The Coolest Things About Bears

Bears have always been my favorite animal for no good reason (the main influence was probably the stuffed polar bear I was given as a 2 year old). Regardless of its source, the more I learn about bears, the more they fascinate me, and now I love bears because of what cool animals they are!

One unrelated fact about bears: they're one of the only other groups of animals (aside from humans) that walk "plantigrade", which means they use their whole foot. If you look at the underlying bone structures of most mammals, they're essentially walking on their toes, including dogs and cats. But bears walk on the whole foot, and as a result, their whole leg structure is very similar to humans; this is what gives them such a humanoid appearance as they sit and play.

 

Bears are usually studied for their physiology; the fact that they can essentially "sleep" for the half the year during hibernation is a fascinating ability, and if completely understood, could help us develop medical new interventions.

 

But bears aren't just hibernators, they're excellent problem solvers. Despite this, they haven't gotten very much attention in the cognitive literature. Here's a list of some amazing things that bears do:

1. They use tools! That's right, just like chimpanzees and ravens and other "geniuses" of the animal world.

-Polar bears have been seen throwing ice and rocks down cliffs onto walruses and seals as a hunting tactic. This kills them, or injures them enough that they cannot escape. In captivity, polar bears love throwing their toys and other objects around for fun.

-Spectacled bears, in captivity, have been recorded using long sticks to reach leaves and fruits growing on trees outside their enclosure.

-Giant pandas will clean their undersides rubbing with clods of dirt or soil held in the forepaws. (Odd way to clean, right?)

-A captive brown bear was once spotted propping a keg against a wall and then standing on it to get closer to visitors offering food.

-A grizzly bear was seen using a barnacle-encrusted rock to rub itself over the face and neck in what appeared to be cleaning behavior. See: Tool-use in the brown bear 

 

2. They break into cars. (Next they'll be flying airplanes). American black bears at Yosemite National Forest figured out the next best way to get to human food.

 

See this NY Times article for more information: To Bears in Yosemite, Cars Are Like Cookie Jars 

3. One bear knows how to open the "bear proof" food canister developed for hikers. See: Bear-Proof Can Is Pop-Top Picnic for a Crafty Thief 

4. They're creative in the wild; less dominant brown bears that can't fish for salmon in the best fishing spots come up with alternative fishing tactics that are adapted to specific stream locations. See: Alternative foraging strategies among bears fishing for salmon 

 

5. And they can count (sort of)! In a study using a touch-screen computer, my adviser Dr. Jennifer Vonk taught bears to choose the larger or smaller of two sets of dots, and they were able to do so to a fine degree (like 10 vs. 11 dots). See: Bears "Count" Too 

Now tell me you don't want to know more about bear cognition! (If you do, support my project here, at experiment.com!).

Here's some photos of me with some bears:

At Oswald's Bear Ranch, a bear rescue in northern Michigan, with an American black bear cub.

 

At a wildlife conservancy in Texas with a Syrian brown bear cub.