According to zoologists, most polar bears are poorly adapted for land hunting. For example, animals can pass through a nesting colony of white geese, but they never grab a single bird and destroy a single nest.
Pinniped marine animals
Polar bears live on drifting and fast ice sea ice, which allows them to hunt various marine animals - ringed seals, walruses and bearded seals, as well as some others. Pinnipeds constitute the main diet of these polar predators.
Bears catch sea animals, gradually sneaking up on their prey from behind cover, as well as on guard near their holes. As soon as a sea hare or seal pokes its head out of the water, the polar bear stuns the animal with a crushing blow with its paw. After that, the predator can only pull its prey onto the ice. There are cases when a polar bear, swimming up from below, overturned an ice floe with seals.
According to zoologists, predators first eat the skin and lard, eating the rest only when there is severe hunger - usually the remains of the bear meal go to the Arctic foxes.
Birds and rodents
Often, bears catch seabirds - they quickly grab their prey, having previously imperceptibly swim up to the flock under water. Usually polar bears in this way hunt eiders, guillemots, long-tailed ducks and some other birds, depending on their habitat. Bears also love to feast on bird eggs, making their way to nesting places and ruining them, at the same time picking up the fallen chicks.
Predators living on the polar archipelago of Svalbard often do not touch wild deer grazing nearby, showing little or no interest in them.
Polar bears living on the coastal tundra often hunt northern voles, the so-called lemmings.
Plant foods in the diet of polar bears
A rather small part of the diet of polar predators is made up of various components of plant origin. However, almost all polar bears use them from time to time to replenish their supply of vitamins and other nutrients. According to zoologists, sometimes predators even have an urgent need for various plant foods. As a rule, in the fall, they willingly consume berries (blueberries, crowberries and even cranberries), cereals and greens of sedges, various wild plants, for example, sorrel, as well as mosses and lichens.
It is also known that between March and April bears can dig for snow to find shoots of polar willow and sedge there. Thus, predators seek to make up for the lack of vitamins and minerals, scientists believe.
It has also been observed that polar bears can eat up sea-discarded kelp, fucus and other seaweed dumped by the sea on the coast. And some of the bears living on Svalbard periodically dive in an effort to find such food.
Atypical food
Recently, there have been more and more references to the fact that polar bears, who find themselves near settlements, eat a variety of inedible items, up to tarpaulin and machine oil. However, they are not left indifferent by the food supplies made by people. They eat predators and food left by humans for dogs, as well as baits that are in arctic fox traps. In some cases, bears can eat even in garbage dumps on the outskirts of settlements. Unfortunately, because of such habits, wild animals can die - more and more such cases are recorded.
