POLAR BEARS BY:ALEX AND JOSH

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS A male polar bear can get up to 10 feet tall and weigh more than 1,400 pounds. A female polar bear weighs about 900 pounds and grow up to 9.5 feet tall. Polar bears are a clear yellow but most people think they’re white. The hind limbs are longer than the forelimbs. This makes the large, muscular hind end stand higher than the shoulders. 2.Polar bear legs are large and stocky. 3.Feet are five-toed paws. a. Polar bears have large paws compared to body size, reaching 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter. The large paws of a polar bear act like snowshoes, spreading out the bear's weight as it moves over ice and snow. b. The forepaws are round, and the hind paws are elongated. c. Each toe has a thick, curved, nonretractable claw. The claws are used for grasping prey and for traction when running or climbing on ice. d. The sole of a polar bear's foot has thick, black pads covered with small, soft papillae (dermal bumps). The papillae create friction between the foot and ice to prevent slippage. Long hairs growing between pads and toes also help prevent slippage.

Physical Characteristics #2 Polar bear legs are large and stocky. Feet are five-toed paws. Polar bears have large paws compared to body size, reaching 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter. The large paws of a polar bear act like snowshoes, spreading out the bear's weight as it moves over ice and snow. The forepaws are round, and the hind paws are elongated. Each toe has a thick, curved, non-retractable claw. The claws are used for grasping prey and for traction when running or climbing on ice. A polar bear's coat is about 2.5 to 5 cm (1-2 in.) thick. d. The sole of a polar bear's foot has thick, black pads covered with small, soft papillae (dermal bumps). The papillae create friction between the foot and ice to prevent slippage. Long hairs growing between pads and toes also help prevent slippage.

Physical Characteristics #3 Physical Characteristics #3 Diet: Eats mostly ringed and bearded seals. They will occasionally eat other mammals, eggs, vegetation and beach-cast carrion. Polar bears don't drink water. They get all the liquids that they need from the animals that they eat. Range: They spend their entire life associated with pack ice. Females may prefer ice along the shoreline while others prefer moving sea ice at the floe edge -usually within 180 miles of shore.

Physical Characteristics #4 A dense, wooly, insulating layer of under hair is covered by a relatively thin of stiff, shiny, clear guard hairs.

POLAR BEARS ARE THE LARGEST LAND PREDATOR Polar bears eat seals and sea loins. Polar bears live only in the northern Arctic where they spend most of their time on ice floes. They are the largest land meat-eater in the world and the largest of the bear family. They are well suited to the cold Arctic ice and snow.

Other cool facts! A polar bear cub is no bigger than a rat when it is born. Polar bears have a great sense of smell. They can smell dead whales and seals from 20 miles away. On a clear day a polar bear's nose can be seen from six miles. Dutiful mothers, female polar bears usually give birth to twin cubs, which stay with her for more than two years until they can hunt and survive on their own.

More cool facts! Females den by digging into deep snow drifts, which provide protection and insulation from the Arctic elements. They give birth in winter, usually to twins. Young cubs live with their mothers for some 28 months to learn the survival skills of the far north. Females aggressively protect their young, but receive no help from their solitary male mates. In fact, male polar bears may even kill young of their species.

Without Polar Bears? Well, polar bears eat seals. If all polar bears got killed and disappeared, then the seal population would rapidly increase, and then all the food for the seals would decrease because there's so many seals. So to sum up, having polar bears killed off would greatly decrease seals food, then the seals food would disappear, and then the seals would starve to death themselves. It's kind of scary isn't it?

The cure The only way scientists can stop the polar bears from being extinct (right now they are threatened) is to stop polluting. If people stop polluting then not just the polar bear population goes up many more do too! People need to think what they are doing to polar bears when they litter. Polar bears are dying every day!

THE END! *Thanks for watching*