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Polar bears are stunning animals. They live in one of most extreme climates on Earth, where temperatures range from -35 degrees Celsius to -2 degrees in the warmer months and the winters last for as long as eight months! These creatures seem perfectly designed to live in such a climate.

Characteristics
Polar bears are enormous creatures! The male weighs as much as 700 kilograms and can grow as long as three meters. Because of their size and shape, polar bears actually look a lot different from their bear cousins. They have stubby legs, a long head and nose, and their ears and tail are quite small. However, their feet are larger than most other bears'.

The bottom of the polar bear's feet are covered with cilia. These help the bear to walk on slippery ice without falling over. The claws on the feet are quite short, much shorter than on a brown or black bear, and they are very curved. This type of claw helps the bear secure its prey and dig in ice more easily.

Another interesting characteristic of polar bears is their fur and the layer of fat under it. They have about ten centimeters of blubber under their skin, which insulates them from the incredibly cold temperatures of the arctic. They stay so warm, in fact, that if the outside temperature is above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, they overheat! However, it isn't just the layer of fat that keeps them warm; polar bears also have remarkable fur. The fur has two layers: one very dense layer that is right next to the skin, and another layer of what is called guard hairs. This outer is transparent and very long, reaching 15 centimeters on some parts of the body.

Hunting Habits
Some people have called polar bears the perfect hunting machine for the arctic environment. Their sense of smell is so extraordinary that they can even smell dinner from nearly one mile away! They can also see very well.

Most of the hunting a polar bear does requires that it swim from one ice island to another, searching for food. When the polar bear, using its keen sense of smell, finds a breathing hole for seals, it stops there and waits next to the hole. Then, when a seal comes up and breathes, the polar bear smells it and snatches the seal.

You might think that a polar bear would eat the entire seal after killing it, but this is not usually what happens. Truth is: adult polar bears usually only eat the skin and fat of a seal, since these provide calories to help the bear keep warm. In the summer months, when ice islands are more difficult to find, a polar bear could eat a wide variety of other kinds of food. These include eggs, birds, crabs, walruses, small whales and even other polar bears. However, in case of famine, polar bears are able to live off their fat for several months.

Behavior
Finally, polar bears' behavior reflects their sometimes solitary existence. For example, most brown bears mark out an area where they live and hunt, and then they stay inside that territory. On the other hand, polar bears are not territorial and one polar bear might wander over several hundred miles as it hunts. They've even been known to swim as far as 200 miles into the ocean.

Quite the creature, wouldn't you say?

Learn more about this author, Jared Garrett.
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