102 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



The Polar Bear (Thalardos maritimus) 

 (plate ix) 



From the Alaskan-Canadian boundary on the northwest, 

 along the Arctic shores of the Northwest Territories, the 

 Hudson Bay and Labrador, and throughout the islands of 

 the Canadian Arctic, this magnificent denizen of the polar 

 seas, whose very name conjures up a vision of deep-blue Arc- 

 tic seas and fringing ice-floes, withstands the rigours of the 

 north and the persecution of the hunters of his splendid 

 skin. In the solitude of the Arctic this animal, so splen- 

 didly endowed by nature for such an environment of ice 

 and frigid waters, hunts its food along the edge of the ice- 

 pack and drifting floes, where he may secure, by patient 

 hunting, the cautious seal. Whatever animal remains are 

 cast ashore are acceptable, and only during the short 

 Arctic summer is it able to resort to vegetable food such as 

 constitutes a large portion of the food of his more southerly 

 relatives. 



As a rule only the more hardy males face the long Arctic 

 winter out-of-doors. The female usually hibernates in 

 some convenient cavity, and there, buried under the deep 

 snow, she brings forth her cubs, which rely on their mother 

 for their sole supply of food during the winter months they 

 spend in the little ice cavern, that is formed by the com- 

 bined heat of their bodies. With the advent of spring they 

 are released from their snow prison, and the fish and wild 

 fowl form their food until the melting of the snow uncovers 

 the sparse supply of vegetable food, such as herbage, roots, 

 and Arctic berries. 



Many years of excessive hunting have materially reduced 

 the numbers of the polar bear, especially in the western 

 Arctic, and they are in serious need of protection. The 

 Hudson's Bay Company's returns show that in the decade. 



