By AmandaREO
(February 27)
I'm sure we've all heard of these bears, but they're so much more than furry swimmers.
Polar bears are the biggest bear in the world, 6-9 feet long and weighing 300 to 1,300 pounds. With 4 inches of body fat and water repellent fur, polar bears are amazing swimmers. They have black skin and a blue tongue, 30 cm wide paws, transparent fur, and three eyelids (to protect the bear from the weather)!
They catch seals as their main food because they need the body fat to keep warm. And with forty-two sharp teeth, hunting's made a bit easier. Although they do spend 50% of their time hunting, and only catching one or two of the ten seals they go after.
At the top of the food chain, polar bears are critical for the survival of their marine ecosystems. With climate change, hunting, habitat loss, impacts of growing industry, and conflict between humans and polar bears. Climate change is melting the ice which polar bears rely on for traveling, hunting, resting, mating, and maternal dens. The Arctic sea ice cover is becoming smaller 14% per decade, the Arctic heating twice as much as the rest of the planet. Between 1981 and 2010, we have lost 770,000 square miles which is larger than Alaska and California combined. Polar bears are spending more time in the open water along the Arctic coastline because of shrinking ice, and have been having conflict with human communities. Without the ice, they're not able to hunt and eat as much, which makes them unhealthy and can make them unable to reproduce.
With ice melting and seas rising, people have been expanding industrial areas because of more opportunities. This results in oil spills which poisons polar bears and their prey, taking up habitat space and destroying habitat space, and having human polar bear conflict.
To save polar bears from extinction, whose endangered status is currently vulnerable, we have to slow climate change. You know the drill-turn off your lights, eat less meat and dairy, walk/bike/bus don't drive, recycle, etc. If we continue destroying their habitat and invading their space, polar bears won't be around anymore. Their population (22,000-31,000 currently) will shrink by 30% by 2050! So in conclusion, let's take a moment today to appreciate these big, furry, bears, and take a moment-well, actually many-to save them.
(Poster by c-chezqueen)
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