn to walk and how to hunt for seals. Most of the time the cubs can’t keep still, but in time they would
learn and become seal hunters like their mom. The mom keeps the family very close for especially the first few
weeks. Cubs will usually hang with their mom for the first 2 ½ years of their life until they decide they are
mature enough to leave. Polar bear cubs will stay sexually mature until the age of 5 after it leaves its mother.
How Are Polar Bears Faring?
Because of Polar Bears being at the top of the food chain this information is concerning a lot of people, so here
is what I’m talking about. Polar Bears don’t have any real predators besides man so people think that they will
exist for many centuries to come. With this happening it could affect humans as well. According to rough
estimates, a maximum of about 25,000 polar bears live in 19 different populations in the north polar region
today, 60 percent of them in the Canadian Arctic. With the ice breaking off, the polar bears are struggling to
survive. They need to hunt seals in the water and to do so they need the ice. More and more polar bears are now
tearing in to the cadavers of whales that have been killed. Even though this does help with the bears’ feeding
schedule, it is to significant to be a true alternative to hunting seals.
Warmth doesn’t help with all of this either. Because it is getting warmer and warmer in the Arctic, it is getting
the polar bears are becoming “increasingly food-stressed”, which will most likely cause a decline in numbers.
Scientists have found that because of the warmer temperature were causing the sea ice to break apart 7-8 days
earlier per decade over 30 years. This means that polar bears are losing as much as 24 days of hunting.
How are polar bears faring?
Polar bears in the artic are not doing too well. Due to one of the facts that there is oil spills. Amazingly when
those dirty grimy oil spills get in the water the water gets bad witch is poisoning to drink. Gross it’s
contaminated with dark ugly oil. Some people in the world may say “well they are animals we have enough
here why do we care about a stupid polar bear in the middle of no ware”. Well that bear is more important than
we think it is. Polar bear mothers have a lot on them, having to care for their young while they are stuck on a
floating ice chunk….with no ware to go besides ware the current takes them.
While they are on the ice they are slowly dying and the cause is us. People are the only reason polar bears are
expected to be gone by 2050. because of all the pollution. Pollution is making the polar bears life harder than
ever it makes the water unable to drink. it makes the bears get sick from the things that they are breathing and
getting in their food. And when a mother polar bear is sick while she is pregnant the baby will die inside of her
or shortly after being born. The life of the polar bear is slowly dying. We can stop it from happening recycle,
use less electricity, and stop the smock from coming from big factories small things you can do can do to make
a big difference.
How polar bears are faring
Polar bears in less than 100 years will be completely gone if the temperatures continue to rise due to global
warming. White polar bears are being hunted and killed. Last year scientists found that the warmer temperatures
were causing the sea ice to break up to seven or eight days earlier per decade over the last 30 years. The sea ice
disappears because of climate change experts say. Polar Bears are left to scavenge for dead whales or seals that
wash up on shore. Food is becoming scarce and the polar bears are resorting to cannibalism. When the polar
bears get stuck on land there is very scarce amount of food.
What is Climate Change?
Do you know what a type of weather happening at the same time every year? Climate!
It’s a type of weather pattern of rain, heat, snow, storms, or sunny days.
In order for it to be a climate the weather has to be the same over a certain amount of years.
If the climate changes it could harm people, animals, plants, and food production.
Also it could get rid of some of the needed water by humidity.
The different climates are already affecting our communities.
If there was one or two years different from the climate does not mean that the other climate record is gone.
People all over the world are studying about climate change.
What Causes Climate Change?
How many ppm of carbon dioxide does it take to kill someone? Over the past 8,000 years carbon dioxide levels
in the atmosphere have been going up. Industrialization in the 1750 had it increase by 20 parts per million in the
atmosphere. In 1750 it was 280 but it has increased by 379 in the atmosphere to 2005. That is a 100pmp
increase in the atmosphere over only 250 years. At the end of the last Ice age it took 5,000 years for it to
increase by 80ppm. In recent years it has continued to increase. Every year it increases by 6.4gt or giga tons
fossil fuels is not the only contribution to the increase of carbon the other thing is emission of land use. One gt
is equal to 1,000,000,000 metric tons. Another contributor would be the increase in coal use. Another factor is
the widespread use of petroleum. During the end of the 20cetury the global output of oil was at 150 million
gallons now that about how much extract each year globally.
The effect of climate change
As climate changes, sea ice melts. People think that two 66.6% of polar bears will die by 2050. Polar bears
begin to go down. Polar bears have lived in the Arctic seas for a long time. Polar bears and global warming
have been seen, and try to see what may happen to the polar bears in the future. Many people think a large
amount of impacts of climate change on polar bear are heat and conditions. A prediction has been made to
reduce the sea ice, will affect habitats. Polar bears will decrees the number of ice with seals, the main enemy of
polar bears. It is likely that polar bears will be lost from many areas where they are usually seen today. Also that
the total population will change into a few more year.
