polar bear

polar bear

a white carnivorous bear, Thalarctos maritimus, of coastal regions of the North Pole

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

polar bear

[′pō·lər ‚ber]

(vertebrate zoology)

Thalarctos maritimus. A large aquatic carnivore found in the polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Polar Bear

 

(Ursus maritimus), a predatory mammal of the bear family; a typical representative of arctic fauna. Polar bears live in the region of floating ice near the Asiatic and American shores of the Arctic Ocean. They are larger than the European brown bear (body length, to 3 m; weight, about 700 kg). The fur is white (with yellowish spots), thick, and long. The soles of the feet are covered with hair.

Polar bears do not hibernate; however, pregnant females hole up in the winter in dens situated on the shore. The bears are excellent swimmers and divers. Their main food is the seal. They usually mate in July; the cubs are born, most often in pairs, in February or March. At birth they are blind and helpless. After a month, when they open their eyes, the female leaves the den and returns to a nomadic way of life. The cubs stay with the female about a year and a half. The bears give birth once every other year. Polar bears are hunted for their hides, which are made into rugs; and for their meat, which is edible. Hunting polar bears is completely forbidden in the USSR; in other countries it is restricted.

REFERENCE

Mlekopitaiushchie Sovetskogo Soiuza, vol. 2, part 1. Moscow, 1967.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.