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Although researchers don’t know how acute the sense of taste is or how important it is in food preference, polar bears are known to prefer certain foods. With its acute sense of smell, it’s able to locate prey, even when hidden by snowdrifts or ice. It mostly stalks young seals (it can eat nearly 50 of these in a single year) and walruses by swimming underwater to their ice floes. It also likes to feed on algae (when available), berries, birds and bird eggs, crabs, dead animals (including whales), grasses, mushrooms, small mammals, starfish, and sometimes…adult seals.

The polar bear returns in a lethargic condition to its hollowed out winter den. Males usually den from late November to late January, while females den for a longer period of time, from November to March, during which time they give birth. The cubs remain with their mother about a year and a half.

One of the largest denning areas for polar bears is the lowlands of Hudson Bay and James Bay — the only known region where polar bears den in earth rather than in snow — where by digging down to the permafrost they are able to excavate caves in lake and stream banks and peat hummocks.

It is believed that they also use these permafrost dens to cool off in the summer time.

Most polar bears meet their potential mates in prime seal-hunting spots (singles bar for polar bears). Since female polar bears don’t breed every year or even every other year, getting a date can be a real challenge! Therefore, competition for the attention of a female can be truly fierce. The males must fight one another for the privilege of mating, sometimes viciously. Oh yes, and don’t forget to add in the fact that females happen to enjoy a good chase and will lead the male polar bear on a merry one indeed — for miles and miles across the ice — sometimes for 60 miles! This little bit of “romance” is definitely not for the timid or the weak at heart, that’s for sure!

Although mating takes place in late March to mid-July, females delay implantation of its fertilized eggs until early fall when it digs out and enters its den, giving birth a month or two later. To carry off a successful pregnancy and denning, the pregnant female must greatly increase her weight, mostly in fat. The denned mother often goes without food or water for as long as nine months.

The cubs are born in December or January, usually a pair of fur balls. They weigh in at about 1 to 1.5 pounds. When they leave their den in March or April, the cubs will weigh 25 to 30 pounds.