Essay on Polar

Polar Term Papers

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Throughout all of the polar regions of the entire northern hemisphere roams the largest carnivorous quadruped alive in the world today, Ursus maritimus. More commonly known as the polar, this huge mammal is ruler of its domain by being well adapted to its environment.

The physical characteristics of polar bears make them a perfect fit in the arctic. They have a heavy stout body with strong muscular legs and well-adapted neck muscles. Their eyes are small and deep set to protect them against driving snow and cold wind. The bottoms of their feet are covered with fur for better traction on ice and they walk in a heel-toe manner. On land they can travel twenty-five miles per hour for short distances. They may not be as fast as their closest relatives, the brown bear, but this is the trade off for massive forelegs used to break through seal's dens or to flip them out of the water.

Also in keeping with their carnivorous nature, polar bears have developed large stomachs with the capacity to hold 150 pounds of food. Their teeth are designed perfectly for eating meat. The canines are large and well developed which are used for catching and holding prey while the premolars are strong and sharp-edged for cutting and shearing the fat and blubber of seals. Of course these traits would be useless without the means to use them, and like most successful predators the polar bears has developed a good eyesight, excellent hearing, and a phenomenal sense of smell. Polar bears are capable of tracking seals form miles away if scents are carried to them by wind.

Although polar bears are really land animals, they are powerful swimmers. Ursus maritimus means "sea bear". They can spend many hours in the sea and are capable of swimming great distances. They use a strong doggy-paddle stroke with their front feet, while the hind legs trail and act as rudders. By using this seemingly inefficient stroke, polar bears can attain speeds of six miles per hour, which can be maintained for up to sixty miles without a rest.

The polar bear's principle diet is seals, particularly the ringed seal. They usually eat only the seal's blubber and intestines, unless they are exceptionally hungry when they will devour the whole animal. Polar bears will kill a seal every few days if available, but are capable of going weeks between meals. The large stomach capacity is designed to allow them to take advantage of unexpected large meals that will help them survive the leaner times. During the summer months, when many bears are stranded on the land as the ice recedes northward, they turn to a variety of quite different foods in the absence of seals. Small mammals, birds and their eggs, or anything else that is edible is eaten.

Polar bears acute sense of smell plays a vital role in its hunting. During the spring when seal pups are born in chambers under the ice, bears wander over the ice fields in search of them. If a seal pup is found to be under the ice, by means of scent, the bear stomps down hard with its forefeet to break into the den. Polar bears also hunt grown seals on the ice. When a bear smells a seal t begins a careful and painstaking stalk, either over the land or through the water. When on land, it uses every available slope or ridges a cover and slowly creeps forward, eyes fixed on its quarry. To break up its outline against the snow the bear frequently lies flat on its belly. For a successful kill the bear needs to surprise the seal before it has time to slip into the water. When it gets approximately within one hundred feet of the seal the bear charges across the ground and seizes the seal killing it before it can escape. Polar bears also catch seals by waiting at their breathing holes in the ice. A seal may use several different breathing holes; therefore a bear may have to wait patiently for it to pop up at the right one. Then it pounces on the seal and quickly drags it out onto the ice to kill it.

Polar bears have a unique reproductive strategy that enables them to give birth in the arctic environment. The bears breed in April or May when they take time off from hunting seals. Shortly after conception, the female's pregnancy grinds to a halt. The embryo, nothing more then a tiny hollow ball of cells the size of a pinhead floats inside the mother for four months or more. This process is called delayed implantation, which works in synchrony with the food supply. It allows a female to wait until after the important spring and summer seal-hunting periods before committing to the energetic demands of pregnancy. In July after...

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