Why polar bears do not eat penguins

The polar bear is the largest and most dangerous predatory mammal on land. The weight of representatives of the Bear family can reach 400-800 kilograms. For comparison, we give the weight of the largest of the cats - the male tiger has a mass of about 200 kilograms. As you can see, the difference is enormous!

To gain such weight, a polar predator needs a lot of protein. His favorite prey is fish, marine animals and bird eggs. First of all, the polar bear eats the skin and fat of its victim and (only being very hungry) also eats meat. An adult consumes about 6-8 kilograms of food, and an excessively starving animal can eat all 20.

His hunting skills are close to perfection. A keen vision allows you to see for several kilometers, an incomparable scent makes it possible to smell prey for 800 meters, a sensitive hearing picks up any sounds of an animal hiding under the snow or the ground, and the color makes the northern bear invisible in the snow. On top of everything else, the Red Book Beast is an excellent swimmer with a speed of up to 6.5 km / h.

Penguins, in turn, compensate for their inability to fly more than the ability to swim. It seems that water is their true element, because there they vigilantly see and can accelerate to 10 km / h. While on land they are shortsighted, awkward and clumsy.

So why doesn’t such an excellent hunter, like a polar bear, eat such easy prey?

The answer is simple to disgrace. In fact, these animals live on different poles of the earth and simply are not able to meet each other. The habitat of white bears is the North Pole: the Arctic, the northern outskirts of Eurasia and North America. For penguins, the South Pole is home: Antarctica, southwestern Africa.

So, even with all the desire, the furry giants will not be able to introduce penguins into their diet. Yes, and such a desire, to be honest, they are unlikely to arise. If you compare a flightless bird with your favorite prey of a bear - walrus or seal, in which, as mentioned above, the beast eats only the skin and subcutaneous fat, then it turns out that he will have absolutely nothing in this case. The penguin’s fat will be meager 2-3 centimeters, and the skin is covered with feathers ... These are modern realities.