I knew they were big bears but not TWICE A HUMAN size! I didn't even google this image for the polar bear I wanted to see how big a black bear is.
guess I'm never going to Antarctica!
edit: okay we got ANOTHER TIL. Apparently polar bears don't live in Antarctica!
...I need to watch more nature documentaries...
Why are people downvoting this?
because it's not directly true, Antarctica means "land opposite the place below the bear-shaped constellations", not "land without bears".
Reality is often "controversial" these days.
Sometimes downright unbearable
Because it actually means "The opposite side from the bear place"
Hmm... How would you like to see a polar bear from below?
😉
Because the name actually doesn’t have anything to do with real bears.
It was directional about the constellation Ursa Major (which in Greek is Arktos Megale).
There’s also Ursa Minor which is the little bear constellation, that contains the north star and is a great navigational tool.
Arctic and Antarctic basically just mean north and south.
Would they have called that constellation Ursa Major if not for the presence of bears in that direction? Maybe the constellation naming was like, "don't go too far towards bear country if you don't want to deal with bears that think of humans as food." "Bears this way. Bears ahead."
They're northern Hemisphere, not Antarctica. We have them in our province (Manitoba), but yes they're big. On average tho not quite as big as the painting there shows.
This would be a female bear, as she is with her cubs. Polar bears are actually the second most sexually dimorphic mammal. Consequently males are vastly bigger than females.
The most sexually dimorphic? The elephant seal. Those dudes are immense.
Edit: this, I read on wikipedia a couple of years ago. The information is no longer there but the fact that polar bears and elephant seals are among the most dimorphic mammals remains. The precise ranking is perhaps a little more obscure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear
Third sentence of the first paragraph mentions sexual dimorphism, at least in the English version of the page. Mentioned a few more places too, so it's still there.
Didn't know that was a thing, that's pretty cool!
I mean previously it stated that these were the two most dimorphic species. I'm guessing that due to the variance in body weight of the animals, it's not that easy to say that they are more dimorphic than other species, because that depends upon the variable body mass of the animals. But it's certainly a notable quality of polar bears and elephant seals that there can be such a huge difference, even if that difference grows and shrinks at different times of year.
I think the painting shows the largest they've found, not the norm. It's like showing Robert Wadlow (The tallest guy in the world at 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wadlow) to show the size of humans. Yes we can get that large, but it's an extreme example.
Just let it happen. If someone is looking at my stat sheet Im not going to complain if they say I can run 100 meters as fast as Bolt did in the Olympics. *limps to the kitchen..
If one of the average sized ones rises up in front of you and roars, I bet it would look just as big as that painting.
Can anyone confirm? Probably not.
Yup, Not many people get the opportunity to see one up close and live to tell about it, unless there's something REALLY solid in between them. Like that Nat Geo guy in the cage. https://youtu.be/U-S4NbX5IYE They're absolutely terrifying up close...
They don't typically roar tho, unless they're fighting or f..uh screwing. And they're not scared of anything.
They just seem to calmly creep where you are, and then start eating you, really. Their normal prey is seals etc., that do not fight back but flee, so their hunting tactic is to be sneaky, on top of not really having any natural predators (the no fear -reason). And you are just a thin seal, that does not know how to flee under the ice.
Pretty much, if you let them know you're there you're just making more work for yourself when you gotta chase them down.
I prefer quick meals too over having to waste time and effort lol! I'd just prefer to stay off the menu.
Yeah, if one ever gets that unlucky you just have to hope they make it quick.
I like the rhyme but I mean, what the fuck are the chances of running into a polar bear. As in, if you live near polar bears, you definately know how terrifying they are and don’t need to have a guide like this.
No, I’m not fun at parties.
Your interest Un-funness saved your ass that one time you wandered into a bear party after misunderstanding an advertising flyer.
If it's brown, also say good night because a grizzly will still fuck your shit up no matter what you do.
Arctus = “Bear”, Anti = “against” in ancient Greek, or “opposite” in modern meaning.
Arctic = bears are here
Anti-arctic = opposite bears, or “no bears”.
Has absolutely nothing to do with actual bears though.
The name comes from the constellation Ursa Major, which in Greek was Arktos Megale. Both mean the Great Bear.
Basically it just means north and not north because the Ursa Major constellation has the North Star in it.
