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Polar Bear Facts

Uniquely Adapted to Life on Sea Ice

US Fish and Wildlife Service photo

Polar bears live up to 25 years in the wild.  The oldest zoo polar bear lived 41 years.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Photo

Size

Male polar bears are much larger than females. Males weigh 800 to 1,400 pounds and grow from eight to almost nine feet long.  Females weigh about half as much as males and grow to about six feet long.  When standing on two legs, a large male polar bear can be as much as ten feet tall.  

Diet

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Polar bears primarily hunt ringed seals from platforms of sea ice.  During food shortages they will eat walrus, beluga and bowhead whale carcasses, birds, vegetation, and kelp to supplement their diets.

US Fish and Wildlife Service photo

Geographic Distribution

Though it spends time on land and ice, the polar bear is regarded as a marine mammal due to its intimate relationship with the sea. Polar bears range across the frozen top of the Northern Hemisphere, in and around the Arctic Ocean.  They are found in the northernmost reaches of Alaska, Canada, Russia, on Norway's Svalbard Islands, and along the coasts of Greenland. They reach their southern limit in Canada's Hudson Bay. Their range is limited by the availability of sea ice which they use as a platform for hunting.

US Fish and Wildlife Service photo

The polar bears sniff out seals and catch them when they surface at breathing holes in the ice, stalk them when they rest on the ice, and break into their ice dens. Polar bears wander widely and can cover more than 40 miles a day. They frequently swim from one ice floe to the next, paddling at a rate of six miles per hour with their front paws.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimates that there are between 20,000-25,000 polar bears in the world.

Threats 

Global warming is causing a decline in Arctic snow pack as well as the thinning, disappearance of sea ice, with the edge of the sea ice receding to deeper, unproductive waters for longer periods each year.  The decline of essential polar bear habitat makes it more difficult and energy intensive for polar bears to find food.  In the best-studied populations of polar bears in the Arctic, scientists have shown that food shortages and energy losses cause higher mortality rates among cubs and a reduction in the size of first year cubs and adult males.

US Fish and Wildlife Service photo

In May 2006, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Polar Bear Specialist Group listed polar bears as a vulnerable species on its Red List of the world’s most imperiled animals.  Its latest estimate is that 7 out of 19 subpopulations are declining or already severely reduced.  In a report released in September 2007, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) forecasts that two-thirds of the world's polar bears will disappear by 2050, based on moderate projections for the shrinking of summer sea ice caused by global warming.

Oil and gas development in the Arctic may also have significant impacts on the polar bear’s ability to survive in its already melting habitat.  On February 6, 2008, the Chukchi Sea, home to approximately one-fifth of the world’s polar bears, was opened up to oil and gas activities.   The Minerals Management Service’s own Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) estimates that there is between 33-51% chance of a large oil spill resulting from Chukchi oil and gas development.   The EIS acknowledges that such an oil spill would pose serious risks to polar bears.  Contact with oil reduces the insulating ability of their fur, and polar bears will be poisoned when they ingest oil through grooming.  Spilled oil tends to accumulate at openings in the ice where marine mammals such as polar bears and their prey gather.  According to the International Conservation Union Polar Bear Specialist Group, even if an oil spill were not to occur, there is evidence that oil and gas activities, such as seismic testing, could disturb denning polar bears, resulting in premature den abandonment and cub mortality.

Polar Bears and the Endangered Species Act Listing Process 

US Fish and Wildlife Service photo

The listing of polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) highlights the intersection of two significant issues currently before Congress - global warming and species protection. According to the ESA, this listing decision rests solely on an interpretation of the best available scientific understanding of the species and how it may be affected by changes in its habitat.

Following a suit filed by environmental groups against the Bush Administration for failing to take steps to protect the polar bear from extinction, the Administration announced the proposal to list the polar bear under the ESA on December 27, 2006.  United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published the Proposed Rule in the Federal Register on January 9, 2007. Statutory guidelines give FWS one year from the publishing of the proposed rule for a comment and review period during which time experts evaluate public comments and scientific data about polar bears. During this time, FWS received a great deal of public approval and scientific evidence in support of the listing, including nine reports published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) on the status of polar bear populations and sea ice.

The listing decision must be based on the best available scientific and commercial information regarding five factors: habitat destruction, overutilization, disease or predation, inadequacy of other regulatory mechanisms, and other natural or manmade factors.

On January 7, 2008, FWS announced that it would not meet the January 9 deadline to issue a final ESA listing determination for the polar bear. Legally, such a decision can only be postponed if there is not sufficient data available. However, it is clear that there is a sufficient amount of information available since FWS has stated that there is so much data that it has not had time to analyze it all. FWS said it would have a final answer by mid-February, but then missed this deadline as well.

While FWS has delayed, the Chukchi Sea lease-sale went through on February 6.  The United States Minerals Management Service (MMS) leased approximately 2.7 million acres of key polar bear habitat in the pristine Chukchi Sea for oil and gas activities. Had the polar bear been listed prior to the lease-sale, the MMS would have been required to consult extensively with scientists from FWS on the effects that drilling activities may have on the Chukchi Sea's significant polar bear population.

On March 10, 2008, environmental groups sued the Bush administration for missing the legal deadline to issue a final decision on whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act and seeking a court order compelling the administration to issue the final decision on the listing. On April 28, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilkin in California ruled that the listing delay is in violation of the law, and ordered the Secretary of the Interior to issue a final decision on whether the polar bear will be protected under the Endangered Species Act by May 15, 2008. Because "time is of the essence in listing threatened species," the Judge also ordered that the listing decision would take effect immediately, without the usual 30-day waiting period.

On May 14, 2008, Secretary Kempthorne of the Department of the Interior announced that it will list the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Secretary Kempthorne stated that the decision is based on three findings:

1. Sea ice is vital to polar bear survival.

2. The polar bear's sea-ice habitat has dramatically melted in recent decades.

3. Computer models suggest sea ice is likely to further recede in the future.

Secretary Kempthorne displayed graphics based on satellite photos showing the decline in September Arctic sea ice over the last 40 years as well as graphs showing how sea ice is projected to continue its decline. Although he declared that the main threat to the polar bear is the destruction of its habitat through loss of Arctic sea ice, he also asserted that the decision would not allow the ESA to regulate global climate change. Secretary Kempthorne also highlighted the protections already in place for the polar bear, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and announced that the Fish and Wildlife Service would issue what is known as a 4(d) rule stating that if an activity is permissible under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, it will also be permissible under the Endangered Species Act with respect to the polar bear.

Although listing the polar bear as threatened under the ESA is a welcome step, concerns remain about the Secretary's attempts to reduce protections that the polar bear needs and deserves, particularly from dangerous oil and gas development and the degradation of polar bear habitat from global warming. The Department of the Interior also failed to designate critical habitat for the now officially threatened creature.

Click here to view Secretary Kempthorne's remarks.

Click here to see the final rule published in the Federal Register.

Click here to see Senator Boxer's remarks on the listing announcement.