Polar Bear

Zoo: Meat, fish, Natural Balance Polar Chow
Wild: Primarily ringed seals; also bearded seals, belugas, and carcasses when available

The polar bear is found throughout the circumpolar Arctic in the five “polar bear nations” of United States (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), and Norway. The polar bear's southern range is limited by the amount of sea ice that forms in the winter because polar bears prefer to travel on sea ice.

The polar bear inhabits Arctic sea ice, water, islands and continental coastlines. It prefers sea ice habitat with leads, next to continental coastlines or islands. Leads are water channels or cracks through ice, which may remain open (ice free) for only a few minutes to several months, depending upon weather conditions and water currents. Polar bears hunt seals in the leads, using sea ice as a platform.

A female polar bear will have her first set of cubs between the ages of four and eight (most frequently at age five or six). Polar bears have one of the slowest reproductive rates of any mammal, with a female typically producing five litters in her lifetime. A pregnant polar bear needs to eat a lot in the summer and fall in order to build up sufficient fat reserves for surviving the denning period. During denning, she gives birth to one-pound cubs and then nurses them to about 20-30 pounds before emerging from the den in March or April, but does not eat. There are usually two cubs in a litter.
At birth, the cubs are blind, toothless and covered with short, soft fur. They are completely dependent on their mother for warmth and food. Polar bear cubs normally stay with their mother until they are 1.5 - 2.5 years old. During the time that the cubs are with their mother, they must learn how to hunt and survive in one of the Earth's harshest environments.

The polar bear is the largest land predator in the world. It ranges in color from pure white after a molt to a yellowish shade resulting from solar oxidation or staining by oil from seal blubber. A polar bear's fur is not truly white: each hair is actually pigment-free and transparent with a hollow core. The fur consists of a dense undercoat topped by guard hairs of varying lengths. The skin, nose and lips are black in color.