Polar
bears have lived in the arctic for many years.
Their bodies have adapted and developed in order for their survival
in the polar region. Polar
bears are able to live in the deep freeze for many reasons.
They have thick fur that keeps in their body heat.
They have small ears and a small tail which means they loose less
heat. Their paws are so big
that they act like snowshoes, and the pads on their feet have an anti-slip
skin, which would be similar to sandpaper.
For
thousands of years polar bears have lived a great life in the North.
The Inuit people have lived with them, hunting them occasional for
food or clothing. There was
never any fear that the Inuit would over hunt the polar bears because it
was dangerous and the weapons available to them were primitive.
In more recent times, the polar bears have been sought out by
hunters, just not the Inuit who live in the North.
They have been over hunted by people looking for the big trophy.
Eventually in the 1970s the over hunting was brought under control
by the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and
Their Habitat. Polar bear number once again began to grow because of this.
The
polar bear or Ursus maritimus,
most likely is a relative to the brown bear.
These historic relatives most likely lived in the Arctic region of
Eurasia. The
brown bear scavengers most likely evolved into active seal hunters on ice.
This transaction probably occurred when the seals began adapting to
the cold and ice.
Natural selection and survival of the fittest as well as the
ability to find and eat food helped the early polar bears evolve to the
polar bears we know today.
The oldest known fossil of a polar bear is nearly 70 000 years old.
It was found new Kew, England.
This fossil shows a bear whose size is much larger than that of
todays bears. 
