Endangered Species: The Polar Bear PDF

Endangered Species: The polar bear By Gale, Cengage Learning, adapted by Newsela staff on 01.10.18 Word Count 689 Level 690L Polar bears are built to survive the extreme cold of the Arctic. They have thick fur and a layer of fat to keep them warm. Photo from: Wikimedia Commons. Polar bears are lar...

Endangered Species: The polar bear By Gale, Cengage Learning, adapted by Newsela staff on 01.10.18 Word Count 689 Level 690L Polar bears are built to survive the extreme cold of the Arctic. They have thick fur and a layer of fat to keep them warm. Photo from: Wikimedia Commons. Polar bears are large white bears. They live mostly on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. Polar bears are built to survive in very cold climates. Their fur is thick. It covers a layer of fat. Even their paws have fur to protect their feet from freezing on the ice. Polar bears are between 7 and 8 feet long. They weigh from 900 to 1,600 pounds. They mostly eat seals. Polar bears spend half of their time hunting. However, only a small number of their hunts are successful. Polar bears hunt in places where seals might come up for air, such as holes in the ice. Polar bears will also eat carrion. This is the decaying flesh of dead animals. These bears are at the top of the food chain. Other than humans, they have no natural predators. Polar bears are strong swimmers. They paddle through the water using their front paws. They use their back legs to steer. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. Studies have found that polar bears can make long-distance swims. They can travel as far as 200 miles at a time. Such long swims are sometimes necessary when sea ice melts. Female polar bears dig dens in snow drifts. This is where they give birth to cubs in winter. Cubs stay with their mothers for more than two years. Image 1. Newsela staff. Habitat Polar bears live in the Arctic, the polar region at the most northern part of Earth. They mostly live on the sea ice. Some live in the pack ice of the central Arctic. However, they are more common on the surrounding seasonal ice. In some areas this ice lasts all year long. There, the bears will hunt all year. In areas where the ice melts in the summer, bears spend several months on land. They eat little. Instead, they live off their stored body fat. Most of the world's polar bears live in Canada. The rest are found in other arctic areas around the world. Only about 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears are thought to exist in the wild. History And Conservation The native people of the Arctic are known as the Inuit. They have hunted polar bears for thousands of years. They use the animals' meat for food. They use the bears' skins for warmth. The biggest danger to polar bears is global warming. Global warming is the heating up of the planet. Scientists say it is caused by burning too many fossil fuels. These are natural fuels such as oil, gas and coal. Global warming is reducing the amount of ice in the Arctic. Bears rely on this sea ice to hunt seals. If more ice melts in the summer, bears will not be able to do as much hunting. They might be forced onto land. There, the bears will have less to eat, and might be more threatened by hunters. Polar bears are also threatened by pollution. When pollution gets into the ocean, it also gets into the fish that swim in those waters. Seals eat the fish. They store pollutants from fish in their fat. These pollutants are then passed on to bears when they eat the seals. This may affect the bears' health. It could lead to fewer healthy polar bear cubs. Image 2. A polar bear jumps from one When many people think of climate change, they think of polar chunk of sea ice to another. Sea ice is very bears. The bear has become a symbol of the dangers of climate important for polar bears. They hunt for change. Now scientists are looking for ways to protect polar seals in gaps between the ice. Photo: bears. Arctic nations are working together to make new laws. Wikimedia Commons. These laws would reduce hunting. They would also make it against the law to trade polar bear products. However, the Inuit people have concerns about these plans. They worry that the laws would stop them from hunting. The Inuit people have hunted polar bears for a long time. Their hunting This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. practices are an important tradition for the Inuit. They also claim that these practices help support polar bear populations. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.