Species profile
Ursus maritimus
Polar bear
This is a curated published estimate, not a live census. Estimates may refer to mature individuals, wild individuals or a documented range and are not directly comparable between species.
VU · Vulnerable — Vulnerable — high risk of extinction in the wild
About this species
Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is part of the curated SpeciesWatch catalogue and is classified as Vulnerable. Polar bear fur is not white: every hair is a transparent, hollow tube that scatters light, while the skin underneath is black to absorb heat. The overall trend remains uncertain or is not applicable, so it should not be inferred from a small number of observations.
Habitat, behaviour and ecological role
This profile associates the species with marine, polar. These labels summarise environments used during different stages of its life rather than drawing an exact range boundary. A polar bear can swim for days at a time and smells a seal under a metre of snow and ice from nearly a kilometre away. Its anatomy and behaviour are responses to those environments, while movement can connect distant places requiring different forms of management.
Why this species is at risk
Polar bears are marine mammals: they depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, which is why they are among the most visible victims of climate change. The catalogue records 3 principal pressures for this profile: Climate change, Sea-ice loss, Pollution. They should not be treated as isolated causes. Habitat change, exploitation, pollution, disease and climate stress can reinforce one another, while the importance of each pressure varies between regions and through time.
Conservation outlook
Climate monitoring and protection of ecological refuges are needed because reducing other pressures improves the capacity to adapt. Actions need long-term monitoring and revision as evidence changes; a positive intervention in one place does not by itself represent recovery across the species.
Editorial review: 2026-08-21
Threat factors
Known occurrences
Dots are georeferenced occurrence records from OBIS (marine) and GBIF (global), not individual animals and not a complete range map. Up to 500 recent API results are cached; the profile renders at most 500 points.
Loading occurrences…
Listen to this species
No recordings available yet — new Xeno-canto audio arrives with every sync.
Stories connected to this species
Editorial context connecting this profile to climate, habitat and human activity.