Wednesday: 25 Facts About Bears

Hey readers, sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. Poetry is easy to write, but also easy to forget to write. So, here are 25 facts about bears!

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1. The easiest way to tell the age of a bear is to count the rings in a cross section of its tooth under a microscope.

2. Only the polar bear is a true carnivore. All other bears are omnivores.

3. Sun bears' tongues can be up to 10" long.

4. Koala bears are not bears; they are marsupials (like kangaroos, only less hoppy).

5. Unlike many mammals, bears can see in color.

6. A polar bear's stomach can hold up to 150 lbs. (68 kg) of meat.

7. A polar bear can swim up to 100 miles without resting.

8. In 2004, a black bear was found unconscious in a campground in Seattle. It had broken into a cooler and used its claws and teeth to open dozens of beer cans. After sampling other beers, it chose to drink all the cans of only one beer. After the drinking, it passed out.

9. The polar bear is the largest bear species, ranging in size up to 10 feet long weighing up to 1500 pounds. Female polar bears are about half the size of the males.

10. For a long time, scientists thought that the giant panda was not actually a bear but a relative of the raccoon. DNA evidence, however, proved otherwise. The red panda, however, is in the same family as weasels, and not very related to the giant panda.

11. Spectacled bears are the only wild bears that live in South America.

12. Bears do not live in Africa, Australia, or Antarctica; they have never lived in the latter two, but bear fossils have been found in Africa. It is unclear why bears do not live in Africa today.

13. Bears have nonretractable claws, like dogs.

14. Sloth bears are the only bears that are more active at night.

15. All bears except the panda walk flat-footed rather than on their toes.

16. Only about 1,000 giant pandas live in the wild today.

17. Baloo from The Jungle Book is a sloth bear.

18. Giant pandas can see well both in darkness and in light.

19. Black bears are not just black; the colors of their fur can vary, ranging from black, brown, and even cinnamon red, to blonde and white.

20. Black bears are the most common bears in North America.

21. 98% of the famed grizzly bear's population lives in Alaska.

22. The world's most common bear is the brown bear.

23. A swimming polar bear can jump eight feet out of water to attack a seal.

24. Polar bears are the world's largest land carnivore. They are gigantic and amazing creatures.

25. Bears are extremely smart. They have been known to roll rocks into bear traps to set them off so that they can eat the bait in safety.

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So there you go! I hope you learned something about bears! Tomorrow is poetry, Friday a cat monologue, and Saturday my next short story! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to give suggestions for what I should do next Mad Monday.

-JW