Polar Ecosystems and Adapted Species

A persistent popular misconception holds that polar bears and penguins share the same icy habitat; in reality, the two never meet in the wild. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) live exclusively in the Arctic, distributed across 19 recognized subpopulations with a total estimated population of roughly 26,000 individuals, according to assessments by the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group, which classifies the species as vulnerable owing chiefly to shrinking sea ice reducing the time available for hunting seals from ice platforms. Penguins (family Spheniscidae), by contrast, are found almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere, with the largest colonies concentrated in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands; only the Galápagos penguin ranges as far north as the equator, and no penguin species occurs naturally in the Arctic at all.