Sharon McFadden, age 11, of Clinton, New York, for her question:

How do polar bears fish in the winter?

Winter freezes the surface of the Arctic sea and the solid ice may be many feet thick. But the water below the ice is twisted with strong currents and heaved by tides. The frozen surface sits on top of the restless, unpredictable waves. Great cracks and rifts occur in the ice. Many large chunks break into floes separated by stretches of open water. Here the polar bear comes to catch fish, even in winter. The hungry hunter is not bothered by blizzards or icy water. He is an excellent swimmer and often he dives in on purpose. With luck, he catches a fish and scrambles aboard the ice to enjoy his dinner.

The big white bear does not depend on a diet of fish, otherwise he often would be hungry. He eats meat of all kinds. Often he catches a seal or a walrus. Even in winter, rabbits, foxes and hares are around and the polar bear tracks them down over the frozen snow. Some . times he scoops a lemming from his cozy runway under the snow and sometimes he catches a bird.