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They can run up to 40 kilometers per hour ( 25mph )!! They can also swim well and climb trees. In fact, they are most agile in the sea, reaching speeds of up to 6 mph in the water. They are good divers, too. When being pursued by hunters in open water, polar bears have been known to escape by plunging 10 to 15 feet below the surface and resurfacing a good distance away. They also have been seen swimming up to 100 miles away from ice or land. Today it is estimated that there are 28,000 polar bears worldwide.

Out of all the bears the polar bear is the strictest carnivore. It eats seals, walrus', fish, caribou, and beached whales. The polar bear's coat helps it blend in with its snow-covered environment. Although the polar bear's coat appears white, each individual hair is actually a clear, hollow tube which tunnels the heat of the sun's rays to the bear's skin and helps it stay warm. Some of the sun's rays bounce off the fur, making the polar bear's coat appear white.

The polar bear has a longer, narrower head and nose, and smaller ears, than other bears. Further, the polar bear's front legs appear slightly bowl-legged and pigeon-toed, and fur covers the bottoms of its paws; these adaptations helps keep the polar bear from slipping on ice. In 1968, B. Kurten suggested from studies of fossil bear bones that polar bears descended from a coastal form of brown bear possibly in northeastern Siberia. Judging from the layers of sand and mud that contain the bear fossils, somewhere during the mid-Pleistocene period (roughly 100,000 to 250,000 years ago), a number of brown bears became isolated (possibly by glaciers?) from the main brown bear population. Instead of all perishing on the ice, some of the young bears from this isolated population were, apparently, better adapted to their environment, and those youngsters lived long enough to have cubs of their own. This process was repeated over many generations. In this way, this isolated pocket of brown bears changed through the generations, and live on as the modern polar bear. Today, polar bears are totally adapted to their harsh northern environment.

Their breeding season is summertime and after they breed they prepare for the winter. Polar bears eat heavily during the summer and autumn to store fat for warmth during the winter. Female polar bears give birth to 1-4 at a time, and have a litter every two years. After the cubs are born they spend a year or two with their mother or until they are capable of taking care of themselves.

Polar bears are widely dispersed in Canada, extending from the northern arctic islands south to the Hudson Bay area. They are also found in Greenland, on islands off the coast of Norway, on the northern coast of the former Soviet Union, and on the northern and northwestern coasts of Alaska in the United States. Today it is estimated that there are 28,000 polar bears worldwide.

Phil Candela

info taken from:http://www.fws.gov/~r9extaff/biologues/bio_pola.html, and http://www2.d25.k12.id.us/~rudeer/polarbears.html