Every year on February 27, the planet celebrates the International Polar Bear Day. The festival was initiated by PBI (Potal Bears International), which is actively fighting to preserve the population of this beautiful predator, living only in the Arctic, near the North Pole. The main purpose of this Day establishing is to proliferate information about the life of polar bears and draw public attention to the necessity of their protection.

The polar bear is one of the largest predators on earth, but this does not save it from danger. According to crude data, today there are about 20-25 thousand individuals in the world, 5-7 thousand of which are in Russia. The polar bear is listed in the Red Book of Russia and the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in the status of a vulnerable species. This beast, living in the subpolar regions of the Northern Hemisphere, is often called the "King of the Arctic Ocean". Over the last decade, the number of this huge predator has decreased by 40%. It is believed that by the 2050th, due to the melting of Arctic ice and poaching, the polar bear population might be reduced by three times!

Today, the polar bear is the endangered species listed in the Red Book. In Russia, hunting this predator is completely prohibited. According to some estimates, there are between 22,000 to 30,000 polar bears in the Arctic. To maintain the population of this species, people should provide polar bears with large, safe places to live, as well as not pollute their habitat. The Arctic Region without polar bears is simply unthinkable.

Despite the fact that the polar bear is a dangerous predator, for each of us who have not met him face to face, the polar bear is a childhood memory – a favorite toy, delicious candy, a statuette on the grandmother's buffet and, of course, Umka*.

For the International Polar Bear Day, we have prepared a thematic photo album  with the images of items from the collection section "Lapidary works of art”.

* Umka is a 1969 Soviet animated film. It is based on children's book of the same name by Yuri Yakovlev, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. Umka means "polar bear" in Chukchi language.

The article is written on the basis of information from open sources