Polar bear

Polar bear
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Scientific classification
Kingdom Information
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum Information
Phylum	Chordata
Class Information
Class	Mammalia
Order Information
Order	Carnivora
Family Information
Family	Ursidae
Genus Information
Genus	Ursus
Species Information
Species	U. maritimus
Binomial name	Ursus maritimus
Synonyms	U. eogroenlandicus U.groenlandicus U. jenaensis U. labradorensis U. marinus U. polaris U. spitzbergensis U. ungavensis Thalarctos maritimus
Population statistics

The Polar Bear (Ursus Maritimus) is a species of large carnivorous animals native to the Arctic which are noted for their white fur. They have thick blubber to keep warm and are capable of surviving extreme cold, as well as sea ice, snow and frozen land.

Polar bears hibernate through much of the winter, usually in an excavated snow den. Their normal diet consists mainly of seals, though in Canada they have been observed to take prey as small as lemmings. A large polar bear can stand 11 feet tall and weigh more than 700 pounds, and are one of the few natural predators of humans. For this reason they are greatly feared by arctic travelers.

A mother polar bear and her two cubs

The polar bear is on the Endangered Species List in the United States. There are very few of these bears left in the wild. The habitat is rapidly depleting in the Arctic Circle due to Global Warming. This obvious fact has even been confirmed by the Bush administration, though some fringe people might cry at the mention of climate change. The current world population is estimated at around 22-27,000.

Polar bears have been known to interbreed with grizzly bears in the wild, producing a polar-grizzly hybrid.

In popular culture

Polar bears also starred in a series of Coca-Cola advertisements that ran during the 1990s. These were not actual polar bears, but were digital animations.