How Many Pounds Does A Polar Bear Weigh

Polar bear fur appears to be white but it’s actually transparent; the white appearance is due to visible light scattering and reflecting back off clear, hollow strands of hair, according to Polar Bears International. Their white appearance enables the bears to blend in with their snow-covered, icy environment. Polar bears can also appear yellowish or even brown and gray, depending on the season and light conditions. Polar bear skin is black and absorbs the heat of the sun, which helps keep the bears warm.

Many of the polar bear’s physical adaptations help it maintain body heat and deal with its icy habitat. The bear’s outer layer of fur is hollow and reflects light, giving the fur a white color that helps the bear remain camouflaged. The skin under the polar bear’s fur is actually black; this black is evident only on the nose. Polar bears also have a thick layer of fat below the surface of the skin, which acts as insulation on the body to trap heat.

This is especially important while swimming and during the frigid Arctic winter. The bear’s large size reduces the amount of surface area that’s exposed to the cold per unit of body mass (pounds of flesh), which generates heat. Polar bears likely evolved within the last 500,000 years when a population of brown bears traveled north into the Arctic during a warm period and became isolated. When temperatures dropped again, the bears were forced to adapt to the colder environment, according to Aarhus University’s Arctic Research Centre in Denmark. 

Polar bears have many adaptations for life in the frigid Arctic, including dense fur and a thick layer of fat to keep them warm, as well as small bumps under their paws to stop them from slipping on the ice, according to Polar Bears International. They are excellent swimmers, and their scientific name, Ursus maritimus, translates to “sea bear,” according to the San Diego Zoo. Polar bears depend heavily on the ocean environment and are the only bears to be considered marine mammals.

Polar Bear Reproduction

Polar bears mate from late March to late May. Implantation of the fertilized egg is delayed until late September to early October and the cubs are born between late November and early January. A little under 70 percent of the litters consist of two cubs, 25 to 30 percent are singletons, and there are a small number of triplet litters. Litters of four cubs have been reported, but are extremely rare and it would be unlikely for all the cubs to survive. Cubs remain with their mothers until they are two-and-a-half years of age, so the most often that females normally breed is once every three years

Polar Bear Appearance:

Polar bears are extremely well-adapted to their arctic environment. They have the thickest fur of any bear species. It’s composed of two layers. The layer closer to the body, the undercoat, consists of thick, plush hair that retains heat. The outer layer provides extra insulation and repels cold water and ice. This layer of “guard hairs” is not hair at all but is rather composed of clear, hollow tubes. The tubes trap air for insulation and also reflect all the visible wavelengths of light in their hollow airspace, which combine to make the fur look white, though it is in fact colorless. The white coloring provides excellent camouflage for the bears, allowing them to blend in with their snowy surroundings.

Polar bears molt in the summer months and grow a new coat. By the next spring, the coat may look yellowish from seal oil stains. They sometimes wash their fur in ice or snow during or after feeding.

How Much Does A Polar Bear Weigh

Polar Bears being the largest land carnivore, stand at the top of the food chain pyramid in the Arctic. This fact makes one wonder about the size and weight of the polar bears. Among all the bear species, polar bears is one of the heaviest and the tallest. One of the main reason behind polar bear’s heavyweight is the large fat deposits under their skin. We have gathered complete information on Polar Bear Weight that will give you a clear picture of How Much Does a Polar Bear Weigh. To make it even more clear for you we have compared its weight with some other bear species so that you can know where it stands.

How Much Do Polar Bears Weigh On Average?

Statistics available on Polar bears seem to vary slightly the weight of the species as adults. For example, information about the species by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) states male Polar bears can touch up to 1700 pounds as adultsThe Polar Bear Fact Sheet by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) states that adult male Polar bears can weigh between 770 to 1763 pounds.

And the largest polar bear ever weighted came to over 2000 points! So, the species weight figures follow something like the following:

  • Adult male Polar bears will usually weigh from 750 to 1720 pounds. Whereas female Polar bears, being much daintier, have a weight range of 330 to 650 pounds. That makes females almost half the weight of most male Polar bears.
  • At birth, Polar bear cubs weigh a shocking 450 to 680 grams. At eight months of age, the cubs grow bigger on a diet of their mother’s milk and blubber and clock in at 90 10 100 pounds.

How Much Does a Female Polar Bear Weigh

The weight of an adult female is one half of the male’s body mass. Females weigh around 150– 250 kg (331–551 lb).The maximum reported weight in females is 260 kg (573 lb) but it is extremely rare. During pregnancy adult females put on too much weight almost equal to adult males’ mass. Females gain as much as 500 kg (1,102 lb) weight when they are pregnant.

During pregnancy adult females put on too much weight almost equal to adult males’ mass. Females gain as much as 500 kg (1,102 lb) weight when they are pregnant. Females attain sexual maturity at 6 years of age. Soon after age they will put on much weight because of pregnancy. Extra weight is not because of cubs but due to the extra fats which she stored. She must store excess fats in order to spend days in the without eating. The female will come out of den in the spring season.

How Fast Do Polar Bears Grow

Seeing how tiny polar bears are at birth, one might wonder how fast they grow to become huge-sized adults. In their early days, baby polar bears weigh only slightly over 1 pound. But they grow very fast, and within 2-3 months, they would have grown 14-20 times their initial size. At this point, they would weigh around 22 to 33 pounds, and this is when they step out of the den. Outside the den, baby polar bears will keep growing, and after 8 months, they would weigh over 99 pounds. After a year, they would have grown to almost the same weight as an average man. Over time, polar bears will keep living with their mothers and feeding on her milk for over 20 months.

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