Argumentative Essay On Polar Bears

The Polar bear lives in the artic and uses the area’s costal waters and ice sheets. They are well equipped to live in this environment because they have a thick coat which serves as an insulator. They mainly prey on seals but have also been known to consume dead whales. They can grow to be 7.25 to 8 feet tall and can weigh around 900 to 1,600 pounds. Polar bears are a keystone species, if their numbers decrease there is a possibility that the seal populations will increase which could be devastating for crustaceans and fish. They help keep populations in balance.

The melting sea ice is also affecting the polar bear's main prey, seals, forcing the bears to turn to alternate, less nutritious food sources. Once sea ice forms in the winter, seals use the ice to create dens to give birth to their pups. In these months, polar bears use sea ice as their hunting grounds to find seal dens. Now that Seasonal Ice is forming later and melting earlier (IPCC, 2013), seals have less time to build dens and give birth. Consequently, polar bears have less time to hunt their preferred prey of seal pups. They must spend more time on land hunting other animals of less nutritional value. Organizations like Sea World Parks have reported male polar bears occasionally eating newly-born polar bear cubs because they cannot find other food to eat. Lack of nutritional food leads to a reduced body size. Polar bears are becoming thinner and weaker from not eating enough (Rode, Amstrup, & Regehr 2010). They have to swim longer distances to find ice to hunt upon, causing many cubs to die because they are not yet strong enough. In the Hudson Bay, the average polar bear weight has decreased by 15% and the population has decreased by 20% (National Wildlife Federation). In the summer when there is no ice, polar bears in the Hudson Bay go onto land to fast until the ice reforms. Now that ice is

There are about 100 different species of animals there, all of which are affected by climate change, but polar bears the worst. Polar bears are the most sensitive to the rapid change in climate because most of their life is spent on sea ice. With the temperatures rising in the Beringia Upland Tundra, the sea ice they thrive on is melting at a very high rate (Powell). Without this ice, the polar bears will not be able to easily move around to mate with other polar bears. They will also not be able to successful hunts on seals because the seals will see them swimming and swim away before anything bad can happen to them. If there was not a shortage of ice, the seals would not see the polar bears on the ice and they would swim closer to the surface. Another challenge the polar bears will face is that they will be eventually forced to go on to the seashore. This would be catastrophic because there would be and increase of competition for food. This could start massive stampedes that could kill polar bear cubs due to adult polar bears trampling them. As of now, there are only 26,000 wild polar bears alive. By 2050, it is predicted that two thirds of all wild polar bears will be gone. By 2100, it is predicted that polar bears will become extinct if nothing is done about global warming and climate change (Kliskey). Another animal in the Beringia Upland Tundra that is affected by climate change in

Black bears and Grizzly bears live in the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, and Canada. There are over 600,000 black bears in North America and thousands of Grizzly bears. The bears are out there. Anytime that you are spending time in bear country it is important that you know how to be safe and to keep your children safe.

and Canada offer, black bears can live in both coniferous and deciduous forests, as well as the open alpine habitats. Basically anywhere near a river or some water source, has plenty of trees, and are able to find food. Black bears usually forage alone, even as young cubs. They will stick together with their mother if there is an abundance of food in one are.

Grizzly bears have had to adapt when the weather is off like having a warm winter it sets their internal clock off to where when they should be hibernating they are still out or cold weather comes late they are already awake from hibernation or cold weather comes to to early and they aren’t hibernating. They also have to deal with man made disasters like oil spills or fires, both can kill bears and kill what they eat like fish which could then kill the bears if they can not eat enough food because their immune system will deteriorate and kill them. Grizzly Bears are divergent because recent studies have shown that some grizzly bear’s mothers are polar bears and fathers are grizzly bears. This means that the fathers travel long distances to mate with mother polar bears. The most recent studies have suggested that they have been divergent from about 150,000 years ago. (Tia Ghose) Past research revealed that brown bears on ABC Islands, off the southeastern coast of Alaska, had mitochondrial DNA that look just like polar bear DNA.(Mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother and is carried in the cytoplasm in the cell’s energy-making structures called mitochondria.) (Tia

With the ever rising global temperatures, melting ice caps, and constant warnings about global warming, it is no wonder that the animals inhabiting the artic regions around the world are now suffering a decline in their habitat as well as their livelihood. Such is the case with the Polar Bears who may soon be gone in a scant few years.

Polar bears diets mainly rely on seals so the current changes in ice will affect the life cycle of the seals as well as it will play a big role in the life cycle of an adult polar bear. A large decrease in adult polar bears has been noticed and is believed to have been noticed and is believed to have been caused by the ice changes over the last few years as the decline in the seal population results in the polar bears being hungry during the winter which means they are not storing enough fat to produce energy to keep them alive all winter resulting in the polar bears unable to survive the cold winter months without their natural food source (Prowse et al,

The only predator that a polar bear has is man, before guns polar bears didn’t fear people. In the 1970s polar bears became endangered a law was put up to protect them. To protect them Russia, Canada, Denmark, and Norway are working on ways to stop hunters and to come up with ways to slow down global warming since the glaciers are melting at a rapid pace. Researchers believe there are about 25,000 to 30,000 left in the wild.

The Polar Bear are found on the icy coasts that surrounds the North Poles and as far south as Hudson Bay. Around 60%of Polar Bears can be found in Canada with the remainings throughout Greenland, Alaska, Svalbard, and Russia where tend to be close to the ocean across the icy fields. The habitats are affected by human encroachment by hunting , and releasing chemical pollutants into the water.The Polar Bear eats Seals, Walrus, and Seabirds. Polar Bears can live up to 20-30 year. Polar Bears have a lot of fur and their fur is clear, white, or yellow. The Polar Bear is 6.5 ft-8.3ft. they can weigh up to 330lbs -1,322lbs and they can swim up to 25mph.

The polar bear, the largest land carnivore in North America, one of the largest animals in the world and a favorite at zoos worldwide, has, over the years, adapted to its harsh Arctic environment. The appropriately named ‘ursus maritimum’ or sea bear usually lives between 15 and 18 years in the wild and spends most of its life on ice. It is the most recent of the eight bear species. The first polar bear was a brown bear subspecies, with brown bear dimensions and brown bear teeth. The polar bear evolution was rapid due to the small population and extreme pressure to survive. Even today, the polar bear continues to evolve to better adapt to the harsh realities of Arctic life.

At the time it was emphasized that the main threat to the bears is decreasing amount of food i.e. seals in the Arctic seas. As the climate becomes increasingly warmer, the number of seals is reducing and bears finding harder to find food.

Polar bears live in the Arctic near large portions of ice found in the Arctic Ocean. Due to global warming, these species are forced to remain on coastlines or get stranded on small pieces of

The polar bear lives up in the Arctic region where global warming and climate change are melting the ice caps that the bears thrive on. They use the ice as a platform from hunting and rest. The random pocket holes in the ice, where the seals pop up at, is where the polar bear catches its prey. With this reduction of ice, “the abundance of seals, and increases the amount of energy and time needed for hunting, leaving less energy for reproduction” (Endangered Species and Habitats).

 The polar bear has to be able to stay warm in the harsh winter cold. In fact sometimes because they have such thick fur they have to lay down on the snow to cool off so the harsh cold isnt even enough to keep them up to tempreture.