Not all bears live in caves

[Jamie123]

I learned this interesting fact during our department meeting this morning. While all the blah blah blah was going on, I found myself wondering where bears live. Do they really live in caves like Yogi and Boo Boo? 

Well the great thing about having a smartphone is that you can use it to resolve urgent issues like where bears live, while everyone else thinks you're answering important e- mails.

The answer is that some bears do and some don't. The place a bear hibernates is called a "den" and while some dens are caves, others can be hollow trees, or even abandoned buildings. Also a bear does not live in his den during the summer - he only sleeps there during the winter months.

Edited February 12 by Jamie123

[zil2]

But did you determine whether all bear dens are furnished with table and chairs?

[Jamie123]

37 minutes ago, zil2 said:

But did you determine whether all bear dens are furnished with table and chairs?

Well of course they are! They have TVs and refrigerators too, and they all disappear into the walls whenever the bears don't want them to be seen!

[zil2]

30 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Well of course they are! They have TVs and refrigerators too, and they all disappear into the walls whenever the bears don't want them to be seen!

Hibernation makes so much more sense now!  Thank you!

[Jamie123]

1 hour ago, zil2 said:

Hibernation makes so much more sense now!  Thank you!

I've been thinking all afternoon about the trope of bears living in caves. I've probably missed a few, but here's my taxonomy of bears and caves:

Bears who lived in caves:

• Yogi and Boo Boo
• The Hair Bear Bunch
• "The Three Bears" from The Beano comic. These are not to be confused with Goldillocks' three bears, who were essentially the victims of Goldilocks' house-breaking, furniture destruction and porridge thievery. The Three Bears of The Beano were scheming, gluttonous and lazy. Nearly every storyline concerned their attempts to rob the local storekeeper Hank of his wares, and ending up getting their furry backsides blasted with buckshoot.

Bears who sort-of lived in caves:

• Winnie-the-Pooh. His "cave" was more of a hollow under a tree. He lived "under the name of Saunders", meaning that he had the sign "Mr. Saunders" fixed above his door and he lived underneath. This detail was lovingly preserved in the Walt Disney versions, though Disney did take diabolical liberties elsewhere. (Disney's "Rabbit" for example was nothing remotely like Milne's original Rabbit.)
• Mary Plain in the books by Gwynedd Rae . Very few people nowadays remember Mary Plain. I only know about her because my mother used to read me the stories when I was little, she having kept the books from when she was a little girl. Mary and her fellow bears lived in the "Bear Pits" in Bern, Switzerland, which I suppose must have included some artificial simulation of caves. Although Mary was definitely a bear, she had human intelligence and she could read and (somewhat) write. Her best friend was the "Owl Man".
• The "Bulgy Bears" in the Narnia books. Their home (or "den") wasn't so much a cave as a tree-stump.

Bears who don't live in caves:

• Paddington. He lived in a house with the Brown family, though maybe his original home in Darkest Peru was a cave. Who knows?
• Rupert Bear. He lived in a house. There again, he was not so much a bear, as a boy with a bear's head. (Old joke: "Who's white and wears check trousers? Rupert the Fridge.)

• The Berenstain Bears. They lived in a tree of all places. I suppose pandas climb trees, and the panda is a kind of bear. But the Berenstain bears were decidedly NOT pandas*.

*Neither were they koalas. The koala is not a true bear anyway but a marsupial. Yes, I know Sheldon tells Amy how much he loves "koala bears" but shame on the writers for that. No one as OCD as Sheldon Cooper would have made such a mistake as that.

Edited February 12 by Jamie123

[NeuroTypical]

There's a bear or three within 10 miles of my house.  I hear about them once every few years, loping across the street from one garbage can to another.  They seem nice enough. 

Also, Milne's Winnie The Poo fell out of copyright protection the other year, giving rise all sorts of money grab rebrands, including a horror film.

 

[Jamie123]

1 hour ago, NeuroTypical said:

Also, Milne's Winnie The Poo[h] fell out of copyright protection the other year, giving rise all sorts of money grab rebrands, including a horror film.

Really? "Attack of the Zombie Flesh-Eating Pooh"? That's just not right.

P.S. Is this what you're referring to?

Edited February 12 by Jamie123

[Ironhold]

3 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

There's a bear or three within 10 miles of my house.  I hear about them once every few years, loping across the street from one garbage can to another.  They seem nice enough. 

Also, Milne's Winnie The Poo fell out of copyright protection the other year, giving rise all sorts of money grab rebrands, including a horror film.

 

Not entirely.

Only the first two books are in the public domain; the rest are still under copyright, and Disney's original characters (et al) are still protected for a while yet. 

[mikbone]

 

[Vort]

11 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

The Berenstain Bears. They lived in a tree of all places. I suppose pandas climb trees, and the panda is a kind of bear. But the Berenstain bears were decidedly NOT pandas*.

Can bears climb trees? Let's find out!

 

I'm gonna say yes.

[Jamie123]

2 hours ago, Vort said:

Can bears climb trees? Let's find out!

 

I'm gonna say yes.

OK all bears can climb. I've learned something else!

[NeuroTypical]

17 hours ago, Ironhold said:

Only the first two books are in the public domain; the rest are still under copyright, and Disney's original characters (et al) are still protected for a while yet. 

Yes, well, I'd warrant the fear of Disney lawyers is low on this topic.  It ain't stopping anyone from cashing in.   I got this for Christmas last year:

 

[JohnsonJones]

20 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

Really? "Attack of the Zombie Flesh-Eating Pooh"? That's just not right.

P.S. Is this what you're referring to?

 

Hmmm.  Sometimes, just because you CAN DO A THING, does not mean you SHOULD DO A THING.

