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!
Cave bears used to make polar bears look small.
The bear must be really big. Nobody is talking about her crab pants.
Polar bears are also pretty big.
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.
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
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.)
yeah if you put bears on antarctica they mutually annihilate
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.
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.
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
Seems sound
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.
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.
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…
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I find it offensive that no one here has mentioned Rachel.
Fucking brilliant pull
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.
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.
Good news, Antarctica is still polar bear free ;)
That is what the name means, afterall.
Why are people downvoting this?
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).
Ursa Major is a helpful navigational constellation due to containing the North Star.
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.”
because it’s not directly true, Antarctica means “land opposite the place below the bear-shaped constellations”, not “land without bears”.
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?
Reality is often “controversial” these days.
Sometimes downright unbearable
I’d rather the bear than Shoggoths, Elder Things, or possibly a Great Old One!
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”
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
TIL I’m roughly the same height as
the tallest everthe averagea black bear 😁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 will say, those bears represent the upper end of the ‘weight ranges’ for those 3 species. Average sizes would be a bit less.
Theyre pretty much the very top of the food chain. They say there are multiple apexes because of different environments but id bet on a polar bear over a tiger or lion probably. Idk if its an accurate assesment tho.
Imo, the ladder goes:
Rest of the terrestrial animal kingdom < Bengal Tigers < Polar Bears < Hippos < Rhinos < Elephants < Honey Badger.
That’s as far as the ratio of animal capability to fuck something up divided by willingness to kick something else’s ass goes.
I actually think the Tiger and the Polar Bear are fairly close in terms of power and lethality, and it would all come down to whether the Tiger had the opportunity to stalk, which it probably would avoid doing anyways to something the size of a Polar Bear.
I still do not know where Honey Badger rightfully belongs on Earth’s tourney ladders, so I rather err on the side of caution there in case one reads this.
I just assume Honey Badgers have earned the top rung. Seems safer to let them know we don’t intend to fuck with them.
They fight to win. They use weapons beyond brute strength. They’re clever.
You forgot the crocodile 🐊