It does just kinda work out that bears are in the northern hemisphere and not the southern hemisphere. There’s only one bear native to the southern hemisphere, the Spectacled Bear native to the Andes mountain in South America. There are no bears native to Africa or Oceania at all.
Koala bear,
Check mate athiests
/s
Ursa minor is the one with Polaris in its handle though.
You right. Ursa Major has a chain of stars that point toward Polaris.
yeah if you put bears on antarctica they mutually annihilate
I saw this before somewhere and a commenter said they didn't actually know if there were bears or not in these places when they named them. This had more to do with the constellation Ursa (bear) major/minor (north star). But works out to being a nice mnemonic.
This has come up before on lemmy.
Wouldn’t a better translation given the context be something like the place opposite to the place where there are bears? It’s not like the Greeks somehow intuited that there was such a place and that there would be no bears there.
It's more of a translation-based mnemonic device, really
In German Baerbel is a woman's name. And you say Baer if you mean beaver. The more you know. 🤷♀️
Beaver is also a slang term for female genitalia in English
Like Baer in german. To be exact the bush.
So did the Greeks traverse the whole planet? Like the idea isn't too far fetched but it's just weird to think about Mediterraneans traveling to the arctics
Lol.
If it's brown lay down
If it's black fight back
If it's white say goodnight
There's a reason why they say that
There's reasons in rural communities in Canada that polar bears frequent that it is custom to keep your car doors unlocked at all times, so if someone walking runs into a polar bear they can dive into a random car for safety.
It is not just that they are enormous and strong. Its that they will actively hunt you for food unlike most brown or black bears.
I think they are fairly unique among the animal kingdom for being willing to chance attacking a human. Most other predators don't find the risk of not knowing exactly how it would go to be worth it.
There is a reason that a lot of the people that you see that live or spend a lot of time in the parts of the world that Polar Bears live in don't often go outside without high caliber weapons.
I've studied bears for a while now. There's actually a proven strategy for fighting polar bears. First you dodge to the left, then jump as high as you can and punch them in the eye. By the time they realize what's happened, it'll all be over and you'll be opening your eyes, hoping you prayed to the right god
you gotta nail the timing or else your shouryuu reppa misses
I will say, those bears represent the upper end of the ‘weight ranges’ for those 3 species. Average sizes would be a bit less.
Get me a saddle
I'm about to show you something you can only do once
Kislev salutes you.
I saw it in a cartoon, but I'm pretty sure I can do it.
With their nonstop singing and dancing…
I think the artist took some creative liberties with this. I'm not sure exactly how big a polar bear or a grizzly is, but that black bear is freaking huge!
I guess that I could imagine one getting that big, but that has to be the absolute max of an absolute unit of a black bear. The John Henry of black bears.
According to Wikipedia the largest on record was over 7ft tall, they don't have average heights listed but some other BS site said they range from 4-6.5 ft so it's large but apparently not too incredibly so.
I saw a black bear in Virginia crossing the street on a polite Tuesday mid- morning a few years ago...the god-damned thing was as big as I imagined grizzly bears are...it was huge.
guess I'm never going to Arctic Antarctica!
FTFY.
Sorry it's the inner nerd in me!
Theyre pretty much the very top of the food chain. They say there are multiple apexes because of different environments but id bet on a polar bear over a tiger or lion probably. Idk if its an accurate assesment tho.
Imo, the ladder goes:
Rest of the terrestrial animal kingdom < Bengal Tigers < Polar Bears < Hippos < Rhinos < Elephants < Honey Badger.
That's as far as the ratio of animal capability to fuck something up divided by willingness to kick something else's ass goes.
I actually think the Tiger and the Polar Bear are fairly close in terms of power and lethality, and it would all come down to whether the Tiger had the opportunity to stalk, which it probably would avoid doing anyways to something the size of a Polar Bear.
I still do not know where Honey Badger rightfully belongs on Earth's tourney ladders, so I rather err on the side of caution there in case one reads this.
I just assume Honey Badgers have earned the top rung. Seems safer to let them know we don't intend to fuck with them.
They fight to win. They use weapons beyond brute strength. They're clever.
You forgot the crocodile 🐊
So looks to be about 5’4”, or about average.
I'd say it's about as average as you can get. https://www.nathantailors.com/...
You’re an ass.
