Bears

There are many types of bear, of the family Ursidae, including brown bears, polar bears and pandas; there are also koala bears, which are no relation to the family Ursidae, and an American football team. The word bear is believed to derive from the Proto-Indo-European word for ‘brown’ – Proto-Indian-European appears to be a made-up language, which I knew about because my niece is studying linguistics. Ursidae bears are found in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Koalas are native species of Australia. The American football team is only in Chicago, North America. The Latin word for bear is Ursa – and most will recognise this term from the constellations Ursa Major (the great bear) and Ursa Minor (the lesser bear). It’s unclear why Ptolemy considered the star formations to be bear like. These days Ursa Major is also likely to be referred to as ‘the saucepan’, or ‘the big dipper’ – neither of these relate to bears at all. Bears are omnivores, although polar bears eat only meat (seals) and pandas eat only vegetation (bamboo). They hibernate during winter months, using fat built up over the summer to survive. This is like tortoises, but bears are much bigger, have carnivorous teeth and fur, and tortoises don’t. The polar bear is the largest extant bear species, and also the largest extant predatory carnivore. Bears are most at risk from loss of their natural habitat and being caught by humans. It is also humans that destroy bears habitats, by building housing, logging, climate change causing polar ice melt, and the use of their body parts for use in Chinese medicine. In Ancient Rome, throughout the middle ages and still today, bears have been taken captive and taught to dance for the entertainment of the crowd. This was not seen as cruel, but clearly is. Bears are also commonly found in zoos, invariably in areas that are too small to allow them to live a natural life. However, in some cases this is to ensure preservation of the species. Bears have been revered through their connections to gods and goddesses, for their power and strength, also for their motherhood qualities and healing abilities. Artemis, Greek god of hunting, so respected the bear that if one was killed he would lay a plague on the people as a punishment. He also changed Callisto into a bear when she was found to be having relations with other men. The Greeks believed that Ursa Major and Ursa Minor were remnants of Callisto and her son, placed in the sky by Zeus. There were bear goddesses throughout Scandinavian, Germanic and Celtic culture. Bears have been inspiration for a range of cuddly toys, Paddington and Rupert being notable examples. These bears with personalities have derived from the generic teddy bear; the Steiff bear being acknowledged as the best toy bear – the most expensive Steiff bear, the ‘Louis Vuitton Bear’ sold at auction for £1,774,135 for charity. Clearly bears are still revered in today’s society – just that they’re stuffed. 500 words 07.09.2020