THE POLAR BEAR

The polar bear or white bear is a species of carnivorous mammal of

the bear family, one of the largest terrestrial carnivores on Earth. It
lives in the polar medium and icy areas of the northern hemisphere.
It is the only superpredator of the Arctic.

The polar bear feeds on many arctic animals. In spite of everything,

their favorites are the pups of seals and reindeer (which are much
scarcer than the first ones) and they get to eat about 30 kilos of food
a day, and the puppies a kilo. Polar bears do not drink water, since in
their environment it is salty and acidic. They remove the fluids they
need from the blood of their prey. It has also recently been
discovered that they can become cannibals, especially males,
because if they suffer too much hunger, they have no problem eating
other bears especially young or dead generally.

2 Traditionally, polar bears were hunted by Eskimos and other arctic

peoples, for their meat and skin, avoiding ingesting the liver, which
because it contains extremely high levels of retinol (form of vitamin
A found in members of the animal kingdom) is dangerous to
consume it for the human being
The European colonists began to kill them also for sport and to avoid
their incursions into the villages, where they could steal food or
attack domestic animals. Rarely there were attacks against humans,
although the vast majority of these were the work of animals
previously injured by the men themselves.

The IUCN considers that the number of polar bears has been reduced
by at least 30% in the last 45 years. For 2008, the population was
estimated between 20,000 and 25,000 individuals. Until a few years
ago, polar bears were hunted from motor boats, light aircraft and
even helicopters. This massive hunting put the species on the verge
of extinction, which ended up being banned in certain countries such
as Russia or Norway and regulated in others. In Canada, the country
that presents most of the world population of polar bears, the Inuit
are allowed to hunt a certain number of specimens. Likewise, in 2010
the indigenous populations of the United States and Russia were
authorized through an agreement between both countries for an
annual quota of 29 copies, a quota recently canceled by Russia that
totally prohibits the hunting of polar bears in its territory. The use of
poisoned baits is also pursued to kill the bears.

Apart from man, the only animal that can be dangerous to the polar
bear is the walrus, which can seriously injure him with his fangs.
The most modern threats are the accumulation of pollutants in the
Arctic ice and atmosphere, and the warming that is affecting their
ecosystem. According to Canadian studies (2005) the ice of the areas
inhabited by these animals is melting up to three weeks before the
1970s, forcing the bear to retreat to the mainland without having
completed its reserves of fat, which they lose during the summer and
fall so critically that it affects the ability of females to become
pregnant and undermine their ability to produce milk to feed their
young. This has caused a 15% drop in the birth rate.

People should be aware of the damage we are doing to animals, not

only to them, but also to all humanity, since in the future they would
be depriving future generations of knowing the diversity of animals
and how to take care the environment that surrounds it.