Polar Bear Food
The polar bear is the world’s largest carnivore and is a native of the arctic and its adjacent land masses. Their main characteristics are that they can survive on extreme cold climates only and this is the reason why they are seen only in the Polar Regions. Polar bear population has been spread across countries like Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), Alaska etc. Canada is the major habitat of these polar bears as almost 70% of their populations are found there.
Polar bear is a carnivorous animal. They belong to the bear family and mostly depend upon seals for their food. Arctic, the habitat of these polar bears does have millions of seals. It means that there is no shortage of food for these polar bears. These arctic ices are the hunting ground for the polar bears. Seals do swim in thick ice and come out of the holes in the ices to breath air. Polar bear would wait near these holes and as soon as their prey puts their head out, would catch them at a whisk. Polar bears hunt for their prey in ice. They very rarely would hunt seals in land or in open water.
The most common hunting method of polar bears is known as still hunting. The seals do come out of the holes in the ice to get some good breath. The polar bears do make use of this opportunity. These animals have excellent powers for smell and can easily find out the breathing holes of a seal. They would identify these pores and wait outside them in silence till the prey comes out of the hole. When a seal puts its head out of these pores, the polar bear would drag it out of these holes using its forepaw and then crushes its head to kill them.
The mature polar bears used to eat only the calorie rich skin of the seal. But younger polar bears do consume more of the rich protein red meat. Subadult bears are those who have not grown that much to start hunting. They usually depend on the prey of other bears and are their major source of nutrition. These subadult bears may not have that body size to start hunting. They may sometimes get only the remains of a seal which have been eaten up by other big polar bears. A subadult polar bear would get only half eaten seals even when they start hunting as they do not have the size to defend their food from other big polar bears. After taking in food, polar bears do wash themselves with water or ice.
The polar bears are active hunter’s year around except the pregnant females. Unlike other bears in the family, a polar bear can fast for several months without taking in any food. At the times of summer, the polar bears cannot hunt any seal as there would not be any ice. How do these polar bears live then? They have huge fat reserves in their body which would help in sustaining their life for a much longer time.