| One Threat Is More Than Enough
When it comes to the polar bear and survival, stop and think about where it lives. It's pretty cold in the Artic, and the ranges around the continental shores where polar bears are found. Not many animals are hardy enough to survive the bone-chilling temperatures, and certainly none bigger than the polar bear, which can range from 300-1700 lbs. and more than 8' in length. It is in fact, the largest of bear species in the world, but unlike the others, a polar bear's only natural enemy is Man.
There are plenty of other factors that affect the polar bear's lifespan, including availability of food, and toxins in those foods, which indirectly, are the responsibility of Man and his technology. Polar bears are carnivores, living primarily on a diet of seals and fish, with an occasional small whale, carrion, berries in season, and if desperate, scraps from dumps on the edge of human habitations.
The polar bear mates in Spring and experiences a delayed implantation of the embryo until Fall, when they dig a den and retreat to have their cubs. In the meantime, they eat as much as possible, because a female can go six months without a meal, all the while feeding her cubs from the fat stores in her body. Typically, there may be 1-4 offspring, but seldom do more than two survive, either from the mother's poor condition, cold, or aggressive littermates that deny the weaker cub a share of the food.
An international agreement in 1973, between Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia, set down rules on either the limit of bears to be taken each year, or banned their hunting entirely. This has helped in keeping the world population at a relatively steady level of up to 40,000 bears.
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