Polar Bear Facts Myths

This beautiful, full color summary explains in simple terms why polar bears are thriving despite the recent loss of Arctic sea ice. It's written in a question and answer format, in language that readers of all ages can understand (age 7 and up). The book takes a sensible, big-picture approach that many readers will appreciate and is based on the most up-to-date information available.

This beautiful, full color summary explains current walrus ecology and conservation status for readers of all ages (7 and up). The language is straightforward but not condescending so it works for students of various reading abilities as well as adults who prefer a simply synopsis. The book is written in a question and answer format based on the most up-to-date information available. The sensible, big-picture approach is one all readers are sure to appreciate because it makes it clear that walrus are thriving despite the recent loss of Arctic sea ice and are not threatened with extinction by climate change. This is a great aide for homeschoolers learning about Arctic ecology and a beautiful book for adults and children to read together.

"I like to go out for walks, but it's a little awkward to push the baby stroller and carry a shotgun at the same time." -- housewife from Churchill, Manitoba Yes, welcome to Churchill, Manitoba. Year-round human population: 943. Yet despite the isolation and the searing cold here at the arctic's edge, visitors from around the globe flock to the town every fall, driven by a single purpose: to see polar bears in the wild. Churchill is "The Polar Bear Capital of the World," and for one unforgettable "bear season," Zac Unger, his wife, and his three children moved from Oakland, California, to make it their temporary home. But they soon discovered that it's really the polar bears who are at home in Churchill, roaming past the coffee shop on the main drag, peering into garbage cans, languorously scratching their backs against fence posts and front doorways. Where kids in other towns receive admonitions about talking to strangers, Churchill schoolchildren get "Let's All Be Bear Aware" booklets to bring home. (Lesson number 8: Never explore bad-smelling areas.) Zac Unger takes readers on a spirited and often wildly funny journey to a place as unique as it is remote, a place where natives, tourists, scientists, conservationists, and the most ferocious predators on the planet converge. In the process he becomes embroiled in the controversy surrounding "polar bear science" -- and finds out that some of what we've been led to believe about the bears' imminent extinction may not be quite the case. But mostly what he learns is about human behavior in extreme situations . . . and also why you should never even think of looking a polar bear in the eye.

From bestselling author James Raffan comes an enlightening and original story about a polar bear’s precarious existence in the changing Arctic, reminiscent of John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce. Nanurjuk, “the bear-spirited one,” is hunting for seals on Hudson Bay, where ice never lasts more than one season. For her and her young, everything is in flux. From the top of the world, Hudson Bay looks like an enormous paw print on the torso of the continent, and through a vast network of lakes and rivers, this bay connects to oceans across the globe. Here, at the heart of everything, walks Nanurjuk, or Nanu, one polar bear among the six thousand that traverse the 1.23 million square kilometers of ice and snow covering the bay. For millennia, Nanu’s ancestors have roamed this great expanse, living, evolving, and surviving alongside human beings in one of the most challenging and unforgiving habitats on earth. But that world is changing. In the Arctic’s lands and waters, oil has been extracted—and spilled. As global temperatures have risen, the sea ice that Nanu and her young need to hunt seal and fish has melted, forcing them to wait on land where the delicate balance between them and their two-legged neighbors has now shifted. This is the icescape that author and geographer James Raffan invites us to inhabit in Ice Walker. In precise and provocative prose, he brings readers inside Nanu’s world as she treks uncertainly around the heart of Hudson Bay, searching for nourishment for the children that grow inside her. She stops at nothing to protect her cubs from the dangers she can see—other bears, wolves, whales, human beings—and those she cannot. By focusing his lens on this bear family, Raffan closes the gap between humans and bears, showing us how, like the water of the Hudson Bay, our existence—and our future—is tied to Nanu’s. He asks us to consider what might be done about this fragile world before it is gone for good. Masterful, vivid, and haunting, Ice Walker is an utterly unique piece of creative nonfiction and a deeply affecting call to action.

This “up-close [and] graceful account” of the polar bear combines historical accounts, research, and the author’s own encounters in the Arctic (Kirkus Reviews). Polar bears are creatures of paradox: They are white bears whose skin is black; massive predators who can walk almost silently; Arctic residents whose major problem is not staying warm, but keeping cool. Fully grown they can measure ten feet and weigh close to two thousand pounds, but at birth they are just twenty ounces. Human encounters with these legendary creatures can be both exhilarating and terrifying. Tales throughout history describe the ferocity of polar bear attacks on humans. But human hunters have exacted a far larger toll, obliging Arctic nations to try to protect their region’s iconic species before it’s too late. Now another threat to the polar bears’ survival has emerged, one that is steadily destroying sea ice and the life it supports. Without this habitat, polar bears cannot exist. The Great White Bear celebrates the story of this unique species. Through a blend of history, myth, personal observations, and scientific accounts, Kieran Mulvaney tells the story of the polar bear: its history, its life, and its uncertain fate.

Presents an introduction to the polar bear, discussing its evolution, physical characteristics, life cycle, predatory behavior, habitat, and the threats to its existence from global warming.

Do you like polar bears? Do you want polar bears to be around in 50 years? Do you think that climate change is the only major threat to polar bear survival? Do you believe that polar bears are adequately protected today? Would you like to contribute to saving polar bears today and in the future? If your answer to any of those questions is yes, you need to read this book. "This book is an eye-opener and should kick off extensive debates."Dr. Thor S. Larsen, professor emeritus, Member of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group 1968-1985. "In this impassioned book Morten raises very important, provocative questions that are not being addressed by the international environmental groups." Art Wolfe, Award-winning conservation photographer. In this book, the author analyses the current status of the polar bear. And he punctures the myth that polar bears are well protected and managed today. While most people think that global warming is the overhanging threat to polar bear survival, the author documents that it is actually the continuation of an unsustainable hunting pressure that is driving the species towards extinction. Across 228 pages, interspersed with beautiful photographs, Morten Joergensen demonstrates how there are probably fewer polar bears than most authorities claim, how hunting is the greatest manageable threat to the species, how current protection measures are insufficient, how the animal has been commercialized and how lack of courage and honesty is allowing this scenario to continue. The book also contains a long string of realistic and very urgent recommendations for action - to save polar bears before they are gone forever.