Which bear species is native to the Arctic region?

Which bear species is native to the Arctic region? The answer is the polar bear. Its scientific name, Ursus maritimus, means “sea bear,” reflecting its close relationship with sea ice and marine hunting rather than life in forests or temperate grasslands.

Polar bears range across the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, Russia and Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. They spend much of their time on sea ice, where they hunt seals, especially ringed and bearded seals. Their white-looking fur provides camouflage, while black skin and a thick layer of fat help absorb and retain heat.

A common mix-up is the brown bear, which overlaps with polar bears in some northern areas and can occasionally interbreed with them. Brown bears, however, are not Arctic specialists. Polar bears are also unusual among bears because their existence is strongly tied to ocean conditions, leading scientists to classify them as marine mammals.

They are the largest living bear species and the largest land carnivore by body mass. Their scientific name was formalized as a distinct species in 1774, after earlier naturalists had treated them as a kind of brown bear.