WHERE DO THEY LIVE?

The polar bear is often regarded as a marine mammal because it spends many months of the year at sea.Its preferred habitat is the annual sea ice covering the waters over the continental shelf and the Arctic inter-island archipelagos. These areas, known as the "Arctic ring of life", have high biological productivity in comparison to the deep waters of the high Arctic.The polar bear tends to frequent areas where sea ice meets water, such aspolynyas and leads (temporary stretches of open water in Arctic ice), to hunt the seals that make up most of its diet.Polar bears are therefore found primarily along the perimeter of the polar ice pack, rather than in the Polar Basin close to the North Pole where the density of seals is low.