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Made by: Fatima Daak Ms. Lifrieri Period 7. Polar Bears. Classification. Kingdom: Animailia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Ursidae Genus: Ursus Species: Ursus maritimus “sea bear”. Natural Habitat.
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Made by: Fatima Daak Ms. Lifrieri Period 7 Polar Bears
Classification Kingdom: Animailia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Ursidae Genus: Ursus Species: Ursusmaritimus “sea bear”
Natural Habitat • Habitat: Arctic Polar Icecaps • Nations where they live: • Alaska (U.S.), Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway
Population • Approximately 20,000-25,000 (worldwide; 2008) • Known to many that Polar Bears seem threatened. • If climate change continues to be a problem in the Arctic, sooner or later two-thirds of the world’s population of polar bears could disappear by 2050.
Predator And Prey • It usually eats seals, but on rare cases they as well eat other polar bears. Animals that compete for same food: • Arctic wolves, Great white sharks, Orca whales, and humans (in the 19th and 20th century for its oil, pelt and meat until almost extinction) • Animals that hunts the polar bear: • Only humans. It is unlikely, but there is some cases where other polar bears due to the stress of finding food causing the infrequent acts of cannibalism.
Reasons of Success • To be able to catch seals: • Waits quietly at its breathing hole and once a seal come up for air the polar bear charges and grasps it until it is dead. • Watches a seal and silently gets close and then attacks. • Hunts underneath the ice, swimming.
Adaptations • To the environment: In the fall, pregnant polar bears: • Make dens in the snow called snowbanks and they would stay there all through the winter and give birth to 1-3 cubs, emerging in the spring w/ her cubs trailing behind. • Born features: • White fur; helps to blend in w/ snow and ice. • Large paws; helps to walk on ice. • Layer of fat under skin and thick fur; helps to stay warm. • Strong swimmers; fore legs and paws help propel them through the water.
Recommendations • Set aside an area for just polar bears and restrict future drilling of oil and gas. • Reduce the affects of global warming; greenhouse emissions/ gases.
References • http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/polar-bear/ • http://www.polarbearsinernational.org/polar-bears/ • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear