5 Fun Facts about Polar Bears

1. Polar bears have black skin, and their hair isn't white, it's transparent. The hair appears white because of a daily routine of hair-dying at the local barber shop. Or something to do with light refraction.

2. Polar bears are the largest carnivores that live on land. Although they mainly eat seals, they are also partial to a nice chicken korma or a pepperoni pizza. And, given the chance, a tiger, which they could kill with one swipe of their massive paws. Mmm, pepperoni and tiger pizza, very tasty.

3. Polar bears have an excellent sense of smell. They can detect the scent of a seal up to 1.6km away, and the whiff of an eggy-fart, and precisely who-did-it, from across a crowded classroom. And don't even try telling a polar bear, "You smelt it, you dealt it." That leads to one very angry polar bear.

4. Polar bears are great swimmers and spend most of their time at sea chasing seals (to eat, not in a game of tag). Every four years, though, they take a vacation from eating seals to enter the Olympics, and have won more gold medals than any other swimmer in history, mainly because they eat the competition. The polar bear was actually the mascot for the 1998 winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. 

5. But, did you know, they are also very fast runners? Yep, they can run faster than a human, reaching speeds of over 25 miles per hour. So, remember, if you're stuck in the Arctic with your friend, and there is a polar bear chasing you, then you can't outrun it and escape. However, the good news is, that you don't need to outrun the polar bear, you just need to outrun your friend.


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