For my third event, I took a course on Polar Bears through the San Diego Zoo on June 3, 2020. This course was led by Donna Parham. Donna Parham is an Interpretation Specialist at San Diego Zoo Global. She has been in this career for 30 years and over those years, she has had experience in exhibits, research, and being a tour guide. This course took about an hour and a half to complete. Through this course, I learned so much about polar bears! One thing that I did not know and I found fascinating is that polar bears aren’t white. Their skin is black and in fact, their fur isn’t even white. Their fur is actually clear and hollow. To us, it looks white because the clear coat of their fur reflects light. How a polar bear appears depends on the time of the year. It appears the whitest just after it molts and in the summer it turns a yellowish color due to the sun causing it to oxidize. Sometimes it even appears to be a greenish color. According to: San Diego Zoo Global, “In some warm-climate zoos, algae grows inside the hollow shaft of the guard hairs, giving polar bears a greenish hue.” My entire life I thought polar bears were white, so it was really interesting learning this about them. Polar bears are found in the North Pole along the edges of the arctic ocean. The countries that have polar bears are the United States (Alaska), Canada, Greenland, Russian Federation, and Norway (Jan Mayan Island and Svalbard Island). They prefer to live on fast ice near the shore. And the cracks in the ice help polar bears hunt their prey. Out of all of the bears, polar bears are the more carnivorous. They are the top predator of the Arctic marine ecosystem. Ringed seals, essentially ones that are two years or younger make up most of the polar bear's diet. In fact, the amount of ringed seals depends on how many polar bears live in a certain area. Polar bears are very patient hunters. They are “still hunters”. Many times polar bears will kill more than they can eat and leave the rest of the food for other animals. It’s interesting because most bears cache (hide a supply of food) but polar bears don't. Fun fact: A polar bear can store more than 150 lbs of food in their stomach. In areas where there is sea ice year-round, they can hunt year-round but in places where sea ice melts completely, polar bears move ashore in the summer. Sometimes they will scavenge to avoid starvation but others fast until the ice forms again. It’s really sad because many polar bears have learned to eat from garbage dumps which not only can they injure or poison themselves but they are closer to humans which puts them in danger. Also, due to the ice melts they have to swim much larger distances than before. Polar bears are great swimmers, they can swim at 4 miles per hour however swimming in larger distances is dangerous. Many of them drown when trying to reach ashore. Despite the harsh winter polar bears go through they don’t hibernate like most bears. Sometimes when it is too cold (mainly males) will look for shelter in a snow den and women will winter sleep. When a polar bear is pregnant they dig a den in autumn and stay in the den their entire pregnancy and for the first few months of their cub's life. All bears have “delayed fertilization.” They can deliver up to 3 cubs but typically they have twins. The interesting thing is that the cubs can have different fathers. As stated in the course, “In most species of mammals characterized by males that are larger than females, there are more breeding females than males in a population. Not polar bears: there are about three adult males for each breeding female.” This is a result of the delayed fertilization. A polar bear can ovulate a couple of times in a season and will most likely mate with more than one polar bear in a season. In the world, there are an estimated 20,000-25,000 polar bears left. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies polar bears as vulnerable and The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classifies them as Threatened. Even though there are very few Polar bears today there were about 5,000 polar bears in 1950. There has been a huge increase in their population due to laws protecting polar bears. BUT now their species is in danger because of Climate Change. The loss of their sea ice habitat is a result of Climate Change. In fact, on land, an adult polar bear can overheat. It’s blubber and fur retain heat this is why polar bears don’t travel far at speeds faster than a walk because when they run or move quickly it causes them to overheat. I think it’s important for people to learn about polar bears and climate change because little by little we aren’t taking the precautions necessary to protect this species. Climate change doesn’t just affect our weather but the lives and survival of many species. I used to think that the only thing we were responsible for was the declining sea ice because of human-caused climate change but no. Humans cause other things that endanger polar bears such as pollution and petroleum extraction. There are many things that we can do to protect polar bears such as: Spreading the word, supporting AZA-accredited Zoos (such as the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park) considering purchasing in bulks or choose items with minimal packaging, reducing energy usage, supporting the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and s being aware of where our purchases are coming from.