The effects of climate change
Climate change can range from global cooling to global warming, and there are a range of effects. The
earth has gone through a pattern of cool downs and warm up in its long history. The cool downs in the Earth’s
history have caused famine, frosts, and plagues. For example, when the potato famine happened in Ireland, it
was partly because it became too cold to grow the potatoes there. Global warming, on the other hand has been
known to be good for humans if we can adapt to it and move around. For example, during the renaissance the
human population boomed and new area’s opened up for crops. But, as we see now, the weather patterns are
shifting and we are slow to adapt so we are having problems like food shortages. Climate change has many
good and bad effects.
Climate change affects polar bears
Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on
rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.
Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss
of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves.
Polar bears and the Artic
The effects of climate change on polar bears are not exactly certain, but they can predict on what they see.
Minor climate change has profound effects on the polar bear and their sea/ice habitat. If climate change show
results in increased snow in the Artic, Polar Bears maybe less able to hunt prey by being able to enter the seals
lairs, which may affect the adult polar bear and the cubs. On the other hand if there’s not a lot of snow and only
more rain, well only one out of two things could happen. The lairs won’t be thick enough to protect the pups as
they grow and develop. Secondly the lairs may collapse and kill the seals. In the outcome this will reduce prey
for the polar bears and warmer weather will affect the polar bears denning activities.
Arctic
Arctic climate is probably very different than where you live. For the arctic air, summer is the cold
season and winter is the warm season. The average temperature for summer is -29°F (-34°C) and the average
temperature for winter is 32°F (0°C). For the Arctic Ocean, the summer waters are 29°F (-1.5°C) and the
winter waters are 28°F (-2°C). As far as living conditions, the arctic has a great land composition for the polar
bear. The arctic is full of leads and polynyas. Leads are cracks in the ice or water channels that stay open
anywhere between minutes and months. How long they stay open depends on the weather. Polynyas are yearround areas of water with an ice surrounding. The polynyas provide breathing ground for marine mammals and
birds, as do leads. Polar bears usually live around areas that have these leads and polynyas. Since they allow
small animals to live, the polar bears will follow, because where there’s food, there’s survival. Global warming
is coming to the Arctic, and fast. In the winter months, studies have shown that temperatures have risen about
7.2°F (4°C). In the summer months, the extent of sea ice levels has dropped more than 30% since past years.
Since then, sea ice area has steadily been decreasing.
Polar bears, and how climate change has affected them.
What would happen if our world was melting all around us and we couldn’t do anything about it? Well that’s
what is happening to the polar bears right now as you are reading this article. Rapidly disappearing; their habitat
and food source are halting to a painful stop. When the sea ice conditions are this bad they are bound to loose
prey for them to eat. Running scarce, are places for the polar bears to search for seals; their focal food source.
Seal hunting is getting very difficult for polar bears. It’s becoming difficult because of the fact that seal pups
aren’t being born under snow drifts anymore, they are actually being born under sea ice. This makes this harder
for polar bears to penetrate through the ice and kill the seal pups. Now since seal hunting has become more
problematic, polar bears are in search for other alternatives. Like eating different animals such as; reindeer,
small rodents, seabirds and waterfowl. But some polar bears are taking the chance of swimming beyond where
they usually go and escalate their chances of drowning. Others who are desperately in need of food roam inland
and end up rummaging through humans’ garbage bins in pursuit of food. One of the main reasons polar bears
need to eat so much food is because when they are hibernating they won’t be able to go hunting. But it’s
especially important for female polar bears because while they are hibernating they will give birth to their cubs.
(One to two cubs to be exact.) If the mothers of these cubs don’t get enough to eat they will not have enough
energy to withstand the pregnancy and still take care of her cubs when they are born. Mother polar bears will
also have to endure the responsibility to take care of her cubs that will weigh less if she doesn’t get enough to
eat. Because when mother polar bears don’t eat enough they will most likely give birth to cubs that will weigh
less than an average cub should: and the lighter the cubs are the lower their survival rate is. So practically the
climate change happening has altered the polar bears ability to survive has been put them on a downward spiral
to extinction.
Impact on Polar Bears
(changed)
The Arctic will lose about 2/3rds of the entire world’s population of Polar Bears over the next 50 years. Polar
Bears depend on the habitat of the Arctic. Global warming is growing to the loss of Arctic Ice. Now, the most
deaths of polar bears are drowning. Polar bears population in 1987 was 1.197. Polar bears population in 2004
was 935. In the past 15 years made a drop of 22%! Polar Bear deaths due to global warming have gone up to
the point Polar Bears may face possible extinction. Now that global warming has increases a large amount Polar
bears will have a very difficult time finding food. In fact, a lot of Polar Bears are feeling the effects of global
warming, because the loss of food and are facing starvation.
Impact on polar bears
The process bears have on the ice is their best season, hunting seals and fish is easy, and they return their body
fat and fitness. This serious time for storing up energy for the warm season when there is less ice and small
available food is becoming timidly controlled. As the periods without food get longer, the complete body
condition of polar bears declines. Warming temperatures mean less snow but more rain, which soaks them
through, putting them at danger of freezing to death. These are the values of temperature change, scientists say.
Polar bears and penguins may live poles apart, with the great white mammal’s chief the Arctic areas near the
North Pole and the best-known penguin changes inhabiting the southernmost regions of the globe, in or near
Antarctica. They both depend on ice and cold for survival problem in a world that's warming and where
temperature increases are most marked at the planet's northern and southern extremes.