Behaviour

BEHAVIOUR

A. Daily activity cycle.
1. Polar bears are most active the first third of the day and least active the final third of the day.

2. In the Canadian Arctic, adult female polar bears with cubs hunt about 19% of their time during the spring and about 38% of their time during the summer. Adult male polar bears hunt about 25% of their time during the spring and about 40% of their time during the summer.

3. When not hunting, polar bears are often sleeping or resting. Polar bears are basically solitary. However, in some southern regions, like Hudson Bay, bears may aggregate on land during the ice-free summer and autumn months.

4. Polar bear aggregations.
a. Polar bears will aggregate to feed on large whale carcasses and at dump sites.
b. In some southern regions, like Hudson Bay, bears aggregate on land during the ice-free summer and autumn months.

5. On occasion, adult and sub adult (ages 30 months to five or six years) polar bear males will feed and travel together for short periods of time.

6. The movements of polar bears can also be studied by following their tracks in the snow, usually by aircraft.

7. Other behaviors are recorded by observing polar bears directly, or finding evidence of polar bears, such as a partially eaten seal.

9. Most polar bear research is conducted in the spring or summer when weather conditions are more favorable to humans.

B. Attacks on humans.

1. Humans may encounter polar bears wherever human and polar bear habitats overlap. Polar bear attacks occur most often at sites of human habitation, such as hunting camps, weather stations, and towns. Compared to other bears, polar bears are more willing to consider humans as prey. Consequently, the person attacked is usually killed unless the polar bear is killed first.

2. Polar bear subadults and females with cubs attack most often. They're also the chief scavengers (among polar bears) of human dump sites. Both groups tend to be thinner and hungrier; subadults are inexperienced hunters, and females with cubs must feed themselves and their young.