News tagged with polar bears
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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Global warming impacting Greenlanders' daily lives
From his trawler that motors along the Nuuk fjord, fisherman Johannes Heilmann has watched helplessly in recent years as climate change takes its toll on Greenland.
Jul 09, 2009 |
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Polar bears no longer on 'thin ice': researchers say polar bears could face brighter future
In the snowy spring of 2009, Portland-based Marcot traveled with several colleagues onto the frozen Arctic Ocean north of Alaska to study and survey polar bear populations. These findings may have implications ...
Dec 21, 2010 |
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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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Obama won't fight global warming with bear rules
(AP) -- The Obama administration, which promised a sharp break from the Bush White House on global warming, declared Friday it would stick with a Bush-era policy against expanding protection for climate-threatened ...
May 08, 2009 |
5 / 5 (8) |
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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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When hosts go extinct, what happens to their parasites?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Hands wring and teeth gnash over the loss of endangered species like the panda or the polar bear. But what happens to the parasites hosted by endangered species? And although most people would ...
Jun 01, 2009 |
5 / 5 (7) |
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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 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
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Beyond polar bears - finding a new way to communicate climate change
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fear-laden images of a planet in chaos are a real turn off when it comes to changing public perception about climate change, according to research by Newcastle University.
May 26, 2010 |
3.5 / 5 (8) |
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Polar bears still on thin ice, but cutting greenhouse gases now can avert extinction
Polar bears were added to the threatened species list nearly three years ago as their icy habitat showed steady, precipitous decline because of a warming climate. But it appears the Arctic icons aren't necessarily ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2010 |
2 / 5 (14) |
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Arctic scientist's complaint being reviewed
(AP) -- An inquiry is under way into the treatment of suspended Arctic scientist Charles Monnett, an Interior Department official said.
Aug 13, 2011 |
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Ancient DNA from rare fossil reveals that polar bears evolved recently and adapted quickly
A rare, ancient polar bear fossil discovered in Norway in 2004 is yielding a treasure trove of essential information about the age and evolutionary origins of the species whose future is now seen as synonymous ...
Mar 01, 2010 |
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Arctic icecap safe from runaway melting: study
There is no "tipping point" beyond which climate change will inevitably push the Arctic ice cap into terminal melt off, according to a study released Wednesday.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 15, 2010 |
3.8 / 5 (6) |
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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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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.
