News tagged with polar bears
New study suggests polar bears evolved earlier than previously thought
(Phys.org) -- A new genetic analysis carried out by and international team of scientists has revealed that polar bears and brown bears may have diverged around 600,000 years ago, which is much earlier than ...
Apr 20, 2012 |
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Preserving four percent of the ocean could protect most marine mammal species, study finds
Preserving just 4 percent of the ocean could protect crucial habitat for the vast majority of marine mammal species, from sea otters to blue whales, according to researchers at Stanford University and the ...
Aug 29, 2011 |
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Study: Demise of large animals caused by both man and climate change
Past waves of extinctions which removed some of the world's largest animals were caused by both people and climate change, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. Their findings were reported today, 05 ...
Mar 05, 2012 |
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Arctic scientist under investigation
(AP) -- A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated ...
Jul 28, 2011 |
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President Obama Working to Reverse President Bush's Environmental Legacy
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the U.S., there is a tradition followed by outgoing presidents: Enact as many new policies as possible -- especially if you think that the incoming president would disapprove. This practice ...
May 01, 2009 |
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Is cannibalism in polar bears on the rise?
(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of photographs of cannibalism in polar bears have been released, and the researchers who witnessed the act think the rate of cannibalism may be increasing. They observed three instances ...
Dec 09, 2011 |
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Model shows polar ice caps can recover from warmer climate-induced melting
A growing body of recent research indicates that, in Earth's warming climate, there is no "tipping point," or threshold warm temperature, beyond which polar sea ice cannot recover if temperatures come back down. New University ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 17, 2011 |
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Study warns of mercury in Arctic
Global mercury emissions could grow by 25 percent by 2020 if no action is taken to control them, posing a threat to polar bears, whales and seals and the Arctic communities who hunt those animals for food, ...
May 05, 2011 |
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Scientists: Soot may be key to rapid Arctic melt
An international research team is in the land of snow and ice, in search of soot.
Apr 20, 2011 |
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Ancestry of polar bears traced to Ireland
An international team of scientists has discovered that the female ancestor of all living polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the vicinity of present-day Britain and Ireland just prior to the peak of ...
Jul 07, 2011 |
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Long-distance swims may cause polar bear problems
Polar bears forced to swim longer distances because of diminished sea ice off Alaska's coast may be paying a price in lost cubs or precious calories, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Jul 20, 2011 |
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Study of wolves will help scientists predict climate effects on endangered animals
Scientists studying populations of gray wolves in the USA's Yellowstone National Park have developed a way to predict how changes in the environment will impact on the animals' number, body size and genetics, amongst other ...
Dec 01, 2011 |
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Polar bear's long swim illustrates ice melt
In one of the most dramatic signs ever documented of how shrinking Arctic sea ice impacts polar bears, researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska have tracked a female bear that swam nine days across ...
Feb 03, 2011 |
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Dramatic biological responses to global warming in the Arctic
"The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past," says Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University. Post leads a large, international team that carried out ecosystem-wide ...
Sep 10, 2009 |
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A rainforest revelation: Lemurs of Madagascar offer clues to global-warming impact
Global warming may present a threat to animal and plant life even in biodiversity hot spots once thought less likely to suffer from climate change, according to a new study from Rice University.
Jun 07, 2010 |
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Polar bear
Ursus eogroenlandicus Ursus groenlandicus Ursus jenaensis Ursus labradorensis Ursus marinus Ursus polaris Ursus spitzbergensis Ursus ungavensis Thalarctos maritimus
The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a bear native to the Arctic Ocean and its surrounding seas. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It's also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately the same size. An adult male weighs around 400–680 kg (880–1,500 lb), while an adult female is about half that size. Although it is closely related to the brown bear, it has evolved to occupy a narrow ecological niche, with many body characteristics adapted for cold temperatures, for moving across snow, ice, and open water, and for hunting the seals which make up most of its diet. Although most polar bears are born on land, it spends most of its time at sea, hence its name meaning "maritime bear", and can hunt consistently only from sea ice, spending much of the year on the frozen sea.
The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species, with 5 of the 19 polar bear subpopulations in decline. For decades, unrestricted hunting raised international concern for the future of the species; populations have rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic indigenous peoples, and the hunting of polar bears remains important in their cultures.
The IUCN now lists global warming as the most significant threat to the polar bear, primarily because the melting of its sea ice habitat reduces its ability to find sufficient food. The IUCN states, "If climatic trends continue polar bears may become extirpated from most of their range within 100 years." On May 14, 2008, the United States Department of the Interior listed the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
For more information about Polar bear, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
