Did you know? Polar Bears can smell their prey up to a Kilometer away.
Incredible, isn’t it? Polar Bears are not only the apex predators of land, but they are also filled with several interesting facts that you would love to know.
Fun Facts about Polar Bear
1. Polar bears are not white. Now I know what you’re thinking, they look white. But their fur is made up of translucent hairs. These hairs reflect the sunlight, so polar bears appear white to you and me. This is why they appear greyer under a grey sky, and at sunset, they can seem redder. It’s all down to the way light is reflected.
2. We all know that Polar bears are the largest bears. But you might be astonished to hear just how big they are.
An adult male Polar bear can be up to 3 meters and weigh between 350-and 680kg, which is equal to the same weight as 7 refrigerators.
3. They can swim for several days at a time. Since polar bears primarily hunt seals and marine mammals, you won’t be surprised to learn that they are excellent swimmers. In fact, The longest recorded swim by a polar bear is 687km and lasted 9 days.
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4. Polar Bears are quick with feet too. They can run with a top speed of up to 40 kilometers per hour. That’s even faster than Usain Bolt. However, you’ll rarely see them sprinting at this speed because they can quickly overheat.
When this happens, they must dive into the cold ocean to cool off.
5. Polar Bears can smell their prey up to a Kilometer away.
Cool Facts about Polar Bear
6. Less than 2% of Polar bear hunts are successful.
7.Scientists can extract Polar bear DNA from just their footprints.
8. More than 60% of Polar bears live in Canada.
9. Moreover, In the far north town of Churchill, Manitoba, nobody locks the doors to their house or cars in case of a polar bear attack. Churchill is located in the center of the Polar Bear Alley, and polar bears walk freely through the town towards the Hudson Bay. They have learned to live with the mighty polar bear.
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10. They are the only carnivorous bear. Most bears are omnivores, which means they eat both plants and animals. However, polar bears are carnivores because their main food is a seal. However, during the summer when they cannot hunt seals, they will also eat birds, terrestrial mammals, and even algae or berries too.
But doesn’t this make them omnivores?
No, not quite. Although some experts call them hypercarnivores which are animals that eat more than 70% meat.
Interesting Facts about Polar Bear
11. Polar bears eat 12,325 calories per day. Polar bears have a high-fat diet to help them remain in an energetic balance. A polar bear can burn through 12,325 calories per day. So a female must eat either one large adult seal, three small seals, or 19 newborn seal pups every 10-12 days, just to maintain their body mass.
12. The polar bears touch noses to share food. With a stomach that can hold 10-20% of their total body weight, they can eat a lot of food in one sitting.
But, larger marine mammals such as beluga whales can weigh up to 1500 kilograms, so there’s plenty to go around. And when they want to share another bear’s food, they’ll circle toward them and gently touch noses to ask if it’s okay to share.
13. In the wild, the maximum life expectancy of a polar bear is 30 years, although few make it to this age. In captivity, polar bears that are treated well can live for far longer.
The oldest polar bear on record was Debby. She lived at a Canadian Zoo and reached a whopping 41 years.
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14. Female polar bears are around half the size of male polar bears.
15. A female can give birth to cubs from different fathers at the same time Polar bears are polygynous, they will rarely mate with the same bear more than once.
After a week of mating, the male will quickly move on, leaving the female to give birth and care for the young. However, due to a process in bears called delayed implantation, the fertilized egg isn’t implanted straight away. It stays dormant until the fall, which could be several months later.
During this time, if the female mates with another partner and fertilizes another egg, they could give birth to offspring from different fathers at the same time.
That’s it for this post guys, I hope you had fun while reading 15 Mind-Blowing Polar Bear facts for kids.
And in case you’re interested in reading other articles:
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