A Missive on Polar Bears

[Hanrahan 2983]

C H A R L E S   N A P I E R , 

 

D O C T O R    O F M E D I C I N E 

 

O N   T H E   S U B J E C T   O F

 

U R S U S   P O L A R I S 

O R

T H E   P O L A R   B E A R 

 

 

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P R I N T E D    I N H E L E N A

 

B Y

 

T H E   E V E R A R D I N E   C O L L E G E 

   A C A D E M I C   P R E S S 

 

I N 

 

A N N O   D O M I N I   MDCCXLVII

 

 

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I N T R O D U C T I O N,

 

    The Polar Bear (Urʃuʃ Polaris) is a dominantly carnivorouʃ bear whoʃe range lay largely within the northern pole of our world, the ʃeaʃ, and land maʃʃeʃ ʃurrounding it. It is the largest bear, though averageʃ the same ʃize as the Kova bear (Urʃuʃ Karnii). A boar (Adult male) can weight from ʃeven-hundred to fifteen-hundred poundʃ, while a ʃow is typically half that ʃize. Although a relative of the brown-bear, it occupieʃ a narrower niche with many of it’s bodily features adapted for cold temperatures, movement acroʃs ʃnow, ice, and open water, and for ʃeal hunting which compriʃeʃ moʃt of itʃ diet. Although most polar bearʃ are born on land, the majority of their life is ʃpent on the ʃea ice. Polar bearʃ hunt their preferred food of ʃeals from the edge of the ʃea ice, though often live off fat reʃerves when little or no ʃea ice is presence. Because of some habitat loss caused by the shift in climate, the bear is becoming a rarer sight. Hunting as well as made their populations grow fewer. For thousands of years, the polar bear as been a key symbol and figure in the cultural life of polar peoples, and remain so to this day. The bear is known amongst locals typically as ‘The White Bear’.

    The Polar bear is found within our arctic circle, and adjacent land-masses. Due to the absence of sentient development in its habitat, it holds a truly immense range, larger than any other carnivore on earth. Their southernmost range is around Haense to Irrinor - though would rarely be seen, and only in the mountainous areas nearby. Due to the drifting nature of Sea Ice, and hardiness of the bear, populations may end up in lands extremely far away, to uncharted lands.

    Being a marine mammal, it spends many months of the year at sea. However, it is the only marine mammal (Whales, Walruses, Seals) with powerful, large limbs and feet that allow them to traverse easily on land. Its preferred habitat is the annual sea ice that covers waters in the circumpolar range, as well as the inter-island archipelagos of the north. These areas are the ``Arctic ring of life’, having extreme underwater biodiversity compared to other waters in the North. The Polar bear frequents areas where sea ice meets open water, so as to hunt the seals that comprise its diet. Freshwater is limited due to the saline conditions of the ocean water, and the ‘locking up’ of freshwater in snow and ice. It is presumed the Bear gets it’s hydration from the blood and fat of seals. Annual ice contains areas of water that appear and disappear as the weather changes throughout the year. Seals migrate in response to these changes, and the Polar Bear must follow their prey. In Piskator Bay and Gren Bay, the ice melts completely each summer forcing polar bears to go onto land and wait through the months until the next freeze up.

A Polar bear leaping over the ice.

 

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    The only other bear similar in size to the Polar bear is the Kova bear, which is a relative of the brown bear. A boar (Adult male) can weight from seven-hundred to fifteen-hundred pounds, while a sow is typically half that size. Around the Jagged Sea, they are reportedly on average a thousand pounds. The polar bear is among the most dimorphic of mammals, surpassed only by pinnipeds, such as the elephant seal. The largest polar bear on record so far, reportedly weighing 2,200 pounds was a male taken down by Hanseatic fishermen at Fiske Sound in Northwestern Haense in 1682. This specimen - now preserved in the Imperial Museum - stands at 11 feet tall on its hind legs, for 3.3 meters. The shoulder height of an adult polar bear is typically five feet. While all bears are short-tailed, the polar bear has the shortest tail of all, only around three inches in length. 

 

    Compared with its closest relative, the brown bear, the polar bear has a more elongated body, as well as a longer skull and snout. The legs are stocky, and the ears and tail is small to prevent heat loss through the extremities. However, the feet are very large, providing ample load distribution when walking on snow or thin ice, suchlike a snowshoe. The bear’s claws are short and stocky compared to that of the brown bear, most likely to serve the former’s need to grip prey and ice. The claws are deeply scooped on the undertise to assist in the digging of ice. Polar Bears have forty-two teeth, all jagged and sharp, as well as bearing large canines. Polar bears are excellently insulated by up to four inches of fatty tissues, their hide and their fur. They can overheat at temperatures above 10 °C. Their fur consists of a layer of dense underfur and an outer layer of guard hairs, which appear white to tan - but are actually transparent. The guard hair is around five inches long over the whole body. During the Grand Harvest, they moult, but unlike other Arctic mammals, they do not shed their coat for a darker shade to provide camouflage. With age, the white fur usually yellows. In some circumstances, in warm conditions, the coat may turn green due to algae growing on the guard hairs. Males have significantly longer hairs on their forelegs, serving as an ornamental attraction, like a Lion’s mane.

