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Goodness, it’s cold today.
天啊，今天真冷。
I’ll turn up the heat in here, but maybe we should start up the Fort’s fireplace, too!
我会把这里的温度调高，但也许我们也该把堡垒的壁炉也打开!
It’s winter in lots of parts of the world, and that means lots of cold … and for some animals, a very different world outside than in the summer.
世界上很多地方都是冬天，这意味着很多地方都很冷，对一些动物来说，外面的世界和夏天完全不同。
One of the places where things are the most different is the Arctic, the part of the world near the North Pole.
事情最不一样的地方之一是北极，世界上靠近北极的地方。
That’s at the very top of the globe.
那是在地球的最顶端。
When it’s winter in the Arctic, it also becomes the coldest part of the world.
当北极是冬天的时候，它也成为世界上最冷的地方。
Now, I don’t know about you, but I like to be warm.
我不知道你怎么样，但我喜欢温暖。
But for some of the animals that live in the Arctic, the super-cold winter is actually a great/thing.
但是对一些生活在北极的动物来说，超冷的冬天实际上是一件好事。
Like polar bears!
比如北极熊！
They have a much easier time finding food in the winter because of all the sea ice.
因为所有的海冰，它们在冬天更容易找到食物。
In the winter, the Arctic is so cold that almost all of the ocean up there freezes into a layer of ice at the top.
在冬天，北极是如此的寒冷，几乎所有的海洋在那里冻结成一层冰在顶部。
For polar bears, that’s awesome, because they like to hunt seals.
对北极熊来说，这太棒了，因为它们喜欢猎杀海豹。
Seals are big and round, and they have flippers instead of legs.
海豹又大又圆，它们没有腿，只有鳍。
So they can move around on land, but they’re very slow – way slower than a polar bear.
所以它们可以在陆地上移动，但是非常慢——比北极熊慢得多。
That means if a polar bear can get a seal out of the water, they have a good chance of catching them.
这意味着如果北极熊能把海豹从水里捞出来，它们就有很大的机会抓住海豹。
The thing is, seals spend most of their time underwater, not on land or on top of the ice.
问题是，海豹大部分时间都在水下，而不是在陆地或冰面上。
And even though polar bears can swim a bit, they’re nowhere close to as fast as a seal underwater.
尽管北极熊会游泳，但它们远不及水下的海豹游得快。
If they tried to hunt a seal in the water, the seal would swim away pretty easily.
如果试图在水中捕捉海豹，海豹会很容易地游开。
That’s exactly the problem!
这正是问题所在!
During the warmer parts of the year, it’s very hard for polar bears to catch seals.
在温暖的季节，北极熊很难捕捉海豹。
But when there’s lots of sea ice around, polar bears have a really smart way of hunting them.
但是当周围有很多海冰的时候，北极熊有一种非常聪明的捕猎方式。
See, even though seals spend so much time underwater, they do need to breathe, just like we do.
虽然海豹在水下呆的时间很长，但它们确实需要呼吸，就像我们一样。
So they have to come up for air sometimes.
所以有时候它们必须上来透透气。
In the summer, that doesn’t make too much of a difference to polar bears, because a seal could come up for air basically anywhere.
在夏天，这对北极熊来说没什么区别，因为海豹基本上可以在任何地方呼吸空气。
Even if a polar bear tries to chase them, they can just dive back into the water and swim away.
即使北极熊试图追海豹，它们也可以潜入水中，然后游走。
But do you remember what’s different about the Arctic ocean in the winter?
但是你还记得北冰洋在冬天有什么不同吗?
That’s right, there’s all that ice covering the ocean!
没错，海洋上到处都是冰!
To breathe, the seals have to make holes in the ice that they can use to pop up when they need some air.
为了呼吸，海豹必须在冰面上钻洞，以便在需要空气的时候能突然冒出来。
So all a hungry polar bear has to do is hang out near one of these holes, wait for a seal to come up, and grab them!
所以一只饥饿的北极熊所要做的就是在这些洞附近闲逛，等待海豹出现，然后抓住它们!
They can do this for most of the winter.
它们可以在冬天的大部分时间里这样做。
Some polar bears live in parts of the Arctic where the ice never melts completely, so they can hunt this way the whole year.
一些北极熊生活在北极的部分地区，那里的冰从来没有完全融化，所以它们可以全年以这种方式捕猎。
In the spring, when the ice starts to melt in most of the Arctic, polar bears still have an easy way to get seals for a little while.
在春天，当北极大部分地区的冰开始融化时，北极熊仍有一段时间很容易找到海豹。
The spring is when seals have their babies, and they stay on top of the ice until they’re old enough to swim.
春天是海豹产崽的季节，海豹会呆在冰面上，直到长大可以游泳为止。
That makes it easy for polar bears to catch them.
这使得北极熊很容易捕捉到海豹。
By the time the summer comes around though, the seals are back in the water, and the polar bears have to wait until it gets colder again before they can hunt more seals.
但是夏天海豹又回到水里，北极熊不得不等到天气变冷后才能捕食更多的海豹。
It’s a good thing the bears get lots of food in the winter and spring, because some of them don’t eat at all for most of the summer!
熊在冬天和春天得到很多食物，这是一件好事，因为它们中的一些在夏天的大部分时间里根本不吃东西!
Polar bears aren’t the only animals that are good at finding food in the winter near the North Pole.
北极熊并不是唯一擅长在北极附近寻找食物的动物。
Seals are also great at it, since they can do basically the same thing they do the all year -- just dive under the water and catch things like fish and squid.
海豹也很擅长游泳，因为它们基本上一年到头都能做同样的事情——潜入水中捕捉鱼类和乌贼。
And walruses, which look kind of like giant seals with long tusks, do the same thing.
海象，看起来有点像长着长牙的巨大海豹，做着同样的事情。
Arctic foxes are pretty good at finding food too.
北极狐也很擅长寻找食物。
They hunt lemmings, little animals that spend the winter in burrows under the snow.
他们捕食旅鼠，是一种在雪下洞穴过冬的小动物。
To find them, the foxes sniff around until they smell lemmings.
为了找到旅鼠，狐狸四处嗅，直到闻到气味。
Then they dive into the snow and dig until they catch one!
然后他们跳进雪里挖，直到抓到一只为止!
But one of the things that makes polar bears special is that it’s so much easier for them to hunt in the winter than it is in the summer.
但是北极熊的特别之处在于它们在冬天比在夏天更容易捕猎。
Near the North Pole, these super-cold months are a great time to be a polar bear!
在北极附近，这几个超级寒冷的月份是成为北极熊的好时光!
Thanks for joining us!
感谢收看！
Do you have questions about the North Pole, or polar bears, or anything at all?
你对北极、北极熊或其他任何东西有问题吗?
We have a website where you can send them to us!
我们有一个网站，你可以把他们发给我们!
Just ask a grown-up to help you go to patreon.com/scishowkids to check it out.
让一个成年人帮你登陆patreon.com/scishowkids看看。
We’ll see you next time, here at the Fort!
我们下次见，就在这个堡垒!
