Rearing up on hind legs and opening mouth wide open displaying sharp canine teeth often does the trick. Since they can inflict a lot of damage on each other, confrontations are avoided as much as possible. Polar bears are solitary animals, coming together only to mate. The male does not help in the rearing of the young. Males often fight viciously over females during the breeding season, and cause extensive injuries to themselves.
Females breed only once every three years.
May. The pair stays together for only a few days during the breeding season, and during this time they copulate many times. Female bears are induced ovulators, meaning they have to be stimulated several times in order to ovulate, so this is why they must mate so often. This tie may last for 10 - 30 minutes. However, the fertilized egg is not implanted in the uterus until September. The cubs are born between late November to January, in a den dug by the mother in the snowdrifts.