The Polar Bear Cub

Polar Bear Cub

Twin polar bear cubs are born in a den which their mother digs in a snow drift; they are the same size as their brown cousins. For three weeks their mother warms them and feeds them. Her milk is so rich in protein that in ten weeks they will weigh nearly five kilogrames. When they first emerge from their den, they are greeted l)y bitter cold—fifteen degrees below zero—but the cubs are well protected by their thick fur. They wander about in amazement at the vast expanse of sea and ice which will one day become their undisputed realm.

Having survived their first winter, the cubs are taken into the water by their mother. To avoid being swept away by the current they grip her tail with their teeth. Here a family rests on a block of ice; the young bears watch with interest as a school of whales swim   

The Polar Bear with the scientific name Ursus maritimus lives in 

all Arctic coast regions The Inuit call it “Nanook“ and say that it has supernatural powers. It is a big, muscular bear with a weight of 300 to 600 kilograms and a total length – from nose to tail – of up to 3.5 metres. The biggest known Polar Bear had a weight of 1,002 kilograms and a length of 3.65 metres.

The Polar Bear’s fur is white to yellowish and has the property to convert 95 percent of the ultraviolet radiation into heat. Every single hair of the fur – it is transparent and hollow – is able to capture the light from any direction. The Polar Bear’s fur insulates optimally and gives almost no heat off to the outside. The food of the Polar Bear consists mainly of meat, but also of seaweed, crabs, sea birds, bird eggs, berries, carrion, and sometimes they even carry off some flat fish.

The Ursus maritimus is an excellent swimmer and was already seen several hundred kilometres far into the open sea. It is also a good diver and is able to stay under water for up to two minutes. High up in the north, west of Hudson Bay, is the location of Churchill, the city with Canada’s most northern deep-sea harbour. Every year from the end of September until mid-November, Churchill, which is located at the edge of the timberline in the middle of an ancient Polar Bear trail, turns into the "Polar Bear Capital of the World".

With cross-country vehicles, the so-called “Tundra Buggies“, it is possible to watch the

Polar Bears in the tundra between Nelson and Churchill River. Between mid-November and the end of November, when the Hudson Bay freezes up – often the temperatures fall below –50° Celsius -, the Polar Bears disappear abruptly from the

coastal stretches. At this time they stay up to 300 kilometres away from the land on the

frozen bay. Here at the open watering places they hunt for seals.

They carry them off by sneaking up to the seals lying on the ice, which sometimes can take hours, or they waylay them at the holes in the ice crust. Sometimes they also hunt for seals in the open water channels by swimming.

In July, when the ice starts to melt at the end of the Arctic spring, the Polar Bears often let themselves be carried ashore on ice floes.

Their destination is the mainland or the endless tundra along the coast. In late summer they head north again. In this season, the Polar Bears search for carrion of marine creatures. Their food also consists of land mammals and plants. In the northwest of Hudson Bay they wait for frost and ice.

Then the time of hunger is over, the cycle closes as soon as they have reached the open water channels with the seals.

The Polar Bear do we really listen when they talk.
No wild animal in the wilderness has been able to grace the winter and colder temperatures of the Arctic like the polar bear. With cold weather for almost half the year and with dwindling population, the polar bear has entered the threatened species list and has not officially and endangered species and is under strict protection according to the United States Law.

The Polar Bear Blaming Game
Since Man is always the cause of all the extinction of many of the endangered species, the polar bear is not going for extinction because of hunting of the polar bear but because of the natural phenomenon brought about by the retraction of the ice bergs at the Arctic sea.

With the bear’s source of food mainly composed of seals, penguins and fish and other marine animals found within the polar bear environment, the polar bear. While most of the brown or grizzly bear hibernate and wait for the high protein salmon eggs to arrive from the lower parts of the rivers  coming home to lay eggs, these polar bears with the global warming have to adopt with the shortage of food and with less stepping ground to tread on thus many feeding polar bears with bear cubs end up without food.

The Bear family sniffing up the global changes
Since polar bears are well acquainted with their natural bear surroundings many polar bears will always sleep on the ice, give birth to bear cubs in the burrows under the snow mainly comprising of two to three baby bears and all the hunting and training will take place in the polar bear environment. How long will the polar bears going to endure the global warming.

The polar region is already changing and it will continue to change for a period which no body knows. Should all the bears be rounded up and take to higher ground or should every bear use their own survival tactics and brave the changing global warming conditions? How about the natives who live in those regions where polar bears are the source of protein, clothing and even shelter? What should their plight be? Though in the whole and in the main and being in the bear natural environment with depleted food sources, there are things which need to be changed. With many nations scrambling for natural resources in the polar embedded region something needs to be done in order to alleviate this already problem in the near distant future.

