Some Polar Bear Facts

Mum says that we are an endangered species, which sound a bit scary to us. We’re not sure what ‘endangered’ means but anything with ‘danger’ in it frightens us. We think it might mean that us polar bears may not be around at all one day. I hope that the ‘one day’ is a LONG LONG time away.

"Yeah, I hope it’s not tomorrow because we’re going to Poppy’s birthday party tomorrow.”
“SNOWBALL! What’s more important? Surviving or going to Poppy’s birthday party?”
“I guess it’s more important to survive, but I REALLY like birthday parties, and she’s going to have a humongous birthday cake made of ice cream....”
“Snowball, you are just SO shallow.”
“Snowflake, you are just TOO serious sometimes, lighten up!”

Anyway, all that ‘endangered’ stuff aside, we thought we’d tell you a few facts about us Polar Bears.

Polar bears can cope really well with the very cold – we get MINUS 40 or 50 sometimes. And sometimes it stays like that for days or weeks. We love the cold, and the ice.



We have a thick layer of fat, called Blubber, that keep us warm – in grown-up bears that can be as much as 9-10cm thick. We also have two layers of lovely fur.

In very cold snow storms, mum digs a temporary shelter in a snow bank and we all curl up tight and warm together.

Polar bears have more problems with overheating than we do with getting cold. Even in very cold weather we can overheat when we try to run – imagine trying to do a 100 metre sprint with a huge fur coat on!

Us polar bears love to swim and are really good swimmers. Polar bears have been known to swim up to 160 kilometres at one go. Now that IS a long, long way.

Grown up polar bears can actually run as fast as 40 kilometres per hour – and some younger, leaner polar bears can run for up to two kilometres without stopping – but if they’re not careful they can get too hot.

Us polar bears are VERY clean. We clean ourselves after every feed. We lick ourselves clean, or mum does and we also use snow to clean ourselves, instead of water. We roll in the snow and rub it into our fur.

Male polar bears sometimes fight each other when they both fancy the same female!

Unlike brown and black bears, we don’t hibernate in the winter. Only pregnant polar bears make a den, like mum did when she was having us. The rest of the polar bears remain active all year.

There are some polar bears who kind of hibernate – but they are the ones that live on the shores of a place called Hudson Bay, when there are periods of no ice and so no food. It’s called ‘walking hibernation’ when their metabolism slows right down, but they don’t go to sleep. They just slow down.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Well it’s now 2010 and mum says that you lot have been having loads of snow.



We’re used to loads of snow up here in the Arctic, but mum says that everything ground to a halt in the UK.



I guess if you’re not used to it, it can be a bit scary and because of climate change you’ve not had much snow in the UK for a long, long time, have you? Don't get us wrong, it can be difficult for us too, sometimes.



Seeing as you’ve got so much of it at the moment we thought we’d share a few facts with you.

1. It is NEVER too cold to snow – that is a big myth – it can snow even at incredibly cold temperatures as long as there is some source of moisture and some way to lift or cool the air. It is true, however, that most heavy snowfalls occur with relatively warm air temperatures near the ground—typically -9 degrees Celsius and warmer— because air can hold more water vapour at warmer temperatures and it won’t snow if there isn’t any water vapour.

2. Single snowflakes are quite tiny but as they fall they connect to make bigger snowflakes.

3. Snow at the North and South Pole reflect heat into space!! That happens because the ice acts like a mirror with the heat of the sun, and the heat bounces off the ice and into space.

4. The average snowflake has a top falling speed of 1.7 metres per second.

5. Snowflakes are always hexagonal but the majority are not perfectly symmetrical - uneven temperatures, dirt and other factors usually cause them to be lopsided.

6. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest snowflake on record measured 38cm wide and 20cm thick. It was observed in Montana, USA in 1887 and described by witnesses as "larger than a milk pan".

7. It is a myth that Eskimos have 100 different words for 'snow'.

8. Chionophobia is a fear of snow.

9. The world's largest snowman was actually a snowwoman. Residents of Bethel, Maine in the US built the 122 ft giant in 2008, giving her 30 ft spruce trees for arms and skis for eyelashes.

10. Around 12 per cent of the Earth's land surface is covered in permanent snow and ice.

Right, we’re off to play in the snow, it’s what we do every day. We don’t slip and slide because we have furry feet and we walk on all fours. It’s much easier when you have four feet to steady yourself.

See you next week.

WE WISH YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We won’t be writing our blog now until next year. That sounds like a long time but it’s only 11 days then it’ll be 2010.

We hope you have a REALLY great Christmas. We’re so excited, we can’t wait because Santa will be coming and on Christmas Eve mum will read us our favourite Christmas poem: Night Before Christmas Poem

Santa will leave loads of lovely presents.




We’ll eat lots of lovely food – including some Christmas pudding.

Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!

Busy, busy, busy.....

Hello everyone, sorry we’ve not been around for a while but we both got so excited about Christmas coming and our advent calendar and all that lot, we forgot to write. It was only when we overheard Mum telling our Aunty Tundra that we had our own blog that we remembered.
“Snowflake said that we should tell everyone we’d had this swine flu thingy but I think it’s naughty to lie, and anyway I don’t know if bears can get swine flu do you?”
“SNOWBALL! YOU BIG TELL-TALE! YOU ARE ROTTEN. THAT’S UNFAIR. I DID NOT SAY THAT.....OK....OK......I did but only because I felt all guilty for not writing. Let’s move on, SHALL WE?”

Mum read this a bit ago about rising sea levels - Major cities at risk from rising sea level threat - Times Online

It is a bit complicated for us to read and it’s full of big words but basically what it means is this – there are some places that aren’t very high up and if the sea gets any higher then those not very high up places will be flooded. One place that isn’t very high up at all is a place called The Maldives, which is actually where there are lots and lots of really pretty little islands – here’s a photo of one of them.

REALLY pretty isn’t it? Well, if the sea rises much more then all the Maldives will be gone and Mum says there won’t be anywhere for you humans to go on your honeymoon. We don’t know what a honeymoon is but we guess it’s when you go and eat lots of honey somewhere and look at the moon, which sounds like a dead nice thing to do.

So, if you folk want to continue eating your honey and staring at the moon then you should start going a bit greener NOW.

Right, we’re off to wrap a few more presents and open today’s window on our advent calendar. Here is an online advent calendar for you to open yourself – ONLINE ADVENT CALENDAR