Question: how can polar bears live in the cold

Melissa Upjohn answered on 19 Dec 2025:

Polar bears’ bodies are designed to maximise heat retention and to minimise heat loss, so that they use a little energy as possible in keeping warm. For example, they have a double layer of fur, rather than a single layer that you see in many other mammals. They have extra layers of fat (blubber) because fat acts as good insulation. The parts of their body where they lose heat most easily (for example their ears) are relatively small compared to the overall size of their body (if you’ve ever touched the ears of a dog which has been running a lot, getting warm and needing to lose heat, for example, you’ll know that their ears can feel very warm, relative to how warm the rest of their fur feels, so the polar bear’s design aims to avoid this ‘in reverse’)