Only 8 species of bears are extant.
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Polar bears are the largest land predators on earth, standing over 11' high and weighing over 1,700 lbs.
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The giant panda is actually a bear.
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Bears have an excellent sense of smell, better than dogs or possibly any other mammal.
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All polar bears alive today can trace their ancestry back to one female brown bear who lived in Ireland 50,000 years ago.
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A group of bears is called a sloth.
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Under their fur,
polar bears have black skin.
polar bears have black skin.
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Of the 8 species of bears, the polar bear is mostly carnivorous, the giant panda feeds almost entirely on bamboo and the remaining six species are omnivorous with varied diets.
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Human pollution has caused the average length of polar bears' penises to shrink.
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Koala bears aren't bears: They're marsupials.
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If you eat a polar bear liver, you'll die. Humans can't handle that much vitamin A.
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Polar bears can smell its prey on the ice 20 miles (32 km) away.
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Grizzly bears have a bite-force of over 8,000,000 pascals, enough to crush a bowling ball.
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The prehistoric Finns, along with most Siberian peoples, considered the bear as the spirit of one's forefathers.
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Teddy bears were named after U.S. President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt.
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The original word for "bear" has been lost. Medieval people thought that saying the ferocious animal's name would summon it, so they used a euphemism that meant "the brown one" ("bear").
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There are no polar bears in Antarctica,
only in the Arctic.
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Tigers are the only predators known to regularly prey on adult bears.
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A bear fought in the Polish Army in WW2. He carried shells to the frontline and was taught to salute.
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A grizzly bear has to eat almost 20,000 calories a day.
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Russians take guns into space to protect themselves against bears if they land off-course.
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Residents of Churchill, Canada, leave their cars unlocked to offer an escape for pedestrians who might encounter Polar Bears.
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Licence plates in the Canadian Northwest Territories are shaped like polar bears.
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Theodore Roosevelt had a pet bear while in office.
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There's a shark in Greenland that eats polar bears and can live up to 200 years.
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Male bears are called "boars" and female bears are called "sows."
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California's official state animal, the California grizzly bear, is extinct.
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The Brown bear is the national animal of Finland.
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In the 1st century AD, polar bears fought seals in Roman amphitheaters flooded with water.
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Female bears give birth during the hibernation period, and are roused when doing so.
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During hibernation, the bear's metabolism slows down, its body temperature decreases slightly, and its heart rate slows from a normal value of 55 to just 9 beats per minute.
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Bears are typically solitary animals, with the exception of courting individuals and mothers with their young.
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Polar bears can swim 60 miles (96 km) without stopping.
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Bears do not urinate while they hibernate. Their bodies convert urine into protein and use it as food.
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Bears have favorite trees and will walk for miles just to scratch their backs on them.
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