Black under the white
A polar bear's skin is black, and its hairs are see-through and hollow. They only look white.
Arctic tundra
Polar bear
Ursus maritimus
A huge, cream-white bear with a long neck and small ears, at home on the sea ice.
- Size
- Up to 2.5m long: the biggest bear
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Sea ice and coasts all round the Arctic
Pads after you, and runs when you get well ahead. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Polar bear
Good to know
Six things about the polar bear
A nose for seals
It can smell a seal from more than a kilometre away, even one hidden under snow.
A sea bear
Polar bears can swim for days. Their Latin name means bear of the sea.
Seal hunters
They wait by a seal's breathing hole in the ice, sometimes for hours, without moving.
Born in a snow den
Cubs are born in midwinter in a den dug into a snowdrift. They weigh about as much as a guinea pig.
Snowshoes
The paws are as wide as dinner plates, with rough pads and fur between the toes for grip.
The real thing
Photos of the polar bear
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
In the wild you need a guided trip to Svalbard, Arctic Canada or Alaska. Look along the edge of the sea ice, where the seals are.
How to help
Polar bears need sea ice to hunt, and it is melting. Anything that saves energy helps: the less the world warms, the more ice is left.
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