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…
Good news, Antarctica is still polar bear free ;)
That is what the name means, afterall.
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”.
Named the same way the french name their numbers past 70
Depending where you live in France.
You got some places that uses numbers like “nonante”, which is basically the same system as English.
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?
😉
Is this question a furry thing?
Verry.
Well then I think it would be too much for me to bear…
Eh? Eh?
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.”
There were bears all over Europe. They were a huge part of Greek and Roman mythology. They didn’t know anything about polar bears at the time.
Bears have been important in many cultures, and Ursa Major is depicted as a bear in many non-Greek cultures as well, going back to prehistory.
Many North American indigenous tribes depict it as a bear, long before European contact. Same with pre-Islamic Arabian cultures.
It was named because the constellation looks like a bear, not because it pointed to where bears were. Even Native Americans called that constellation a bear, and they had bears south of them.
I’d rather the bear than Shoggoths, Elder Things, or possibly a Great Old One!
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 knew it! Seeing them in a Zoo many years back I got the impression they were pretty big but not THAT massive.
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.
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If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s white, say good night.
Yeah, if one ever gets that unlucky you just have to hope they make it quick.
polar bears: “i just love kidding”
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.
The “say” makes it three syllables while the others are two so it doesn’t flow
“if it’s white, good night” flows better and it’s more to the point since it’s shorter anyway
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
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 the place opposite /ursa major/ (the great bear constellation, in the northern sky.) The name has nothing to do with actual bears (that’s just good luck.)
It’s more of a translation-based mnemonic device, really
You fell for the bait.
But I learned so it’s fine
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.
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 goodnightThere’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’re finally awake !
you gotta nail the timing or else your shouryuu reppa misses
There’s gonna be a fatality one way or another, but probably one way in particular
Seems sound
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.
Why not? You’d be safe from polar bears there!
But not from those pesky penguins
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 think the sizes shown are probably biggest specimen. Black bears can get pretty big, but I’ve never encountered one that was taller than me.
Nah. I’ve seen larger women.
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.
The first black bear I ever saw in the wild was this beefy boi. Fucker was huge. Didn’t see him on his hind legs, but I would imagine he was close to 6’ if he did stand on them.
I’ve seen black bears. that’s a huge fucking black bear.
normally they could be mistaken for a really big raccoon in the dark. smaller than a Dane/mastiff in height
OK so TIL black bears are way smaller than I thought. But “really big raccoon”? That’s got to be an exaggeration… right?
Yes. Barely true for a cub.
Bearly, you might say.
Haha nice
guys pls stop downvoting this comment, it made me feel good to see it in my inbox, i dont want people to feel afraid to give one or two word nice comments.
You are noticing a very weird phenomenon that’s been ongoing for about a month now. I’m the target of 3-4 bots that downvote most things I comment. It’s a very weird thing someone is doing and the instance admins who could stop it have ignored me so far.
did you say something bad about russia/china/iran/israel?
No, they aren’t a “really big raccon”.
The small end is 60kg(130lbs), with the upper end being 300kg(600lbs).
Height 120cm to 188cm ~4 to 6 foot tall. (Standing on hind legs)
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.
This would only be accurate for a cub. Why are you saying it with such confidence?
maybe all the ones I’ve seen are cubs, fair point… i don’t live in the woods
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.
All the ones I’ve seen have been at a distance and usually in shadows so my judgment may be off, I suspect there might be regional differences in how large they get too
Yeah I was wondering about regional differences. Maybe they’re particularly big around here.
You must have some giant-ass raccoons
I was exaggerating but the bears I’ve seen were I would guess 4 feet standing up
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.
guess I’m never going to Arctic
Antarctica!FTFY.
Sorry it’s the inner nerd in me!
