7 Polar Bear Body Movements and What They Mean

Polar bears have body movement in a wide variety of ways. Understanding wildlife's body language is important as interactions between humans and wildlife increase.

Understanding Polar Bear Movements

The biggest land predators on the planet are polar bears. Today, up to 25,000 of these incredible animals roam the Arctic in Norway, Denmark, Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and the United States.

The World Wildlife Fund has listed the following seven intriguing behaviors to watch out for when observing polar bears in the wild:

1. Head movement. Keep an eye on a polar bear's head because when it wants to play with another bear, it will keep moving its head from side to side. Adult polar bears will sometimes do this while on their hind legs with their front paws hanging down beside their bodies.

2. Nose-to-nose. With their noses, polar bears communicate frequently. One bear might, for instance, approach another slowly, circle the food source, and then slowly and gently touch the other bear's nose with its own. The asking polar bear will undoubtedly get a free meal for acting courteously and non-aggressively.

3. On the attack. A polar bear is attacking when it has its head lowered and its ears pulled back. According to the National Park Service, this is the same for both black bears and grizzly bears. According to the service, this is a sign of stress in the bear.

4. Sleeping behavior. Polar bears sleep for seven to eight hours each day on average, just like humans. To save energy, they also frequently take naps. The bears usually curl up while sleeping with their backs facing the windy side and create small pits in the snow. The bear uses one of its extended paws as a pillow for comfort and lets snow accumulate all around it to add additional warmth and insulation.

5. Yielding to the dominant animal. Polar bears that are submissive always move downwind and yield to larger, more dominant animals. Male bear dominance interactions are loosely based on size, according to the San Diego Zoo - Wildlife Alliance Library, and male-male fights are dangerous.

For excellent foraging habitat, other bears may outcompete mothers with cubs. To protect their cubs, females look to avoid males, at least partly.

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6. Types of fighting. The two types of games are play-only games and aggression-driven games. Males often engage in aggressive fighting during the breeding season and when they try to take food that has been caught by others. Playfighting happens between males to practice hunting techniques and among young cub, siblings to practice self-defense.

7. Different sounds mean different things. Each sounds a polar bear makes has a specific function or meaning. A bear will growl as a warning when it is enraged or feels threatened. It sounds somewhat like an elephant trumpeting. When confronted by another bear, a polar bear would then hiss and snort, while in distress, a bear will chuff, WWF reported.