Scientists believe that Ursus Maritimus, the "sea bear", evolved about 200,000 years ago from brown bear ancestors.

Polar bears are closely related to the grizzly or brown bears of Eurasia and North America, and they are the only land mammals to have adapted completely to life on the Arctic sea ice.

The five nations where the ice bears are found include the U. S. (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland), and Norway.

Where there is Arctic sea ice - there are polar bears. Where sea ice is absent year round - there are no polar bears.

Thinning ice in the Arctic (and particularly the Hudson Bay area of Canada) might doom the population of bears in about 40 years if something isn't done to stop the climate from getting warmer. The ice pack is their hunting grounds.

As the ice disappears, the plankton also disappears. The creatures that depend on the plankton disappear (fish), the creatures that depend on the fish disappear (seals) - and guess who depends on the seals? Polar bears.

Some animals depend on the ice for dens, and they'll disappear. Animals that depend on the ice for travel (bears and caribou) will be gone too.

Man! I'm gettin' depressed!

(Some Polar Bear JOKES to lighten yer mood.)