 

    The bear has an extremely well developed sense of smell like other bears, being able to detect seals a mile away. It’s hearing is supposedly around that of a human’s capability, alongside it’s vision. Living on the ice, the bear is an excellent swimmer and can swim for days on end. During the Expedition, one bear followed the boats for nine days to reach sea ice. With its body fat providing buoyancy, the bear swims in a dog paddle fashion using its large forepaws for propulsion. When walking, the polar bear tends to have a lumbering gait. When sprinting, they can run as fast as a warhorse at a gallop.

 

A striding polar bear.

 

 

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Unlike brown bears, polar bears are not territorial. Although stereotyped as being extremely aggressive, they are normally cautious in confrontations, and choose to flee rather than fight. Satiated polar bears rarely attack humans unless sufficiently provoked. Due to lack of human interaction, however, they can be unpredictable and fearless towards people and are known to kill and eat humans. Polar bears are stealth hunters, and the victim is often unaware of the bear’s presence until the attack is underway. Wheras brown bears often maul a person and leave, polar bear attacks are more likely to be predatory and are almost alwayʃ fatal. However, due to the very small human population around the arctic, such attacks are rare.

    In general, adult polar bears live solitary lives. However, in family groups, they may play together for hours at a time and sleep in an embrace. Adult males have well developed ‘friendships’. Cubs are especially playful as well. Among young males, play-fighting is frequent and a means of practicing for more serious competition during mating seasons later in life. Polar bears are usually quiet, but can communicate through barks and other vocalizations. Cubs may hum and mewl while nursing. When nervous, bears produce huffs, chuffs, and snorts, while hisses, growls and roars are signs of aggression. Chemical communication also occurs, marking territory with urine or a special spray distinct from the former. During the expedition, several of the teams sled-dogs (Canis Lupus Familiaris) played with a polar bear, wrestling harmlessly for ten days. They ate from the same food source. It can be presumed this type of behavior is uncommon, but not undocumented.

A trio of lounging polar bears.

 

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The polar bear is the most carnivorous member of the bear family (most being omnivorous), and throughout the majority of its range, its diet consists of ringed (Pusa Hispida) and bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus.) The Arctic is home to millions of seals with become prey when they surface at their breathing holes, or when they come out of the ice to rest. Polar bears hunt at the medium between ice and water; they rarely catch seals on land or in open water. 

    The polar bear’s most common hunting method is called still hunting; the bear uses its excellent sense of smell to locate a seal breathing hike and crouches nearby in silence to wait for a seal to appear. The bear may lie in wait for several hours. When the seal exhales, the bear smells its breath, reaches into the hole with a forepaw and drags it out of the hole by its face. The polar bear then kills the seal almost instantly by biting its head, crushing its skull. The polar bear also hunts by stalking seals resting on the ice. Upon spotting a seal, it walks to within one-hundred yards, then crouches. If the seal does not notice, the bear creeps to within thirty feet of it, then bursts forth to attack, using it’s impressive sprint to catch the awkward seal. A Widespread legend among Haensemen in these regions is that polar bears cover their black noses with their paws when hunting. Although visually unconfirmed by the expedition, may not be ruled out entirely as hundreds of years of oral history account to this tactic. If they do, it suggests a higher level of intelligence for the Polar Bear than otherwise assumed.  Mature bears tend to only eat the skin and blubber of the seal which is highly digestible (The expedition can attest to this), whereas younger bears consume red meat. Briefly, the expedition noted polar bears scaling near vertical cliffs to consume eggs. For subadult bears, which are independent of their parents but have not yet grown enough to successfully hunt seals, their primary source of food is scavenging. After feeding, polar bears wash themselves with water or snow.

    Behaviorally, Polar Bears exhibit several identifiable and repeated motions or postures, such as resting, assessment, or feeding.

    With the exception of pregnant females - who hibernate - Polar bears are active year-round. Unlike black and brown bears, polar bears are capable of fasting for up to several months during late summer and fall, when they cannot hunt for seals due to a lack of ice. When sea ice is unavailable, populations typically survive off fat reserves, as they do not hibernate. Being both curious animals and scavengers, polar bears investigate and consume garbage and other waste where they come into contact with humans. Polar bears may try to consume anything they can find, including alcohol, metal, oil, alchemical and chemical solutions, and other waste products.

