Food and Habitat
Polar bears live in the ___ pole.
North
Contrary to common belief, polar bears and penguins have never lived together. Penguins never travel above the equator and polar bears never travel below it.
Are koala bears bears?
No
Koala bears are marsupials.
What is the name of the evil bear in Disney's "Brave"?
Mordu
A subspecies of the European brown bear lived in Scotland up until the tenth century, when it went extinct due to excessive hunting and habitat loss.
Smokey the bear is an icon that serves as the ____ ____ prevention program.
Forest fire
Smokey the bear was an actual bear cub rescued in New Mexico, 1950. He was badly burned in the Lincoln National Forest fire.
What color is polar bear fur?
Clear/colorless
Polar bear skin is black, and their fur is clear. When sunlight enters the small tubules inside each fur strand, the light is reflected, causing it to appear white.
Are Panda bears carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores?
Omnivores
All bears are omnivores. Panda bears rarely eat meat. Their diet is 99% bamboo, and they can eat up to 12 hours a day. They are also the only bear with thumb-like appendages, which are used to help them grasp the bamboo while they eat.
What species of bear are you most likely to encounter in Idaho?
American Black bear.
Bears only attack if they feel significantly threatened or see you as a prey item. If attacked by a black bear and cannot escape, do NOT play dead! Fight back. Make yourself as large as possible and hit the muzzle or face.
What year did the Disney movie "Brother Bear" come out?
2003
*I hope you all enjoy it tonight!
Where were Gummy Bears invented?
Germany
"Gummibären (gummy bears) are a German invention! They were first created by Hans Riegel all the way back in 1922." -UKgermanconnection.org
What are the scientific names of the constellations big dipper and little dipper?
Ursa major and Ursa minor.
These mean "big bear" and "little bear." Both ancient Greek and Native American myths describe the constellations as bears, not ladels.
Which bear species lives in South America?
Andean/Spectacled bear
Similar to panda bears, Andean bears are vegetarian. (They are omnivores, but eat mostly plants when given the choice.) They are excellent climbers and make large nests in trees.
What bear species has the longest tongue?
Sun bear
The sun bear is the smallest and rarest bear species. It is one-tenth the size of a grizzly bear, and only live on the islands of Borneo and Malaysia. A sun bears tongue can extend 8-10 inches, which is used to feed on honey and insects.
Baloo, from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is what species of bear?
Sloth bear
Sloth bears live in India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Visit the Idaho Falls zoo this spring to see their two resident sloth bears Priya and Jagger!
Staley
Named after this professional football team's founder A.E. Staley. The last time the Chicago Bears won the superbowl was in 1986.
True.
Polar, Panda, and other bear species do not hibernate.
During what months does the salmon run take place?
May through October, although peak season in Alaska is during mid-summer.
The Katmai National Park in Alaska is renowned for the great Salmon run, where brown and grizzly bears will congregate to hunt and eat spawning salmon.
Name all 8 naturally-occurring, living species of bear
Andean/Spectacled, Sun, Sloth, Giant Panda, Polar, Brown, American black, and Asiatic black.
There are 16 subspecies of brown bear (including grizzly bears, European brown bears, etc.) and 23 subspecies between the two species of black bear.
The "Grolar bear" is not a common enough naturally occurring bear to be considered a species yet.
In fairytale "East of the Sun & West of the Moon," a young girl is carried on the back of what type of bear?
Polar
In this Norwegian fairytale, a prince is cursed by a troll to live as a polar bear until a maiden can sleep in the same bed as him every night without seeing his face for one year. If she looks, he is cursed to marry a foul troll princess. If she is patient, his curse will be broken. What do you think happened?
The Traverse City Beach Bums were a professional baseball team based in the Traverse City, Michigan from 2006-2018. What were the names of their two bear mascots?
Suntan and Sunburn
Name two things you should NOT do if you encounter a bear.
Run, climb a tree, scream, or drop your pack.
Remain calm. Talk to the bear. A voice identifies you as not-prey, unless you scream or whimper. Do not run. Bears can run both uphill and downhill at the same speed as a horse. Do not climb a tree. Both black bears and grizzlies can climb. Do not drop your pack, as it may provide protection on your back and giving it food may inspire it to follow another human later.
Bears have the second best smell of any animal on earth. (2100x greater than humans.) Which animal is number one?
Elephants
Third place: blood hounds/dogs.
Fourth place: sharks
What was the only bear found in Africa, and when did it go extinct?
The Atlas bear; ~1870's
The Atlas bear was the only known bear in recent African history. Not much is known about them because they were hunted to extinction. It lived in the northern mountain range in Africa from Morocco to Libya. The Roman Empire is thought to have begun hunting and exporting these bears for their gladiatorial games around 146 BC.
Name three of the 10 original Care Bears
Bedtime Bear, Birthday Bear, Cheer Bear, Friend Bear, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Tenderheart Bear, and Wish Bear.
Elena Kucharik first painted the colorful care bears as greeting cards in 1981 before they became plush toys and cartoon characters later in the 80's.
What country is Winnie the Pooh from?
Canada
Winnie (short for Winnipeg, Canada) was a small bear cub purchased by a Canadian soldier named Harry Colebourn before WWI. She (yes, Winnie is a girl!) traveled to Europe with him and became the mascot of his troop. When he was deployed to France, Winnie was forbidden from going with him. She was temporarily housed at the London Zoo, where she was visited often by a little boy named Christopher Robin. Christopher named his teddy bear after her, which is who his father, A.A. Milne, wrote the cartoon about Winnie the Pooh in 1926.
What does the word "bear" mean?
"Brown One"
Bera - Old English
Bruin - Dutch
Bero - Proto-Germanic, an ancient language spoken by a group of tribes in northern Europe from about 500 B.C.E.
The original word for bear is virtually unknown because bears were so feared by early Europeans that their original name became taboo. In other words, bears were the "Voldemort" of the Iron Age.