Fred Glasby, Freshman
February 27th was National Polar Bear Day, but polar bears are worth celebrating every day.
Polar bears have their habitats on the bottom and top of the Earth at the North and South Poles. Polar bears are considered marine mammals because they spend most of their life on the Arctic sea ice, and are the only animals that are considered with this title. They depend on the ocean for their food and water to survive. Polar bears can swim at a constant speed for hours, or even days at a time. Their big paws are adapted for swimming, which they’ll use to paddle through the water while holding their hind legs flat like a rudder.
A really interesting fact about polar bears is that they have black skin. Polar bears have translucent fur, which only appears white because it reflects visible light. Polar bears spend most of their time hunting for food, but because of the ongoing and potential loss of their sea ice habitat due to climate change, this is becoming more and more difficult.
Polar bears were listed as one of the most threatened species in the U.S. back in 2008. Due to climate change, polar bears are losing some of their habitat and it is making it a lot harder for them to hunt for their food.
Polar bears depend on the sea ice to travel and rest, and in some areas they use the ice for maternal dens. Climate change is really affecting polar bears' habitat because as the days go on, more and more ice keeps melting, making it a lot harder for polar bears to travel, rest, and make their dens. As the sea ice keeps melting it keeps pushing polar bears to land, making them attracted to areas with humans. The best way for us to help polar bears from losing their habitat is to use less energy. From the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gasses, we are letting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is warming up the entire Earth. The heat that stays in our Earth's atmosphere is making the sea ice melt faster and faster everyday.
Polar bears are a unique animal and we should really consider helping them and using less energy to save their habitat and lives. Polar bears are a huge help to scientists and they can tell us a lot about how ecosystems work.
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