Page 19 - World of Animals - Issue #36

30 amazing facts about bears

They have

super senses

Imagine being able to smell a cheeseburger 32
kilometres (20 miles) away - that is the distance
at which a polar bear can smell its prey across
the ice. Bears have a sense of smell that is 2,100
times greater than ours. They are even able to
sense and follow a human’s scent 14 hours after
they have passed by. Their sense of smell is so
powerful they outperform bloodhounds – dogs

specifically bred for their nose.
Alongside their super sense of smell, they
also have pretty good eyesight. To enhance
their night vision, bears have a layer at the back
of their eyes called the tapetum lucidum, which

reflects light into the back of the eye so they
can see to forage and hunt. This layer is what
gives bears the ‘cat’s-eye’ shine in the dark.
Studies with polar bears, black bears and panda
bears also indicate that they have vision as
acute as ours during the day and can even see
in colour, just like us.

The tapetum lucidum is
Lens
Retina what makes bears’ eyes
Iris appear green in the dark

when light reflects from
Pupil the back of the eye.
Tapetum lucidum
Chorcid
Reflected

light
Cornea

Grizzly bears Bears steer clear of tigers
eat 20,000 The only predator of adult bears is the tiger. The biggest of the big
calories a day cats is known to hunt brown bears, sloth bears and sun bears.
Most other predators are wise enough not to challenge a fully
Big animals come with big grown bear, so they will go for the cubs instead, but the tiger
appetites. To survive, a grizzly makes for a formidable opponent. To keep safe, mother bears will
bear has to eat 20,000 calories a keep their young on their backs for around nine months, rather
day. In a more human context, this than leaving cubs unattended in trees (as is the strategy for bears
equates to around 20 full English in tiger-less forests).
breakfasts every day. Bears mostly In other parts of the world, where tigers aren’t present, bears
live on a diet of nuts, berries, are le to roam freely without fear. Polar bears have no predators

carrion and some fish when they
carrion and some fi sh when they = 1000 on the ice. Meanwhile the gentle panda bear may look cute, but it is

can find it. These foods are all extremely powerful and would have no trouble fighting off a snow

much lower in calories than our
much lower in calories than our kcals leopard, so they usually don’t try unless they catch a glimpse of an
greasy breakfasts, so the search
greasy breakfasts, so the search 20 of these is one e unattended cub.
e
s
h
f
t
o
n
s
e
i
o
2
0
for their next snack never ends. day’s calories
day’s calories
Spectacled bears Baloo was a Male bears are Teddy bears were
are prized for their sloth bear called boars and nicknamed after
gall bladders The laid-back singing and dancing female bears are US president
They are hunted throughout South bear from Disney’s The Jungle Book called sows Roosevelt
America for the illegal wildlife trade was a sloth bear. Although Baloo

and their gall bladders, which are used doesn’t look much like a sloth bear Although they share these terms with The association began a€er a hunting
pigs, it is a misconception that they
in traditional Asian medicines. They can with his grey fur, it is the only bear are related. Bears are no more related trip in 1902, when he refused to shoot
a bear that had been tied to a tree. He
species found living in the jungles
be sold for as much as US$150 each.
of India. to pigs than humans are. called it ‘unsportsmanlike’.
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