Visit the Only Polar Bears in Africa!

Polar bears soak up the South African winter sunshine

Johannesburg Zoo has two polar bears that may be the only polar bears in Africa! "Gee Bee" (female) born in 1984 and "Wang" (male) born in 1985.  Did you know that male polar bears weigh between 350-650kg and female polar bears weigh between 175-650kg.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/click-ka-ching/sets/72157630324900282/show/

A study found that more polar bear cubs are dying as the Arctic ice melts?
"Climate change is pulling the sea ice out from under polar bears feet, forcing some to swim longer distances to find food and habitat," said Geoff York of World Wildlife Fund, a co-author of the study.

It was reported a year ago by Deborah Zabarenko, an environmental correspondent in Washington concerns resulting from the first ever studies taken in tracking long swims and polar cubs' survival that are effected by climate change - a factor in loss of polar bear habitat.

Polar bear cubs forced to swim long distances with their mothers as their icy Arctic habitat melts appear to have a higher mortality rate than cubs that didn't have to swim as far, a new study reports. Polar bears hunt, feed and give birth on ice or on land, and are not naturally aquatic creatures. Previous reports have noted individual animals swimming hundreds of miles (kilometres) to reach ice platforms or land, but this is one of the first to show these swims pose a greater risk to polar bear young.

Young bears don't have very much fat and therefore they aren't very well insulated and cannot cope with being in cold water for very long. Because they are leaner than their parents, they aren't as buoyant so in rough water they'll have more difficulty keeping their heads above water.

York said this was the first time these long swims had been quantitatively measured, filling a gap in the historical background on this iconic Arctic species. To gather data, researchers used satellites and tracked 68 polar bear females equipped with GPS collars over six years, from 2004 through 2009, to find occasions when these bears swam more than 30 miles (48.28 km) at a time.

The Bush administration listed polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of the decrease in their Arctic ice habitat. That decision survived a legal challenge last year, and this month, Canada listed polar bears as a species at risk.

Read more & view Arctic polar cubs……….

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/18/us-climate-polarbears-idUSTRE76H4ZG20110718