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Endangered
Species: The
Polar Bear
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The Polar Bear What’s happening? What are the threats/causes?

 The Polar bear
The polar bear is the largest bear in the world. They are
the Arctic's top predator. It is also the largest carnivore
on land. The polar bear spends most it’s life in the
ocean or around it, on ice sheets.
The polar bears scientific/Latin name is ‘Ursus
maritimus’, which means, sea bear.
Polar bears have a long neck, small rounded ears and a
short tail. Males can weigh up to 700kg, while females
can weigh up to 500kg. The average male polar height
is 11 feet. The average female polar bear height is 8
feet.
Polar bears are talented swimmers, they can swim for
days without stop, and can reach up to 9kmph.
A polar bear while spend 50% of it’s life hunting for
food. A polar bear may catch one or two seals out of
ten. Many of a polar bears attempts for food are fails.
Their diet is mainly full of bearded and ringed seal
because they need a lot of fat to survive.
 How have they adapted to
their environment?
Polar bears live in the Arctic, one of the coldest places in the
world, the depend on their thick white coats of fur to keep
warm. This white coat covers a warming layer of fat.
The white coat of fur also provides as camouflages as they
are surrounded by ice and snow.
Polar bears also grow fur on the bottom of their paws, that
fur protects them from the cold surfaces and provides a
good grip on the ice. Under their white coats of fur, a polar
bears skin is black, to absorb heat better.
Their large paws have adapted for swimming, which they
use to paddle through water.
Polar bears are very smart, and patient, which makes them
excellent at hunting. They will hunt seals. They often wait
near cracks of ice or areas the shift often, where a seal
may pop up to breathe. They also wait near ice edges and
breathing holes. If it’s possible they will also eat the
carcasses of dead whales.
They have thick and sharp claws, which help them grab
seals out of the water as they are slippery.
 What is happening
to polar bears?
Polar bears, since 2008 have become an
endangered species. An endangered
species is an animal or plant that has a
serious risk of extinction.
Polar bears are dying because of global
warming. Due to global warming, the
Arctic is heating up every quickly.
Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt seals,
breed and rest and store energy for
summer and autumn because food can be
scarce. Global warming is causing sea ice
to melt, and for polar bears, it’s getting
harder to survive and feed the cubs.
Why are polar bears important to
the animals?
Polar bears are at the top of the food chain and
they play a very important role for a functioning
environment. Polar bears mainly eat seals, but if
polar bears can’t hunt or seals because of the
melting sea ice, they need to find a new food
source.
This would threaten the other Arctic animals, like
the Arctic fox, walruses, reindeers. They would
be the new prey for polar bears. This may also
cause them to become an endangered species.
Other than that, animals like the snowy owl, who
is a scavenger, rely on leftovers from polar bears
hunting, like carcasses. If polar bears are unable
to hunt seals, other animals in the Arctic won’t
have any food.
 Why are polar bears important to
the animals and people?
Without polar bears eating seals, the population Fishes and crustaceans are also an important food
of seals would rapidly increase. The population source for other animals, like the Fulmar, Kittiwake
of fishes and crustaceans in the Arctic would be and many other animals. This would cause some
in danger, because of the increased number of species of marine life to become extinct in the
seals. Arctic.

Costal indigenous people also catch and eat fish and

crustaceans, they eat more than four times the global
Large carnivores are also indicators of an average. They rely on fish for nutrients. So if the fish
environments health. If something is happening and crustaceans population decreased, costal
to polar bears, it’s a sign something bad indigenous people would have to find a new source
happening in the Arctic. of food to gain nutrients.
 What are the threats/causes?
Climate Change
Climate change is the main threat/cause of polar bears
endangerment. Climate change hit the Arctic the hardest.
The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on
earth, causing the sea ice to melt.
It is said by scientist, at the rate that the Arctic ice is
melting, the Arctic will become ice free by 2050, because
of climate change.
That is the problem for polar bears, because seals rely on
sea ice. Seals need wrinkly ice, where there is small spaces
and caves to give birth. That ice only comes when ice has
been piled and compacted for many years.
If ice melts every summer and comes back every winter,
it’ll be very thin and that isn’t a good place for seals, so
they won’t live there. It wouldn’t be a good place for polar
bears to live and give birth either. If seals don’t have pups,
polar bears lose a food sources.
What are the threats/causes?
Climate Change
If polar bears don’t have food to
eat, for a long time, their health
will decline. If a polar bear goes
without much food for one week,
they would lose 10kg of fat and
their health would worsen.
An bear that is not health means
that there is a low chance it would
reproduce. If a unhealth polar
reproduces, it is likely that the cub
would die because of hunger or
lack of fat on the nursing mother.
That may cause polar bears to
become extinct in the Arctic.
 What are the threats/causes?
Chemical/Toxic Pollution
Pollution in polar bears affects their
immune system, vitamin A level,
hormones, bone density, growth, organ
structure and development. It also might
affect a cubs chances at survival.
Polar bears are at the top of the food chain,
which puts them at a massive risk against
pollution.
Some nursing mothers milk has large
amount of chemical/toxic pollution, that it
can kill the
What are people doing to help, positives and negatives
Reference List(last slide)
No Wikipedia https://www.britannica.com/science/endangered-species
.org is good
.ed is good https://www.arcticwwf.org/wildlife/polar-bear/
.gov is good
https://earth.org/endangered-species/polar-bears/
Wwf
Natgeo https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/
UN polar-bear
Aid organisation
Bbc https://polarbearsinternational.org/news-media/articles/polar-b
Times newspaper ears-pollution-blood-contaminants
Britannica
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/11/30/you-asked-whe