Direction: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Polar bears, the biggest bear in the world and the main predator in the Arctic are a potent representation of the tenacity and resilience of the region. Ursus maritimus, the Latin name for the polar bear, is a bear of the sea. It's a fitting moniker for this magnificent species, which lives primarily on sea ice and spends much of its time in, around, or on the water. Alaska in the United States is home to two separate polar bear populations.
The largest carnivorous land mammal on Earth is the polar bear. From the tip of the nose to the end of their incredibly short tail, they are roughly seven to eight feet long. Polar bear males are significantly larger than females. While a giant female is almost half as big as a large male, the latter can weigh more than 1,700 pounds (up to 1,000 pounds). After a productive hunting season, bears can weigh up to 50% more than they do at the beginning of the following one; the majority of this extra weight is deposited fat. A young polar bear only weighs around 1.5 pounds.
Polar bears are known to be skilled swimmers, and they can maintain a speed of six miles per hour by using their front paws as paddles and their hind legs as rudders. They are protected from chilly air and water by a dense layer of body fat and a water-repellent coat.
Polar bears hunt for food for more than half of their waking hours. Depending on the season and other factors, a polar bear may only catch one or two of every ten seals it hunts. Because they require a lot of fat to survive, ringed and bearded seals make up the majority of their diet.
For transportation, hunting, resting, mating, and, in some locations, maternal dens, polar bears significantly rely on sea ice. But in May 2008, polar bears were listed as a vulnerable species in the US under the Endangered Species Act due to the ongoing and prospective loss of their sea ice habitat caused by climate change, which is the main concern to polar bears across the Arctic. Polar bears are spending more time on land, where they are frequently drawn to regions where people dwell, as their sea ice habitat recedes earlier in the spring and develops later in the fall.
World Wild Life believes that the polar bear's habitat must be preserved and protected immediately. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Polar Bear Specialist Group published a new assessment of polar bear populations in October 2019 that revealed four subpopulations of polar bears were currently experiencing recent declines, with eight additional populations still lacking sufficient data. The good news is that two populations have been trending upward, while five populations are constant.