Polar Bear Sleepover!

At Le Fleche Zoo in La Fleche, France, you can stay the night in a room that looks into an enclosure that houses two polar bears - Taiko and Katinka. Guests at the zoo pay $246 per night to stay in one of eight three star rooms at the zoo. 

The bears can, and do come right up to the glass. The 'A night at home with the bear' concept was launched in October. If you want to stay in a room with a polar bear view, you'll have to add your name to the waiting list. The French Zoo says that all of the rooms are sold out until the end of 2015. The rooms have been such a success that six more are set to be open by 2016 with an African savannah themed equivalent to follow.

To read more about the zoo, visit

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2880354/Pray-glass-doesn-t-break-Zoo-offers-sleepovers-POLAR-BEARS-just-window-separate-tourists-enclosure.html

Polar Bear Fight!

Two polar bears wrestle near the Hudson Bay in Manitoba. These photographs were taken by landscape and wildlife photographer Joyce Ferder.

Polar Bear Population Dropping

According to an article by National Geographic, a large population of polar bears in Alaska and Canada has decreased by 40 percent since the start of the new millennium. 1,500 polar bears to 900 in just 9 years. The number of polar bears living in the southern Beaufort Sea have dropped from 2001 to 2010.

Southern Beaufort Sea is warming faster than northern regions, making it more susceptible for melting sea ice.  The ocean is heating up due to global warming, and Arctic sea ice levels have been dropping. Since the 1970’s, the ice levels have dropped 12 percent per decade and the drop has worsened since 2007.

Polar bears in this region have been dropping because they use sea ice platform to hunt seals. Since the ice levels have been dropping, so has food sources. The seals are still there, but the polar bears can’t get to them.

Facing a less icy Arctic, some polar bears are coping on land by adding snow goose eggs and caribou to their diet. "Sure, they're starting to use land when food sources are limited. They'll eat whatever they can catch. But it's not enough to sustain them in the long run." Said U.S. Geological Survey statistician Jeff Bromaghin. "Every scrap of evidence suggests that polar bears are linked to sea ice. There's no evidence they can live on land.”

"The fundamental concept is simple," he said. "As we continue to lose ice, particularly during key feeding periods, numbers of polar bears will decline."

To read the article go to

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141119-polar-bears-arctic-warming-animals-science-alaska/

Wapusk National Park

Home to about 935 polar bears, Wapusk National Park is one of the world's largest polar bears maternity denning areas. The park is located along the western Hudson Bay.

Polar bears hunt their main food source, the ring seal on sea ice. Sea ice is the natural habitat of polar bears. From late September to November, many polar bears migrate along the shore to catch the first pack of ice of the winter. The number of polar bears peak during this time, around Cape Churchill.

The ice on the Hudson Bay melts in late July, so the polar bears are forced to come ashore. They fast for about four months until the bay freezes again and they can hunt seals. Pregnant females will fast for around eight months and stay on land through out the winter to give birth to their cubs. 

A unique adaptation of polar bears is they can slow down their metabolism at anytime during the year which allows them to conserve energy when the food supply is low.  

To read more about Wapusk National Park go to:
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/mb/wapusk/natcul/natcul1ci.aspx

Polar Bear Videos

Here are some cool YouTube videos that fearure polar bears.


GoPro: Polar Bears

Mother Polar Bear and Cubs Emerging from Den

Polar Bears Ice Skating

Polar bears smash the spy cams

Fun Facts!

Here are some interesting fun facts about polar bears.

Polar bear cubs learn to freeze and remain still while their mother hunts.  If they move, the mother disciples them, with a whack to the head.

Some female polar bears build dens with multiple rooms and even a ventilation system in the roof.

Polar bear cubs weigh a little more than a pound when they are born.

Polar bears tend to overheat more than to be cold.

A polar bear is so strong, that it can kill an animal with one blow from it's paw

Polar Bears do not hibernate.  Female polar bears will den with their young.  All polar bears may den for a short time to avoid bad weather.

To read more polar bear fun facts visit
http://www.endangeredpolarbear.com/fun-facts-about-polar-bears.html 

Polar Bear Live Cams

Do you want to see polar bears in the wild and not leave your house? Then watch the polar bear live cam! There is a website that streams three different live cams. The cams stream from Churchill and can be viewed from 9:30am to 4pm. There are also slide shows full of pictures, fun facts, videos and live streams of African Hippos that you can watch if you get bored of the polar bear live cams.

To view the live cams, click here:
http://explore.org/#live-cams/player/polar-bear-tundra-buggy-cam

Polar Bears and Climate Change

Sea ice loss is at an all-time high with the Arctic experiencing the warmest temperatures in four centuries. The amount of ice lost in 2012 broke all previous records meaning that the ice is melting – and melting fast. The melting ice has been caused by large amounts of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.  Scientists predict that by 2040, the Arctic will be entirely ice free unless action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

What does this mean for polar bears?

Polar bears rely on the ice to hunt, breed and den. There is evidence that polar bears are leaving the sea ice to build their dens on land, even in the winter. In the Western Hudson Bay area, permafrost has declined meaning that the denning areas are vulnerable to forest fires in the summer. Without the sea ice, polar bears are unable to hunt for food. Shorter hunting seasons have made a 22% drop in the polar bear population in the Churchill area. There has also been a decline in cub survival rates in the last 30 years.

Scientists say that human caused climate change is the biggest threat to the polar bear populations. Fortunately, they say that there is still time to save the polar bears if the amount of greenhouse gasses emissions is significantly reduced by the end of the decade. 

To learn more about polar bears and climate change, go to

http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/about-polar-bears/essentials/climate-change

About Polar Bears

So for my second post I decided to post some information on polar bears.

Five countries have polar bear populations: the United States (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway. Polar bears live only in Arctic areas that surround the North Pole—not in Antarctica, which surrounds the South Pole. The word arctic comes from the Greek word for bear, and Antarctic comes from the Greek meaning the opposite, without bear.

Polar bears top the food chain in the Arctic, where they primarily prey on ringed seals. Adult male polar bears can weigh from 775 to 1,200 pounds. Females normally weigh 330 to 650 pounds. Females usually give birth to two cubs. Single cubs and triplets can also occur depending on the health and condition of the mother. Cubs stay with their mothers for up to 2-1/2 years, learning how to hunt and survive in the harsh arctic environment.

Biologists estimate there are 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears. About 60% of those live in Canada. In 2008, the polar bears were listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The IUNC Polar Bear Specialist Group that of the 19 sub species of polar bears, 4 species are declining, 5 are stable 1 in increasing and 9 have insufficient data.  

Polar bear's conservation status (vulnerable)

Scientists predict that unless action is taken to stop climate change, we will lose two-thirds of all polar bears by the middle of the century and all of them by the end of the century.

But some people are seeing more polar bears!

Some Native communities in Canada are reporting an increase in the numbers of polar bears on land. Traditional hunters believe this means an increase in population. But some scientists attribute it to polar bears being driven ashore by lack of ice. 

To learn more about polar bears go to

http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/about-polar-bears 

First post

I am doing my blog on polar bears. I chose this topic because I love them and they are my favorite animals. The closest I have ever been to a polar bear was at the zoo last summer. Someday I hope to go and see polar bears in the wild. Follow my blog for more posts about polar bears.