The way polar bears need to talk
While the grizzly bear is already spreading havoc in many parts of its habitat as has been in many part of the news, are we going to see more animal attacks in our vicinity, Well time will only tell as it has been man's natural behavior that:  A lot of people spend time talking to the Wild Animals, but not that many people listen. Giant crocodiles are hunted for their trophies, dear face the same fate while goose are also not spared.

Polar bears like any other wild animals also have feelings, they need love & affection just as we all have families, their rights should not be infringed the way we humans need out rights to be protected by law and as a rule of law. We should take care of polar bears and other wild animals as they are part of us as it has been from the primitive age to this modern world. I know it’s a bear jungle out there but if we all know how our modern jungles are; it’s just the courage to make our world friendly.

Whether we need to put our dogs, cats, snakes, lions in a nice comfortable house with a strong fence to keep a check on them if we are of sound mind, putting a muzzle on the animals while in the public assures the safety of the masses as its only through information, education and communication which can instill the dangers of such animals at bay hence a peaceful society that we should all cherish and adhering to both human and animal rights as well.

The same way applies to people venturing in any bear habitat. Though the preventive means of any bear attacks are always perceived as true, many a times people don’t heed to this bear attack warnings and end up being victims of circumstances. We just need to expect the unexpected despite all odds now that we are living in a world where even the polar bears have to face changes the way nature portrays it.



October 27, 2011. BRYAN WALSH | Time.com. Why Coke Is Going White for Polar Bears
The 125-year-old Coca-Cola Company doesn't like to mess with its brand image. That's in part because it's so valuable — according to Interbrand Coke has the best brand in the world — but also because previous efforts to tweak its image haven't always worked out so well, and sometimes lead to things like this.

So perhaps it's a measure of the company's dedication to the environment that Coca-Cola has decided to change the color of its iconic cans for the holiday season — white, to draw attention to the plight of the polar bear. Coke and the environmental group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have joined together to promote the Arctic Home project, which will involve turning 1.4 billion Coke cans white, emblazoned with the image of a mother polar bear and her cubs pawing through the Arctic. There will also be white bottle caps on other Coke branded drinks, all running from the beginning of November to February. "In 125 years we've never changed the color of the Coke can," says Katie Bayne, president and GM of Coca-Cola Sparking Beverages. "We really see this as a bold gesture." (See the top 10 bad beverage ideas.)

Bold gestures are exactly what the polar bears needs. There's a reason the planet's largest land carnivores have emerged as the symbols of climate change — perhaps no species is more directly impacted by warming temperatures than the polar bear. They depend on Arctic sea ice as a major habitat and hunting ground, but sea ice is vanishing rapidly, shrinking to its second-lowest level on record this past summer. As the ice melts, polar bears are forced to swim further and further for food — and some, especially young cubs, simply won't make it. "We're watching the ice shrink in front of our eyes, and if there is no ice, there are no bears," says Carter Roberts, the president and CEO of WWF. "The polar bears need our help."

One way to help them, of course, is to reduce carbon emissions and blunt the worst effects of global warming. That's ... not really happening all that quickly. So that leaves adaptation, which for polar bears means locating the areas of Arctic sea ice that might be less vulnerable to warming. That's exactly what WWF is trying to do, identifying the Last Ice area that may remain solid long after other areas of the Arctic have melted. The group is working with Canadian government and the local Inuit community to create a kind of climate refuge in the Last Ice capable of supporting polar bears for decades into the future. "We aren't creating the Last Ice area — climate change is," says Geoff York, the WWF's polar bear expert. "We just want to make sure that the conditions are there to support the polar bears and the people who will be living with them." (See pictures of Germany's Latest Polar Bear Celebrity.)
That's going to take a lot of research — York points out that the high Arctic area is "one of the least understood places on Earth" — and that research is going to cost money, potentially as much as $10 million. (It's not cheap operating in the remote ice.) That's where Coke comes in. The company — which has used polar bears in its holiday ads for decades — is donating $2 million to WWF, and will match consumer donations through March 15 up to $1 million. Individuals will be able to text donations at a dollar apiece to 357357, or donate online at Arctichome.com. "Coke has made a kind of foundational commitment that has never before been seen in our history," says Roberts. "They're taking their biggest promotional season and dedicating it to this cause."
It'll take a lot more than soda to save the polar bears, which are already listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. But a little highly carbonated holiday cheer won't hurt.

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