[Jamie123]

20 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

Hmmm.  Sometimes, just because you CAN DO A THING, does not mean you SHOULD DO A THING.

 

[Still_Small_Voice]

The Berenstain Bears lived in a tree.  Papa Bear was an idiot and Mama bear was the sensible one. 

King of the Hill was one of the few television shows where the Dad was not idiot.

[Jamie123]

On 2/18/2024 at 3:54 AM, Still_Small_Voice said:

The Berenstain Bears lived in a tree.  Papa Bear was an idiot and Mama bear was the sensible one. 

King of the Hill was one of the few television shows where the Dad was not idiot.

"Sensible mum, stupid dad" is a bit of a trope. There was The Flintstones, Berenstain Bears, the Simpsons right through to Family Guy. You're right - Hank and Peggy Hill were an exception - though some of Hank's friends were a bit on the stupid side. Especially Dale, who for all his subtle conspiracy theories, never saw what was obvious to everyone else (except for a while Peggy).

[NeuroTypical]

In the Barbie movie, the dad was reduced down to the guy who did some of the driving, and did Duolingo so he could better bond with his hispanic wife and her daughter.  He meant well.  

Edited February 19 by NeuroTypical

[Ironhold]

1 hour ago, Jamie123 said:

"Sensible mum, stupid dad" is a bit of a trope. There was The Flintstones, Berenstain Bears, the Simpsons right through to Family Guy. You're right - Hank and Peggy Hill were an exception - though some of Hank's friends were a bit on the stupid side. Especially Dale, who for all his subtle conspiracy theories, never saw what was obvious to everyone else (except for a while Peggy).

There's a fan theory that Dale knew *something* was going on but had ulterior motives for not saying anything. 

It's like how the final episode showed that Boomhauer was law enforcement in spite of his participating in the group's various misadventures, leading to a lot of fan theories about just what he was doing. 

 

edit - 

Also, Flintstones = Honeymooners, just like Jetsons = Dagwood & Blondie. Hanna-Barbera was *not* subtle about who and what they ripped off. 

Edited February 19 by Ironhold

[Jamie123]

1 hour ago, Ironhold said:

Also, Flintstones = Honeymooners, just like Jetsons = Dagwood & Blondie. Hanna-Barbera was *not* subtle about who and what they ripped off. 

Very true. Also Top Cat = Sgt. Bilko (or The Phil Silvers Show to use its proper name.)

[Jamie123]

On 2/13/2024 at 5:56 AM, Vort said:

Can bears climb trees? Let's find out!

 

I'm gonna say yes.

Come to think about it, bears must be able to climb trees, otherwise how would they get to the bees' nests?

Right now though I'm dealing with another issue: namely can hermaphrodites make themselves pregnant? It seems some species can, but its never been reported in humans. But does that mean it couldn't happen?

Edited February 21 by Jamie123

[JohnsonJones]

3 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

Come to think about it, bears must be able to climb trees, otherwise how would they get to the bees' nests?

Right now though I'm dealing with another issue: namely can hermaphrodites make themselves pregnant? It seems some species can, but its never been reported in humans. But does that mean it couldn't happen?

Not a doctor, so obviously this is NOT from a medical perspective or a professional's perspective on the matter.

Regarding Humans...

From my little understanding, in THEORY it is possible.  It has never happened.

If one was born with a FULL set of Gonads and the chemical makeup was just right...it MAY be possible.  There may need to be some medical work to make it possible (IVF).

Normally only one full set of gonads are there with another incomplete set.  Even then, with a complete set the estrogen or testosterone being produced could be too much for a chemical balance of the individual for a fertilized cell to survive. 

So, in theory...possible.  In reality...has not happened (that we know of) yet, and hasn't seemed viable in those we know of. 

Even if it is possible, the question is if it doesn't occur naturally (needs medical intervention to occur), should we allow such a thing.  We already have laws against incest for a reason.  This would probably be several times worse than incest in regards to a genetic result and their medical difficulties. 

[Jamie123]

I may not know much about bears, but one thing I have learned from the good people of Maine: you do not interfere with a mother bear's cubs, unless you want your bodily appendages seriously rearranged.

So what was Walt Disney thinking of with the bear scene from Pocahontas? John Smith is about to shoot the bear, but Pocahontas stops him and leads him into the bears' den. There she picks up one of the cubs and hands it to Smith. The cub playfully pulls Smith's helmet down over his eyes. Meanwhile mummy bear is standing peacefully by, not ripping anyone's arms and legs off.

The moral is, if you want to know what to do when you meet a bear, don't ask Mr Disney.

 

Edited February 26 by Jamie123

[Vort]

On 2/26/2024 at 3:53 AM, Jamie123 said:

The moral is, if you want to know what to do when you meet a bear, don't ask Mr Disney.

Or Pocahontas.

[JohnsonJones]

On 2/26/2024 at 4:53 AM, Jamie123 said:

I may not know much about bears, but one thing I have learned from the good people of Maine: you do not interfere with a mother bear's cubs, unless you want your bodily appendages seriously rearranged.

So what was Walt Disney thinking of with the bear scene from Pocahontas? John Smith is about to shoot the bear, but Pocahontas stops him and leads him into the bears' den. There she picks up one of the cubs and hands it to Smith. The cub playfully pulls Smith's helmet down over his eyes. Meanwhile mummy bear is standing peacefully by, not ripping anyone's arms and legs off.

The moral is, if you want to know what to do when you meet a bear, don't ask Mr Disney.

 

Well, Pocahontas was very special in Disney's version...she somehow talked to all the plants and trees and such.  She probably had some tranquilizer dart effect with her voice which paralyzed MaMa bear there or something.  Either that or those shrooms she had were pretty strong to affect both her and John Smith at the same time.