Q 01/05

What is the scientific name for the polar bear?

A) Ursus americanus

B) Ursus arctos

C) Ursus maritimus

D) Ursus malayanus

Answer · why

C) Ursus maritimus

Linnaeus first filed the animal under the brown bear in 1758; Constantine John Phipps described it as a distinct species in 1774 after his voyage towa...

Q 02/05

Which of these regions is NOT considered a primary habitat for polar bears?

A) Greenland

B) Russia

C) Canada

D) Antarctica

Answer · why

D) Antarctica

Polar bears live only in the Arctic and neighbouring seas, and have been recorded as close as 25 km from the North Pole; the South Pole has penguins b...

Q 03/05

What color is a polar bear's skin underneath its fur?

A) Pink

B) White

C) Gray

D) Black

Answer · why

D) Black

Newborn cubs, by contrast, have pink skin; adults gain a yellowish tinge to their fur the more they are exposed to the sun.

Q 04/05

Polar bears feed primarily on which part of the seals they catch?

A) Blubber

B) Liver

C) Muscle

D) Bones

Answer · why

A) Blubber

Bears mostly ambush their prey, stalking on the ice or lying in wait at a breathing hole or ice edge for a seal to surface.

Q 05/05

Polar bears are dichromats: they lack the cone cells for seeing which colour's wavelengths?

A) Red

B) Green

C) Blue

D) Yellow

Answer · why

B) Green

Their eyes sit close to the top of the head, which may let a bear keep them out of the water while swimming at the surface.