Animal · Canada, United States, Russia
Polar bear
Ursus maritimus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The polar bear is the largest bear on Earth and lives on the sea ice of the Arctic. It hunts seals as its main food, spending much of its life on frozen ocean water.
Picture credit: Andreas Weith (CC BY-SA 4.0) · AWeith (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Andreas Weith (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the polar bear live?
Home: Arctic sea ice and coasts around the North Pole.
In the wild you find it in: Canada, United States, Russia, Greenland, Norway.
Conservation status from the IUCN: vulnerable.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures up to 3 m long. It weighs about 450 kilograms. On the menu: meat.
The story behind it
A polar bear's fur only looks white; each hair is actually clear and hollow, and underneath its skin is black to soak up heat from the sun. Beneath the fur lies a thick layer of fat, up to 11 cm deep, that keeps the bear warm in freezing water. Polar bears are strong swimmers and have been tracked swimming for several days without touching land or ice. They rely on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, so as Arctic ice melts earlier each spring due to a warming climate, bears have less time to hunt and build up fat, which is why scientists consider the species vulnerable.
Find it on the globe
Polar bear is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Is polar bear fur really white?
Polar bear fur only looks white because each hollow hair scatters light like snow, but the hairs are actually clear and the skin underneath is black. The black skin helps soak up the sun's warmth.
How far can polar bears swim?
Polar bears are strong swimmers and have been recorded swimming continuously for several days and hundreds of kilometres in search of sea ice. Their large paws work like paddles to push them through the water.
Why are polar bears endangered?
Polar bears are classed as vulnerable because melting Arctic sea ice, caused by a warming climate, leaves them less time and space to hunt seals. Without enough sea ice, bears struggle to find food and raise cubs.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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