Do you see the polar bear? And he is! Photo: Nikolay Gernet, Russian Geographical Society
- Use your equipment wisely
The polar bear is provided with everything necessary for living in extreme conditions. It has a whole thermal insulation system: thick undercoat and long coat. Through the transparent hairs of the coat, the sun’s rays easily penetrate to the black skin, and it heats up quickly. The bear retains heat so effectively that even a thermal imager cannot detect it!
The bear’s third eyelid, the nictitating membrane, protects it from the blinding light that sparkles off snow and ice. And the webbing between the toes not only improves swimming abilities, but also allows you to jump out of the water onto ice floes. And the polar bear has an absolutely wonderful nose, which is able to smell prey under a meter of snow or many kilometers before prey.
- Grow big!
Yes, a polar bear is born tiny, weighing only 600 g. But in two and a half to three months, it can grow up to 10-12 kg, about 20 times. By the age of two, if a male, he will be the same as his mother. And in general, the reputation of the largest predator on earth must be matched. Even a female should weigh about 200-300 kg, and a male should gain at least half a ton.
- Be creative in choosing your image.
Even people have already realized that every bear has its own character: some are pugnacious, others are cautious, some are sociable, others are unsociable and timid. The appearance is also quite different. And the skin of a polar bear does not necessarily have to be white. The hairs are transparent, so if microscopic algae accumulate in them, they may well turn green, and straw yellow under the sun.
- Decide whether you are nomadic or settled.
Nobody restricts the polar bear’s lifestyle. You can constantly walk and hunt in the same territory, or you can go on a long journey. In general, you need to focus on prey and move through the ice after seals and walruses. Of course, females should not move too far away from places where they can hide in a den.
The white bear boardwalk. Photo: Vitaly Dvoryachenko, Russian Geographical Society
- Take care of housing conditions
For male polar bears, any ice floe is suitable, on which you can travel no worse than on a yacht. However, a female expecting offspring certainly needs her own “apartment”, and a “one-bedroom” will not suit her. The bears dig out spacious rooms in the snow, and as the younger generation grows up, they move from one to another, clean and always with a vent.
- Do not neglect hygiene procedures.
Polar bears wash themselves regularly! After eating, they take cold “baths”. Wash thoroughly for at least 15 minutes so that no odor remains. If there is no water under the paw, they clean their fur while swimming in the snow. This is necessary not only so that the prey does not smell the bear, but the cleaner the body hair, the better it retains heat.
- Follow a proper diet
Polar bears are supposed to catch seals, seals, walruses, sea hares or eat dead whales stranded on the shore. And all because the most suitable food for him is fat. That’s what he should eat first. The rest of the carcass can also be eaten to satisfy hunger, but it is not as useful for the bear. The bears may not eat anything at all for four months while they are sitting in the den with the children.
- Set a record in the marathon swim
The polar bear may be land-based, but it’s still a sea bear. He is sometimes able to reach speeds of up to 10 km / h in the water and dive to a depth of 10 m, and generally not get out of the water for days. One female spent nine days in the waters of the Beaufort Sea, covering about 700 km among the melting ice. However, she spent a lot of effort on it, and she lost as much as a fifth of her weight.
Polar bear swim. Thanks to the eardrums! Photo: Anna Seliverstova, Russian Geographical Society
- Don’t let yourself be counted.
Due to the camouflage coloration and the tendency to travel on ice and in water, it is inconvenient for people to find out the number of polar bears. But the bipeds persist in trying: they launch drones to count the bears from the air.… But so far it has not been found out whether 20 thousand or 30 thousand individuals live on the planet. So let them keep scratching their heads, otherwise what is she for them, and they don’t need to make the task easier.
- Don’t give in to human temptations.
Humans, of course, are funny creatures, and it’s not uncommon to find garbage cans with food in their settlements. But there is danger here, and more than one. Firstly, you can miss the moment when the ice begins to melt, and not have time to leave them for their native prey — seals and walruses. Secondly, people are constantly coming out to these garbage dumps, and the polar bear can get hurt himself. And thirdly, it is by eating in the trash that you can catch parasites.
Olga Ladygina
