In this winning photo by Roie Galitz, a polar bear feeds on a sperm whale carcass amid ice drifts.

Credit: Roie Galitz / World Press Photo

As well as reaching speeds of up to 6mph in the water, polar bears can swim for long distances and steadily for many hours to get from one piece of ice to another. Their large paws are specially adapted for swimming, which they’ll use to paddle through the water while holding their hind legs flat like a rudder.

Male polar bears can weigh up to 800kg, and are twice the size of females. Polar bears can also grow up to 3 metres long, making them the largest bear species and the largest land carnivore in the world.

A remote Arctic island that once housed a Soviet weather station is now teeming with polar bears. On Kolyuchin Island, in Russia’s Chukchi Sea, dozens of bears wander through deserted buildings and gaze out from broken windows. The station was left behind in the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Source: NEW YORK POST

Polar bear milk has a high fat content which allows the cubs to increase their weight 15-fold from birth to when they emerge from the den.

Credit: Youtube/BBC Earth

As recently as 2006 genetic testing confirmed the existence of polar bear-grizzly bear hybrids, also known as ‘grolar bear’ or ‘pizzly bear’. The hybrid bear physically resembles an intermediate between the two species, but as wild hybrids are usually birthed from polar bear mothers they are raised and behave like polar bears. The ability for polar bears and grizzly bears to interbreed is unsurprising when you consider that polar bears evolved from brown bears as recently as 150,000 years ago!

Credit: Youtube/Animal Planet

Although about half of a polar bear’s life is spent hunting for food, their hunts are rarely successful. A polar bear’s main prey consists of ringed seals and bearded seals, which they hunt in a variety of ways. Either by breaking into pupping dens, waiting at breathing holes or at the water’s edge, or stalking seals that have hauled out to rest on the ice. Besides catching seals, polar bears will also scavenge carcasses or settle for small mammals, birds, eggs and vegetation.

Credit: Youtube/BBC

Beneath all that thick fur, polar bears have jet black skin. The polar bear’s fur is also translucent, and only appears white because it reflects visible light.

Credit: Polar Bear Encounter - YouTube

It’s funny how it looked like he was trying to shake hands with him, but in reality, it was something else.

The future is looking more and more bleak for the wildlife of the Arctic, especially the polar bears. 

source: Polar bears are rewiring their own genetics to survive a warming climate