The Polar Regions: Arctic and Antarctic

The top and bottom of the world

Imagine the coldest place you can think of, then make it colder still. That is what the polar regions are like. They are found at the very top and the very bottom of our planet, and they are covered in ice and snow. These frozen lands seem impossible to live in, yet some of the toughest animals on Earth make them home. Let's explore the icy world of the poles.

Two frozen lands: the Arctic and the Antarctic

Our planet has two polar regions, and it is important not to mix them up.

The Arctic is the region at the top of the world, around the North Pole. The Arctic is mostly a huge ocean covered with floating sea ice, surrounded by the northern edges of countries like Canada, Greenland and Russia. People called the Inuit have lived in parts of the Arctic for thousands of years.

The Antarctic is the region at the bottom of the world, around the South Pole. The Antarctic is the opposite of the Arctic: it is a giant frozen continent of land, called Antarctica, buried under a thick sheet of ice and surrounded by cold ocean. Almost no people live there, only scientists who visit to study it.

Here is an easy way to remember which is which: the Arctic is at the top, and "Arctic" comes from an old word for the Great Bear. The Antarctic is the opposite, the "anti-Arctic," at the bottom.

Why are the poles so cold?

Why are these places so bitterly cold all year round? It is all about the Sun.

Near the middle of the Earth, the Sun shines down from high overhead, so its rays are strong and direct, and it gets hot. But the poles are tilted away at the top and bottom of the world. There, the Sun is always low in the sky, even in summer. Its rays hit the ground at a slanted angle and spread out thinly, so they are weak and cannot warm the land much. On top of that, the bright white ice and snow act like a mirror, bouncing a lot of the Sun's energy straight back into space instead of soaking it up. All of this keeps the poles freezing cold.

The poles also have very strange days and nights. In the middle of summer, the Sun never fully sets, so it stays light even at midnight. In the middle of winter, the Sun never properly rises, and it stays dark for weeks or even months.

Polar bears and penguins never meet

Two famous animals live at the poles, but they live at opposite ends of the world and never meet in the wild.

Polar bears live in the Arctic in the north. They are huge, powerful hunters that walk across the sea ice looking for seals to catch.

Penguins live in the Antarctic in the south, and the cold seas around it. They cannot fly, but they are brilliant swimmers, zooming through the water to catch fish.

So if you ever see a picture of a polar bear and a penguin together, you will know it could never really happen!

How polar animals stay warm

Living in such cold needs special adaptations, just like living in a hot desert does. Polar animals have several clever ways to beat the cold.

Blubber. Seals, whales and penguins have a thick layer of fat under their skin called blubber. Blubber works like a cosy duvet, trapping warmth inside the body and keeping the cold out.

Thick fur and feathers. A polar bear has two layers of fur and thick fat to keep it warm, even when it swims in icy water. Penguins have layers of small, tightly packed feathers, with a fluffy layer underneath that traps warm air against their bodies, like wearing a thick coat.

Camouflage. A polar bear's fur looks white, which helps it blend in with the snow and ice. This makes it harder for seals to spot the bear as it creeps up to hunt. Many Arctic animals, like the Arctic fox and the Arctic hare, even turn white in winter to hide in the snow.

Huddling together. Emperor penguins use teamwork to survive the brutal Antarctic winter. Hundreds of them squeeze together in a huge huddle to share their body heat. They take turns, so that the penguins on the cold outside edge can move into the warm middle, and no one stays out in the wind too long.

Why the poles matter

The polar regions might seem far away and empty, but they are very important for the whole planet. The huge amounts of ice help keep the Earth cool, and the cold polar seas are full of life that many other animals depend on. Looking after these special places helps look after the whole world.

Make your own blubber glove

You can feel how blubber works with a fun experiment, with a grown-up to help. Fill a bowl with very cold water and some ice cubes. Put your bare hand in for a moment, then quickly take it out. Brr, that feels freezing!

Now wrap one hand inside a plastic bag, then push that bagged hand into a second bag that has been packed with a thick layer of butter or shortening all around the inside. Seal it so the fat surrounds your hand like a glove. Put that hand into the icy water. Can you feel how much warmer it stays? The layer of fat is acting just like the blubber that keeps seals and penguins warm in the freezing sea.

The poles are one of Earth's most extreme habitats. Compare them with a scorching one in Deserts and How Life Survives. And to explore the cold polar seas where seals and penguins hunt, dive into Oceans and Sea Life.