1. Polar bears

2. Names
Polar bears are great animals. Polar bears have lots of names. In Norway they are called ursus maritimus meaning sea bear. In Greece, Thalarctos meaning bear of the north. Other names are ice bear, lord of the artic, white sea deer, gods dog, nanuk isbjorn, old man in the fur cloak, and white bear. These are all polar bear names.

3. Did you know?
If you see a photo of polar bears and penguins together, it is false because they live at different poles.
Polar bears live in the Arctic and penguins live in Antarctica.
false
true

4. habitats
Next, Polar bear habitats. A polar bear house is made of snow. During the winter females go to mainland on a hill. The female will dig a big hole and wait for the snow to cover her. Once the snow covers her, her babies will be coming out in a couple of days. When the babies are born they are around the size as a puppy. 60% of the world’s polar bears live in Canada.

5. Did you know?
Polar bears started to evolve 5,000,000 years ago from their brown bear ancestors.
Polar bears are not the only white bear. There are actually some black bears that are white.
Polar bear
White black bear

6. Adaptations
Polar bears have great adaptations like scientists predict polar bears have built in sun glasses of some sort because they do not get snow blind (snow blind is getting the bright rays of sun in your eyes from the snow). If people would to do this they would get blind in around a day. They also have sharp claws to dig for seal pups hiding under the snow and to walk on ice. Polar bears have black skin and blubber to keep them warm.

7. Did you know?
That polar bears can smell a dead whale from 32 km away. A living seal from 1 km away. And seals under 1 meter of thick ice and snow.

8. Conservation
The sad thing about polar bears is that they are on the endangered species list since It is estimated that there are less than 25,000 in the wild. Polar bears have been killed in the 19th century because of hunting in the past years. But now in the 20th century the threat to the polar bears is global warming. How does global warming hurt polar bears?
Less ice makes it harder for polar bears to hunt seals and get food.
Not enough food = less blubber, less bodyweight means less energy that polar bears have to hunt and swim and survive cold winters
Not enough food = fewer cubs because the number of cubs a mother makes depends on how healthy she is
Not enough food = more cubs die because their mother cannot produce enough milk to feed them

9. Did you know?
The U.S. Geological Survey predicts two-thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear by 2050 because of global warming. And by 2080 there will be no more polar bears in the wild.

10. How can we save the polar bears?
Use less paper
Use more electronics than paper because of the process to make paper
Turn off as many lights as possible
Use the public bus more often scooter or bike
Tell Mr. Butcher to not have his computer on all day
Tell Mr. Butcher to not have his computer on while the smart board is on while he is hanging up pieces of paper
Recycle paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, steel and food
Do not watch a lot of TV