Land Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 8, 2024

'This is unlikely to be an isolated event': 1st polar bear death from bird flu spells trouble for species

Polar bears could be catching bird flu after feasting on bird carcasses infected with the deadly strain H5N1. The infections could add additional and potentially devastating pressure on an Arctic population already under extreme stress from climate change, experts say. The first case of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) dying...

Jan 9, 2024

Extinct 'hypercarnivorous' California grizzly bears were actually mostly vegetarian before Europeans showed up

Extinct California grizzly bears weren't the giant, blood-thirsty hypercarnivores humans made them out to be, new research has found. It turns out that the once-abundant grizzly bears were mostly vegetarian and only occasionally indulged in livestock after European colonizers and American settlers began farming in California. Contrary to popular belief...

Jan 24, 2024

Bigfoot? Sasquatch? Nope, it's probably just a black bear — unless you live in Florida

Are bears to blame for Bigfoot sightings? A researcher has found there's a link between North America's black bear population and people seeing hairy mythical creatures in the forest. The new study, published Jan. 13 in the Journal of Zoology, found that for every 5,000 black bears (Ursus americanus), there's...

Feb 7, 2024

Polar bear sleeping on tiny iceberg drifting in Arctic sea captured in heartbreaking photo

A heart-wrenching image captures a young polar bear napping on the melting scraps of a tiny, drifting iceberg. British amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani captured the scene off the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, which sits deep inside the Arctic Circle, around 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the North Pole. The image...

Jun 17, 2014

Brown Bears Caught Performing Oral Sex

The club of fellatio-loving animals just gained a new member: bears. Scientists have observed a pair of male brown bears in captivity in Croatia that regularly engaged in oral sex over several years. While the creatures in this case study likely do it for pleasure, their fellatio habits might have...

Jul 9, 2014

Good News, Bears: Satellites Could Spy on Arctic Species

Satellite photos could be a promising way to track the habits of wildlife in remote, inaccessible parts of the Arctic, a new study finds. By snapping satellite images of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic, researchers found they could gather information about the mammals almost as accurately as ground surveys,...

Jul 21, 2014

Secret Grizzly Bear Feeding Site Discovered (and Kept Hidden)

For a bear, it's the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. A secret feeding site that draws dozens of grizzly bears has been identified along a Canadian river where salmon spawn. Finding the feeding site for the grizzly bears and the highways they take to get to it could help policymakers...

Jul 30, 2014

Bears: Facts & Pictures

Bears, a small group of mostly large omnivorous mammals, can be found all over the world; they live in forests, mountains, tundra, deserts and grassy areas. Though there are different types of bear, all bear species have similarities. They all have stocky, fur-covered bodies; short legs; and a round head...

Aug 28, 2014

No Picnic Safe: Smart Bears Use Tools

Despite their reputation as wily pic-a-nic basket nappers, it's brute force — not cleverness — that gets bears into coolers and trash bins. But a new study may upend some assumptions about bear smarts. In the just-completed study, bear experts at Washington State University in Pullman dangled doughnuts from a...

Oct 7, 2014

'Copycat' Bearded Dragons Mimic Their Peers

The scaly bearded dragon is the first reptile to show it can imitate a peer, and all for the price of a mealworm, new research suggests. In a new study, researchers trained a 3-year-old female bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps) how to open a sliding screen door with her head. Once...

Dec 18, 2014

Carnivore Comeback: Bears and Wolves Are Thriving in Europe

Despite having half the land area of the contiguous United States and double the population density, Europe is home to twice as many wolves as the U.S. A new study finds that Europe's other large carnivores are experiencing a resurgence in their numbers, too — and mostly in nonprotected areas...

Jan 30, 2015

When Ant-Eating Bears Arrive, A Native Plant Thrives

Biologist Josh Grinath seized a rare chance to study an ecosystem from top to tiny bottom when a black bear blundered through his Rocky Mountain meadow research plot, gobbling up ants and gnawing on equipment. Grinath, a researcher at Florida State University, was already analyzing the codependent relationship between ants...

May 30, 2015

Adorable Andean Bears at Play (Photos)

Scott Silver is director and curator of Animals at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Queens Zoo. Silver is the species survival plan coordinator for Andean bears for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Julie Larsen Maher is staff photographer for WCS, the first woman to hold the position since the...

Aug 13, 2015

Drones Spook Bears

Bears apparently find UFOs unbearable — airborne robots and other unidentified flying objects can make bear hearts beat four times faster, researchers say. This finding suggests that greater caution might be necessary with drones flying above wildlife, scientists added. Airborne drones — also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) —...

Mar 2, 2016

Jaw-Dropping: Extinct Sea Bear Chowed Down Like a Saber-Toothed Cat

A mysterious, carnivorous marine mammal that lived 23 million years ago clamped down on its mussel dinner similar to the way a saber-toothed tiger grasped its larger prey, scientists have found. Peculiar Kolponomos (kol-poh-NO-mos), known from only four skulls found in the Pacific Northwest, was originally thought to be a...