Please excuse my sad attempt at a quirky pun for the title of today’s post. Bear puns aren’t exactly the most common thing, so it was a little tricky trying to make a play on words about these majestic beasts.
Bears scare the absolute shit out of me, and they always have. I’ve been scared of bears since I was a child, and while my understanding of these animals has broadened a bit since I was in diapers, I still find them absolutely terrifying; incredible, but terrifying.
I thought I would dedicate a post to bears to spread some knowledge and educate anyone who wishes to learn more about them, and this information comes from nationalgeographic.com.
“Bears are mammals that belong to the family Ursidae. They can be as small as four feet long and about 60 pounds (the sun bear) to as big as eight feet long and more than a thousand pounds (the polar bear). They’re found throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
They have nonretractable claws, short tails, and excellent sense of smell. They’re typically solitary, except for mothers with cubs. There are eight species: Asiatic black bears (also called moon bears), brown bears (which include grizzly bears), giant pandas, North American black bears, polar bears, sloth bears, spectacled bears (also called Andean bears), and sun bears.
On average, bears can live up to 25 years in the wild and 50 in captivity. Six species, including the polar bear and the giant panda, are included on the IUCN Red List as threatened or vulnerable.
During winter, when food is scarce, most bears have an effective survival solution: hibernation, a physical state in which the heart rate, body temperature, metabolism, and respiration is lowered. Grizzly and black bears can go for 100 days or so without eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating. They live off a layer of fat that they build up during the summer and fall.
Female bears rouse during hibernation in their dens to give birth to up to four cubs. Giant pandas, which do not hibernate, usually give birth to just one cub. After a couple of months, the cubs are strong enough to totter out after their mother—except for sloth bear cubs, which hitch a ride on their mother’s back,” the web page explains.
Check back tomorrow to learn more about these scary critters.
ontheedgeofeverything 
