What do polar bears eat?
Because of the scarcity of plants in its icy habitat, the polar bear is the most carnivorous North American bear. With a keen sense of smell the polar bear can locate prey even when it is hidden by snowdrifts or ice. Seals are the polar bear’s primary prey, particularly the ringed seal and, sometimes, the bearded seal. When hunting is good, polar bears will typically eat only the fat and leave the rest of the carcass for scavengers including arctic foxes, ravens, and younger bears. While seals are its main food source, the bears have been known to kill and eat both walrus and beluga whales, hunt short-legged reindeer and sometimes snack on other foods including birds, bird eggs, kelp, and beached whales.
Polar bears are omnivorous and are on the top of the food chain in the Arctic. Polar bears mainly eat marine animals in the winter. They first eat the fat from young seals and carrion. The ringed seal are the polar bear’s main prey. Polar bears are also known to eat walruses, beluga whales, reindeer, birds, and kelp. Sometimes polar bears find whale carcuses to feed on as well. Typically many polar bears will feed together on the massive whale carcuses. In the summertime when vegetation is more readily available they will eat vegetation as well.
- A healthy bear will try to eat on average around 2kg of fat per day.
- Its stomach can hold food equivalent to 15% to 20% of its own body weight.
- It can assimilate 84% of the protein and 97% of the fat it eats.
- A ringed seal weighing 55kg should therefore provide up to 8 days of energy for a polar bear (though it needs to eat more than this in order to store up reserves for the food-free season) Online drugstore
Polar bears feed mainly on ringed and bearded seals. Depending upon their location, they also eat harp and hooded seals and scavenge on carcasses of beluga whales, walruses, narwhals, and bowhead whales.Abilify online
Source: WorldWideLearn.com North Pole Solo 2004 | Wildlife FAQPolar bears have a great sense of smell and can detect a dead whale or seal from twenty miles away! Since they eat mostly seals, they catch a live seal by sitting by a seal air hole in the ice and then sneak up on the seal when it comes up to breathe. Did you know polar bears don’t drink water? They get all the moisture they need from the food they eat.
