bear
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The polar bear ranges over the coasts and ice floes of the Arctic Ocean, to the southern limit of the ice. It is a swift runner, outpacing a reindeer over short distances; it is also an excellent swimmer. Its main prey are seals, fish, birds, hares, reindeer, and musk oxen; in summer it also eats berries and leaves.
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The brown bear Ursus arctos was once common throughout Europe, but is now found only in Scandinavia and the Pyrenees. In North America (this one was photographed in British Columbia, Canada) it is common in the national parks. It has a thick shaggy coat, varying in colour from blackish-brown to grey, and lives mainly on fish, fruit, roots, honey, and carrion.
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The polar bear ranges over the coasts and ice floes of the Arctic Ocean, to the southern limits of the ice. It is a swift runner, able to outpace a reindeer over short distances, and an excellent swimmer. It eats seals, fish, birds, hares, reindeer, and musk ox, and in summer also eats berries and leaves. It has a good sense of smell and better eyesight than most bears.
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Grizzly bears Ursus arctos will hunt for fish in rivers or lakes. Their diet may include fruit, nuts, and roots, as well as insects, fish, and small vertebrates. Grizzly bears can grow up to 2.5 m/8.3 ft in length. They have no tail.
Large mammal with a heavily built body, short powerful limbs, and a very short tail. Bears breed once a year, producing one to four cubs. In northern regions they hibernate, and the young are born in the winter den. They are found mainly in North America and northern Asia. Bears walk on the soles of the feet and have long, nonretractable claws. The bear family, Ursidae, is related to carnivores such as dogs and weasels, and all bears are capable of killing prey.
Species
There are seven species of bear. The brown bear Ursus arctos formerly ranged across most of Europe, northern Asia, and North America, but is now reduced in number. It varies in size from under 2 m/7 ft long in parts of the Old World to 2.8 m/9 ft long and 780 kg/1,700 lb in Alaska. The grizzly bear is a North American variety of this species, and another subspecies, the Kodiak bear of Alaska, is the largest living land carnivore. The white-furred polar bear Thalarctos maritimus is up to 2.5 m/8 ft long, has furry undersides to the feet, and feeds mainly on seals. Its skin is black to conserve 80–90% of the solar energy trapped and channelled down the hollow hairs of its fur. It is found in the north polar region. The North American black bear Euarctos americanus and the Asian black bear Selenarctos thibetanus are smaller, only about 1.6 m/5 ft long. The latter has a white V-mark on its chest. The spectacled bear Tremarctos ornatus of the Andes is similarly sized, as is the sloth bear Melursus ursinus of India and Sri Lanka, which has a shaggy coat and uses its claws and protrusile lips to obtain termites, one of its preferred foods. The smallest bear is the Malaysian sun bear Helarctos malayanus, rarely more than 1.2 m/4 ft long, a good climber, whose favourite food is honey.Threat of extinction
Of the seven species of bear, five are reckoned to be endangered and all apart from the polar bear and the American black bear are in decline. In April 2001, there were estimated to be fewer than 1,000 grizzly bears in the wild. The population of brown bears in the Pyrenees was estimated at eight in 1994. Despite the intoduction of two female bears in 1996, the bear population in the Pyrenees had declined to six by 1998.| In June 2001, President George W Bush's administration decided to abandon plans to reintroduce grizzly bears into a large wilderness area on the Idaho–Montana border after the state of Idaho objected. President Bill Clinton's administration had aimed to reintroduce 25 bears into the 1.2 million acre region over a five-year period. The grizzly has been listed as an endangered species since 1975, and occupies only 2% of its original territory. |
| In 1992, American black bears were upgraded to Appendix 2 of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to stem the illegal trade in their gall bladders, which are used in Asian traditional medicine to treat liver disease. The gall bladders contain an active substance, ursodiol, which is tapped through surgically-implanted tubes. Although an inexpensive synthetic version of ursodiol is available, in 1995 there were at least 10,000 bears being kept in farms in China for their gall bladders, for which many people still prefer to pay thousands of dollars. |
bear
In business, a financial trader who believes the market is going to fall. Such negative sentiments are said to be bearish. A bear is the opposite of a bull. In a bear market, prices fall and bears prosper.
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