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