The polar bear was given its common name by Thomas Pennant in A Synopsis of Quadrupeds (1771). It was known as … See more

Carl Linnaeus classified the polar bear as a type of brown bear (Ursus arctos), labelling it as Ursus maritimus albus-major, articus in the 1758 edition of his work Systema Naturae. Constantine John Phipps formally described t… See more

The polar bear is the largest living species of bear and land carnivore, though some brown bear subspecies like the Kodiak bear can rival it in size. Males are generally 200–250 cm (6.6–8.2 ft) long with a weight of 300–80… See more

Polar bears inhabit the Arctic and adjacent areas. Their range includes Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Russia and the Svalbard Archipelago of Norway. Polar bears have been recorded as close as 25 km (16 mi) from the … See more

Polar bears may travel areas as small as 3,500 km (1,400 sq mi) to as large as 38,000 km (15,000 sq mi) in a year, while drifting ice allows them to move further. Depending on ice conditions, a bear can travel an av… See more

In 2015, the IUCN Red List categorized the polar bear as vulnerable due to a "decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat". It estimated the total population to be between 22,000 and 31,000, an… See more

Polar bears have coexisted and interacted with circumpolar peoples for millennia. "White bears" are mentioned as commercial items in the Japanese book Nihon Shoki in the seventh century. It is not clear if thes… See more