A Polar Bear Feeding on a seal

 

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Although seal hunting is the primary source of food for polar bears, when alternatives present themselves, the Bears are highly flexible. Polar Bears consume a wide variety of other foods including muskox (Ovibos Moschatus), Reindeer (Rangifer Tarandus), birds, eggs, rodents, and crabs. They may also eat some plants, including berries, roots, and kept - though none of these have been a significant part of their diet, except for beachcast carcasses. When stalking land animals such as the muskox or reindeer, polar bears make use of vegitative cover and wind directions to bring them as close as possible before ambushing. Although rare, killing one of these animals during the summer can greatly increase the odds of survival for a bear. The polar bear is specialized to require large amounts of fat from marine mammals, and cannot live off of just terrestrial food. 

    In their southern range, especially near Piskator Bay and Gren Bay, Haenseatic Polar Bears endure all summer without sea ice to hunt from. Here, they show their dietary flexibility. They manage to consume some seals, but are food-deprived in the summer as the only source of marine food is shore-washed carcasses, especially that of the beluga whale. These alternatives may reduce the rate of weight loss when on land. Nearly all of those in Gren bay fed on seaweed, and half of those were feeding on birds, such as ducks, swimming underwater and lying in wait to catch them. They were also diving to feed on mussels and urchins. Some are recorded to eat moss or grass, and nearly half consumed willow-bushes and crowberries. In Ayr, polar bears were observed to kill dolphins during the spring whilst they were trapped in the ice. The bears then cached the carcasses, which remained and were eaten during the ice-free summer and autumn.

The polar bear is the apex predator within its range, and is a keystone species for the Arctic. Several animal species, particularly Arctic foxes (Vulpes Lagopus) routinely scavenge polar bear kills. The relationship between seals and polar bears is so close that the abundance of seals in some areas appear to regulate the density of polar bears, while polar bear predation in turn regulates density and reproductive success of ringed seals. Brown bears such as the Kova Bear tend to dominate polar bears in disputes over carcasses. Wolves are rarely encountered by polar bears, but some cubs have been killed by packs. Occasionally, polar bears are vulnerable to Orcas (Orcinus Orca) while swimming, but there have been no observed fatalities between the two. 

 

A Polar Bear on the shore.

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Courtship and mating takes place on the sea ice during First Seed and Grand Harvest, where bears congregate in the best seal hunting areas. A male may follow the tracks of a breeding female for sixty miles or more. Once they meet, typically intense fighting with other males breaks out over mating rights, resulting in scars and broken teeth. Polar bears have a polygynous mating system. Partners stay together and mate constantly for a week, and then go their separate ways. After mating, there is a period of dormancy until the Amber Cold, during which the female eats an intense amount of food, often doubling her body weight before the signs of pregnancy begin. When the ice floes are at their minimum during the fall, each pregnant female will dig a den consisting of a narrow entrance tunnel leading to an unknown number of chambers. Most are built in snowdrifts, but some may be built in permafrost. These dens are built always on land, a few miles from the coast, and are re-used, year to year. In the den, the pregnant bear then lays dormant, hibernating. 

Sometime during the Deep Cold, the cubs are born. It is unknown what they look like before they leave the den. Each litter has two cubs. Upon first exit from the den, they weigh around twenty five pounds each. For around fifteen days, the family spends time outside the den whilst still remaining in its vicinity, the mother grazing on vegetation while the cubs learn to walk and play. Then, they begin the long walk from the denning area to the sea ice where the mother can once again catch seals. During this time, the cubs imitate the mothers hunting methods in a playful manner. Female polar bears are noted for both their affection towards their offspring, and their valour in protecting them. During the expedition, it was noted that adoption occurs in families. Weaning occurs after two years, the mother leaving the cubs to fend for themselves. Cubs often travel and share food together after the mother leaves for months on end. 

Females begin to breed at the age of four years in most areas, and five years in the area of Piskator Bay. Males usually reach maturity at six years, though as competition for females is fierce, many do not breed until the age of eight or ten. Curiously, polar bears appear to be less affected by parasites than most terrestrial mammals. Unfortunately, they are susceptible to Trichinella, a round-worm contracted through cannibalism - this, during lean times is common. Polar Bears are confirmed to be immune to rabies, in stark contrast to Arctic foxes, which can often be rabid. As well, mites and ticks do not find a suitable home on Polar bears. 

 

A pair of polar bear cubs.

 

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[Vermy 1484]

“Another b-book I see... I s-sure h-hope to see i-it arrive shortly in o-our donation c-chest”  Sulraell grumbled as he waddled around Lareh’thilln