Polar Bear Photos

The Alaska polar bear of the Southern Beaufort Sea

Diverging from their ancient grizzly bear ancestors roughly 150 000 years ago, polar bears are truly an “Alaska bear”. Scientific research shows that the species Ursus maritimus, the Sea bear, or polar bear, diverged from a particularly specific subspecies of grizzly bear or brown bear found only on Admiralty Island, off the coast of southeast Alaska, near what is now the city of Juneau.

Polar bears are now circumpolar, travelling widely around the subpolar regions of the globe. There are considered to be 19 subpopulations of polar bears around these northern climes, and though they do intermingle, its not common. Polar bears generally have a home range, not a territory, like, say, wolves might. The size of these areas they call home varies widely, depending on food population densities and sometimes a bears’ own individual inclinations. Some female polar bears, known as sows, have been known to traverse a home range as great as 230 000 square miles. Others have kept to much smaller areas, with a home range as (relatively) small as 1100 square miles. That’s an incredibly disparate difference.

Like Polar Bears? Then you’ll love this ebook. Over 80 more polar bear photos and a few essays and articles about the Great Sea Bear of the North. Download your free Polar Bear eBook here

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