Here’s what the bears know, but won’t tell

Bob Doyle, Columnist

Our closest local mammal relatives

Of all our native mammals, we (humans) have the most in common with bears. While our human population is surging towards 7 billion, the global bear population may be only a million and falling.

The development of bears can be traced back 40 million years to small foraging mammals named Miacids. The first true bears arose about 10 million years later in North America. A dozen million years ago, the giant panda first appeared (the Pliocene Epoch). Over 7 million years ago, three lines of bears arose in Europe; these were the black bears, brown bears, and cave bears (now extinct). The last species of modern bears to appear were the polar bears, descended from Asiatic Brown Bears tens of thousands of years ago.

There are now eight species of bears, with a total population of roughly 1 million. The most numerous of the bear species is the American black bear, a majority which live in Canada. The next most populous bear species is the brown bear, with greatest numbers in Asia. In third place is the Polar Bear, whose world population matches the number of humans in greater Cumberland. Fourth place belongs to sloth bears, whose global numbers match the humans in greater Frostburg.

Following are the spectacled bears (dark patches around eyes) of South America with a few thousand individuals. There may be only a thousand Giant Pandas in the world. The Sun Bears of tropical Asia hold down seventh place. In last place are the Asiatic Black Bears, spread widely across Asia from Afghanistan to Japan, whose total population may be a few hundred.

The top 10 black bear states in order are: Alaska (100,000), Washington, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Maine, California, Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota. British Columbia (Canada) has black bear numbers to match Alaska with its sister province, Ontario, not too far behind. It should be noted that in Western North America, that about half of the black bears are brown in color.

Here some other unusual facts about bears. The colder a bear’s habitat, the bigger are the males in comparison to the females. Tropical bears (sloth, sun bears) have males that are only slightly larger than females. Bears have a normal body temperature about the same as humans. An average bear’s pulse is nearly 100 (beats per minute), that drops to half as much when the bear sleeps.

Four of the bear species don’t hibernate. These include giant pandas, sloth bears, sun bears and spectacled bears. Prior to hibernating, bears eat a great deal (up to 20,000 Calories per day) in an effort to accumulate enough body fat. During hibernation, these bears don’t defecate or urinate as their digestion and filtering processes proceed at a very slow rate. Their stores of fat break down, providing food and water. In hibernation, bears’ urine passes through their bladder walls and is reabsorbed. When their cubs are born, the mother bear provides milk far richer than human milk with about 33 percent fat content.

Although Bears are of the order Carnivora (flesh eaters), most bears are omnivores, with most of their food being plants. At our Frostburg Science Discovery Center, we have full bodied specimens of a polar bear, a sloth bear, two American black bears (one in cinnamon phase), a grizzly bear (a subspecies of brown bear), and a Kodiak brown bear.

Reference: Great Bear Almanac by Gary Brown, the Lyons Press.

Full moon, meeting and summer

This Wednesday, the evening moon is full, rising at sunset and hanging in the sky all through the night. This is the lowest full moon of the year, peaking only 25 degrees above the southern horizon. (45 degrees is halfway from horizon to top of sky). Shining through the haze (produced by both human activities and trees), the summer full moons often have a golden hue.

The low height of summer full moons is due to the full moon being on the opposite side of the zodiac from the sun. So in the summer, the full moons are in the same part of the zodiac as the sun in winter. The winter full moons are in the same part of the Zodiac as the sun in summer; so the winter full moons have a very high sky path, shining all through the long winter night. On the next night, the moon will appear near the very bright planet Jupiter in the late evening sky.

The Cumberland Astronomy Club will meet at the LaVale Public Library this Friday at 7:30 p.m. The featured talk will be about the free download program Stellarium, which gives a very realistic night sky on your computer monitor (including twinkling stars) and zooming capability for the planets, star clusters and cosmic gas clouds. Annual dues will be collected. Weather permitting, telescopes will be set up after the talk to view the planet Saturn and star sights. All interested are invited to attend.

This Friday is also the start of summer, when the sun’s direct rays travel farthest north (Tropic of Cancer). Summer is the longest season of the year, lasting 94 days (until about noon on Sept. 22).

The Science Discovery Center will be open to the public at 8 p.m. on the following dates: this Friday, June 22, June 25, June 27 and June 30. At 8:30 p.m. on the following dates, there will be half hour Planetarium programs on the summer skies. The Science Discovery Center is just off the front entrance of the Compton Science Center close to the Performing Arts Center. The Planetarium is in Tawes 302 in mid campus, across the street from the Compton Science Center.

The best parking is in the large lot near the Performing Arts Center. Drive into Frostburg State’s main entrance on Braddock Road and turn right and go past Pullen Hall to reach the Performing Arts Center large lot.

Call (301) 687-7799 to request a free planetarium/Science Discovery bookmark. (Regular shows and tours resume on Sept. 7.)

Bob Doyle invites comments and questions from readers; his email is rdoyle@frostburg.edu.