Talk:Polar bear
From Academic Kids
Some facts I'm planning to massage into this article:
- polar bears feet are turned inwards. this gives them better traction when walking on slick ice
- polar bears are the most recent (100,000 years ago) species to begin adapting to aquatic life. The first mammal to adapt to aquatic life is the ancestor of all the whales and dolphins. The next adaptation was the seals and walruses, then the otters and their ilk.
- polar bears are most closely related to brown bears. crossbreeding results in fertile offspring. (add also to brown bear)
- UtherSRG 17:19, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)
I've also heard somewhere that polar bears are the only animals except humans that kill for fun/sport. Can anyone verify that? --Aramgutang 02:46, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- I've heard the same thing about various dolphin species, so though few animals seem to do this, saying "only" is overstating the case. Pcb21| Pete 11:02, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
- Sorry, not true: ever watch a housecat play with a mouse? I recently read David Brin's "Earth", in which he quotes somebody, to the effect: "It's foolish to believe the lie that only humans kill for fun." (It's near the end, I think.) I believe he also gives a few examples (including the cat/mouse one). If somebody is more familiar with the book or the quote, please help... --anon
Albinos?
I've been thinking of weird questions lately and I've wondered if there is such thing as an albino Polar Bear? Could somone please verify this for me? Greyhead 15:21, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)
- Googling seems to indicate that while there's probably no reason a polar bear can't be albino (http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/feb2002/1013115511.Ge.r.html) - after all, they certainly do have melanin, which is coded for by genes that are just as susceptible to mutation as other genes - no albino polar bears are known to either exist or have existed. Why not? There just aren't, that's all; perhaps they've got melanin-coding genes on multiple alleles and even if one is defective in an albinism-causing fashion, the others compensate for it? Or maybe it's some other reason. There's only ever been one albino gorilla known, after all. Why? Who knows. DS 13:37, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Surreal Edits
In their spare time they do fun stuff. They slide on their bellies, box with eachother, dunk eachother, and more. When the female makes her den she makes it on a hillside so her cubs can slide down the hill on their bottomes.
I can't confirm or deny this but it seems a bit unlikely? The cubs do seem to 'play' in this way. I strongly doubt that the location of the den is decided in this fashion though. Does anyone have any data for this? akaDruid 15:01, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Weasels?
I had the impression from somewhere that polar bears aren't actually "bears" - that is, although morphologically they certainly look like bears, immunogenetic and/or skeletal analysis showed that they're far more closely related to weasels than they are to other bears. Does anyone know anything about this? DS 13:37, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)
