#599: Polar Bear

The Polar Bear is specially adapted for her Arctic home. Her diet is almost entirely carnivorous, with seals featuring high on the menu, although she will also take animals as large as a musk ox or as small as eggs and rodents. She is largely solitary and nomadic, not holding a territory but seeking food where she can find it. Although a large bear, she is classified as a marine mammal because of her reliance on the sea for her survival and spends many months roaming on the frozen ice shelves, occasionally diving into the ocean in pursuit of prey. When the ice begins to melt she is forced back onto solid land. Polar Bears are Vulnerable due to climate change, with the melting of the polar ice forcing them off the ice before they have developed sufficient fat reserves for the leaner months (which for them is summer) and increasing the distances of which they have to swim. It is also forcing them into closer contact with humans, as they scavenge for sustenance.