Average Female Heights Worldwide Region Average Female Height Northern Africa 5 feet 3 inches Eastern Africa 5 feet 2 inches Western Africa 5 feet 3 inches Central Africa 5 feet 2 inches Southern Africa 5 feet 3 inches North America 5 feet 4 inches South America 5 feet 3 inches Central America 5 feet 1 inch Caribbean 5 feet 3 inches East Asia 5 feet 4 inches Western Asia 5 feet 3 inches Southeast Asia 5 feet 1 inch Central Asia 5 feet 3 inches South Asia 5 feet 1 inch Eastern Europe 5 feet 5 inches Western Europe 5 feet 5 inches Northern Europe 5 feet 4 inches Southern Europe 5 feet 4 inches Australia and New Zealand 5 feet 5 inches Micronesia 5 feet 3 inches Polynesia 5 feet 5 inches Melanesia 5 feet 2 inches
:Smurfette has joined the chat:
bears can be up to 8-10+feet on average.
Ah, the North Pole. The furthest point from Polar Bear- (Dramatic Polar Bear backflip attack)
Big bastards best stay away lest they suffer double nipple twisters.
YSK bears have three pairs of nipples, better bring the sextuple twist or you'll be a bear stain
I have great bite strength and practically prehensile toes. That last nipple might be a deal breaker though.
Genius! Surely I am the match for any polar bear with this knowledge!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_gigantism
There is a great scientific reason, too! Square cube law is fun.
You did the hyperlink the wrong way around, the label should be the first part in square brackets like this: [label](link). The way you posted it tries to link to the url of this post + /Bergmann's rule.
Welp, time to up the anti on the old "man or bear" debate.
Would you rather be stuck in a frozen wasteland containing a male nazi or a polar bear?
Obviously the nazi. Why would I want to hunt down a poor polar bear u.u
Is the polar bear a Nazi tho
Oooh, now there's a twist!
That doesn't answer my question. But if the bear is a Nazi, I'd still take the bear. 🤷♀️
Honestly, can a polar bear be a nazi is a much more important question.
the bear will kill you, eat your corpse. the man will keep you alive so he can keep raping you or beating you or both for years and years. that was always the point. that was always the entire argument. death is better than torture and rape.
That's one more vote for the polar bear!
Polar bears are also pretty big.
I wish there were a graphic to depict this
Maybe some day someone will figure it out.
They're all talk though.
Says someone who's never encountered a polar bear before.
If it's white, you can win that fight.
Says someone who’s never encountered a polar bear before.
TIL I'm roughly the same height as the tallest ever the average a black bear 😁
Santa Barbara zoo?
The bear must be really big. Nobody is talking about her crab pants.
Is this at the Royal Tyrell?
They used to have some at my local zoo when I was a kid. Now knowing this, I'd like to see one in person again. Obviously to a kid they looked fucking huge, but I'd like to see one in person as an adult now knowing this. It's definitely better that my zoo decided they didn't have a big enough enclosure and stopped getting polar bears, but it kinda sucks too.
Now you learned the meaning of a "bear hug" better? 😉
It's ok, he has a contact with the girl.
That has to be an exaggeration. That or we're all thinking of different kinds of black bears. I'm assuming they can vary a lot in size based on age and other factors, but the ones I've seen in my area are definitely about the size depicted in the photo.
Also never fight back against Asiatic black bears. They will kill you.
Almost all bears will kill you under circumstances. A 200lb man is nothing against a 500 lb or more bear.
And yet some 7% of men think they can take a bear.
I’m pretty sure I could take Winnie the Pooh. That mfer would be too busy getting his head stuck in a honey pot or singing songs about Heffalumps and Woozles… He’d never see me coming.
I totally could, if I had a rocket launcher.
specifically sloth bear, since they have to fight off tigers, they are the most aggressive bear species.
From what I'm reading now, I've seen some big ones. Comparing the adults to dogs or raccoons though, to me still seems fairlly incorrect. Dogs can be really big, but a 7 foot nose to toes bear isn't super rare from what I can tell.
And if you stood a Great Dane on their hind legs, they’re tall as shit too…
Seconded. While staying in a cabin in Southern Oregon, a black bear used to stop by to fuck around in the pond. The first time I saw him, I thought he was my dog.
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We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
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Good news, Antarctica is still polar bear free ;)
save