WildFact
›
Information Section
›
Terrestrial Wild Animals
›
Carnivorous and Omnivores Animals, Excluding Felids
›
Bears
Polar Bears - Data, Pictures and Videos
Polar Bears - Data, Pictures and Videos
|
Polar Bears - Data, Pictures and Videos
|
 
David Yarrow: " Open Water
This “once in a lifetime” encounter with an adult polar bear in the choppy Beaufort Sea was a real test to capture. Keeping the camera and its long lens steady in this situation is close to impossible. My frame would move as the small boat moved - sometimes quite violently. When the light is poor, the photographer has no chance with these moments, but on this glorious morning I did have a chance as the light was so strong that I could work with a very fast shutter speed. That way the impact of the movement of the camera and the boat could be nullified. It is moments like this that make the job so rewarding - but they are few and far between. It is imperative to put in the hours. What a majestic mammal. "
David Yarrow: " 78 Degrees North
It’s almost exactly three years ago that I took this picture in Svalbard. It’s perhaps on my podium as one of the three most precious images of my career. Some days I think it takes the gold. "
Wild Eye: " In a new weekly series, Wild Eye brings you some facts about the species they come across on their expeditions and tours across the globe.
This week we focus on the Polar Bear. The classic white bears are not really white. Polar bears actually have black skin and hollow, colourless hair. Their hollow fur reflects light and traps the sun’s heat to help keep them warm. Polar bears can overheat. Though they are adapt to survive Arctic temperatures, which can dip below -50°C, they can also overheat. This becomes more of a risk when running and in the summer – when temperatures rise above freezing and up to 20°C. Polar bears clean themselves by rolling in the snow. Staying clean also helps the insulating properties of their fur, so after feeding they will often freshen up by taking a swim or roll in snow. They’re quick on their feet. Polar bears can reach speeds of up to 40km per hour (25 mph) on land. Polar bears are also excellent swimmers and can comfortably swim around 10 km per hour (6mph). They use their large front paws to propel themselves through the water and their back legs to steer. Their latin name actually means “sea bear”. Polar bears are the largest land carnivore. Males can weigh more than 800kg (1700 lbs). The biggest threat to polar bears is shrinking sea-ice. Climate change is causing sea-ice to melt earlier and forming later each year, which means that polar bears have less time to hunt on top of the sea-ice. The bears rely on this sea-ice as a platform to hunt sea prey like seals that come onto the ice and give the bear the advantage. They have a very good sense of smell. Polar bears can sniff out seals – their main food – from up to 1 km (0.6 miles) away and even under 1m (3 ft) of snow. Polar bears in the wild can live up to 30 years. Most polar bears live up to 15 – 18 years. A female polar bear will have an average of five litters of cubs in her lifetime. Two-thirds of polar bear litters are twins! "  (07-04-2014, 10:11 PM)Richardrli Wrote: Two adult polar bears captured and weighed in Alaska in August 2008. The female is 26 stones (165.1kg) while the huge male is 110 stones (698.5kg).
David Yarrow: " Diamonds In The Sky
To mark National wildlife day in the US, I look back on a memorable encounter on the North Slope of Alaska. This day serves to bring awareness of endangered animals. I think we deserved the image because the previous 72 hours had been very tough both weather wise and content wise. Regardless, we fancied our chances from about 5am as the storm passed. We had done our homework and had the very best local guide. It’s moments like this and images like this that make all the compromises so worthwhile. We were very privileged to work so closely with such a magnificent animal as the adult polar bear. The hard thing, as many know, about working from a small boat in choppy seas, is that the camera moves in step with the boat. This is tough enough on a small lens, but with a big lens it’s very challenging indeed. Throw in subzero temperatures and a wind chill and we have a true test of one’s ability to work in tough conditions. I am glad no one can see some of the pictures I took in that sequence - they were of the sky! " 
Big male compared to the author of the book Andrew E. Derocher, Polar Bears: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior
 *This image is copyright of its original author
Polar Bears Take Down Walruses by Hurling Rocks and Ice: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new...180978392/
New research corroborates Inuit knowledge of the animals cleverly using new tools By David Kindy, SMITHSONIANMAG.COM, August 9, 2021 An engraving of a polar bear hurling a rock at a walrus from Charles Francis Hall's 1865 book Arctic researches, and life among the Esquimaux. Credit: Smithsonian Libraries / Public Domain: https://library.si.edu/digital-library/b...rche00hall In 1865, Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall published an Inuit account of a polar bear attacking a walrus with a rock on Baffin Island in Canada. He even included an engraving of the bludgeoning in his book Arctic researches, and life among the Esquimaux: https://www.si.edu/object/archives/sova-...0702-ref34, https://library.si.edu/digital-library/b...rche00hall “The bear mounts the cliff, and throws down upon the animal’s head a large rock, calculating the distance and the curve with astonishing accuracy, and thus crushing the thick bullet-proof skull,” Hall describes in his book. Scientists have long dismissed these centuries-old claims of polar bears smashing the skulls of walruses with rocks and chunks of ice as myth and legend. Now, Canadian researchers have found evidence to corroborate the Indigenous knowledge. Reviewing Inuit accounts over the past 200 years, lead author Ian Stirling, a biologist at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and his team report in a new study that while rare, these attacks likely do occur. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Arctic, the research concludes that “polar bears may occasionally use tools to hunt walruses in the wild.” “I have always been impressed with the accuracy and reliability of the observations of animals reported by experienced Inuit hunters, so I thought it was likely the accounts might not just be myths but the result of reporting of actual observations, even though the behavior itself is likely quite rare,” he tells Mindy Weisberger of Live Science. The Inuit accounts describe polar bears picking up rocks and chunks of ice to throw at the heads of unsuspecting walruses. The large marine mammals are occasional prey, though their size—male walruses can weigh in excess of 2,500 pounds—thick skulls and dangerous tusks make it difficult for unarmed bears to bring them down, reports Kristine De Abreu of ExplorersWeb. Polar Bear Collar Cam B-Roll 2014, 2015, 2016: Stirling and his colleagues determined that polar bears clobbering walruses made sense. Their study cites the example of a five-year-old male polar bear named GoGo using objects as tools to get food in a Japanese zoo. The bear used sticks—as well as throwing a large tire—to knock down meals placed on inaccessible perches. According to the study, “GoGo demonstrated an exceptional and previously undocumented degree of conceptual creativity to facilitate access to a food item hanging from the air.” “The most significant part of this is that a bear is able to look at a situation, think of it in a three-dimensional sense, and then figure out what it might have to do to be successful,” Stirling tells Ginella Massa of “As It Happens” on CBC Radio. In another example, researchers in Alaska videotaped polar bears in the wild throwing chunks of ice at seals. One account collected by the United States Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center Polar Bear Research Project shows a bear sliding a large lump across the frozen surface to an open hole to ambush its prey. Previously, scientists didn’t know polar bears were capable of using tools. Now, they suggest it could happen in the right circumstances, especially if the hunter is faced with a formidable foe like the walrus. “An occasional adult polar bear might be capable of mentally conceptualizing a similar use of a piece of ice or a stone as a tool,” the study states. |
| Users browsing this thread: |
| 6 Guest(s) |