After watching the Disney Nature’s Polar Bear documentary, I realized this creature has such cute looks. The next minute, I started wondering if it was possible to tame this animal.
I found out that it is relatively dangerous to tame a polar bear. Apart from being powerful and large, there are other reasons why taming polar bears is impossible.
That being said, keep reading as we discuss these different reasons in detail.
Table of Contents
- 1. Care Difficulties
- 2. Wild Hunting Behavior
- 3. It is Difficult to Create a Polar Bear-Like Habitat
- 4. It Needs a Large Space
- 5. Polar Bear Conservation
- 6. Feeding Needs
- 7. Solitude Reasons
- 8. Difficulty in Training
- 9. Sharp Teeth and Claws
- 10. Their Migration Instinct
- 11. Little Domestication Success
- 12. They’re Unpredictable in Nature
- 13. There is a Risk of Polar Bears Escaping
- 14. Cultural Significance
- 15. Health Problems
- Final Thoughts
1. Care Difficulties
In captivity, polar bears are quite difficult to care for. Since they are highly active animals, they need frequent exercise.
A special diet should also be in place to cover the wild foods. In addition, polar bears can live in captivity for more than 25 years, requiring longer commitment.
Not many people can commit to looking after all the polar bear’s needs for long.
2. Wild Hunting Behavior
Polar bears are used to hunting in the wild when it comes to searching for food.
This reason makes taming polar bears difficult since behavioral problems may occur after long periods without hunting. In other words, polar bears always want their hunting skills in use.
3. It is Difficult to Create a Polar Bear-Like Habitat
Polar bears live in the freezing Arctic. Any other environment may not be habitable to these mammals.
Keeping polar bears in an area with a higher temperature than the Arctic may harm them. It may be impossible to bring the captivity temperature to the same levels as in the Arctic.
For this reason, the domestication of polar bears is close to impossible.
4. It Needs a Large Space
Polar bears are always active and playful. Therefore, they need huge spaces around them. You would need a large area of land to tame a polar bear.
Later you would have to come up with large land and make it look like the Arctic. Doesn’t that sound like a lot of work? It does!
Therefore, it becomes impossible for people to invest in setting aside large spaces for keeping polar bears.
5. Polar Bear Conservation
Even if you have all the resources to tame a polar bear, the move is just impossible.
The number of polar bears is gradually dropping, making them endangered species. Therefore, people cannot get the green light to go ahead and tame a polar bear.
6. Feeding Needs
Polar bears consume a lot of food daily. Feeding these creatures is like a hustle since they eat an average of 88 pounds (39.9 kilograms) daily.
In other words, having a consistent supply of foods that polar bears need is impossible.
Even if the food is available, it will consume much time feeding polar bears. Polar bears feed in daily intervals meaning you would need to set aside a lot of time.
7. Solitude Reasons
Polar bears love being alone most of the time. Taming these mammals would mean that they often interact with people.
Such a move may irritate polar bears and harm the surrounding people.
8. Difficulty in Training
To tame polar bears, you must first train them to interact in captivity. However, polar bears are just not like other animals.
Training these animals is difficult. This is because of less interaction between polar bears and humans.
9. Sharp Teeth and Claws
Polar bears have quite sharp teeth and claws. In the Arctic, the claws and teeth are usually an adaptation for survival.
However, these teeth and claws can be quite dangerous when it comes to taming. They accidentally injure people during interactions.
10. Their Migration Instinct
These mammals migrate a lot when it comes to certain times. Keeping polar bears in captivity means stopping them from migrating when the time comes.
This move could upset them and lead to the destruction of the captivity.
Humans cannot control the sense of migration in polar bears, making it difficult to tame them.
11. Little Domestication Success
In recent years, some people have attempted to tame polar bears. In turn, the results came to be catastrophic to the keepers.
The negative results tend to suggest that taming polar bears is impossible.
12. They’re Unpredictable in Nature
Polar bears are quite unpredictable. Even if taming them was possible, knowing their needs at specific times would be difficult.
In addition, their unpredictable nature means they can hurt you when you don’t expect it. Even some little things you do to them might provoke them when you feel it wouldn’t.
This makes taming them hard, as they can threaten humans at any time. There might be little or no warnings.
13. There is a Risk of Polar Bears Escaping
Polar bears are quite aggressive and can escape due to dissatisfaction with the captivity environment.
These mammals are smart and cannot settle for anything less than their natural habitat. Therefore, they would always try to escape while in captivity.
14. Cultural Significance
There are indigenous communities that cannot accept the taming of polar bears to happen. Such communities have taken polar bears as important icons since their origin.
In other words, the indigenous communities work to protect these animals.
Therefore, taming polar bears can be quite a problem since these communities cannot allow anyone to take them.
15. Health Problems
While polar bears are in captivity, they suffer from several health problems. One of the leading problems is obesity.
Since polar bears are most active in the wild, in captivity, they will lack space and get obese.
The polar bear is already a large creature. Therefore, obesity can be a huge stress to it.
Final Thoughts
Taming polar bears is not so practical. The cost of keeping it, the risk of escaping, and other reasons would make the experience difficult.
Polar bears are also active animals. Therefore taming them can be a challenge.
However, are these mammals active also at night?
Here is a significant explanation of whether polar bears are nocturnal or diurnal.
