submitted 1 month ago by to c/til@lemmy.world
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I knew they were big bears but not TWICE A HUMAN size! I didn't even google this image for the polar bear I wanted to see how big a black bear is.

guess I'm never going to Antarctica!

edit: okay we got ANOTHER TIL. Apparently polar bears don't live in Antarctica!

...I need to watch more nature documentaries...

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[โ€“] 96 points 1 month ago (9 children)

They're northern Hemisphere, not Antarctica. We have them in our province (Manitoba), but yes they're big. On average tho not quite as big as the painting there shows.

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  • [โ€“] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    This would be a female bear, as she is with her cubs. Polar bears are actually the second most sexually dimorphic mammal. Consequently males are vastly bigger than females.

    The most sexually dimorphic? The elephant seal. Those dudes are immense.

    Edit: this, I read on wikipedia a couple of years ago. The information is no longer there but the fact that polar bears and elephant seals are among the most dimorphic mammals remains. The precise ranking is perhaps a little more obscure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Third sentence of the first paragraph mentions sexual dimorphism, at least in the English version of the page. Mentioned a few more places too, so it's still there.

    Didn't know that was a thing, that's pretty cool!

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 1 month ago

    I mean previously it stated that these were the two most dimorphic species. I'm guessing that due to the variance in body weight of the animals, it's not that easy to say that they are more dimorphic than other species, because that depends upon the variable body mass of the animals. But it's certainly a notable quality of polar bears and elephant seals that there can be such a huge difference, even if that difference grows and shrinks at different times of year.

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  • [โ€“] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    I knew it! Seeing them in a Zoo many years back I got the impression they were pretty big but not THAT massive.

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  • [โ€“] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    I think the painting shows the largest they've found, not the norm. It's like showing Robert Wadlow (The tallest guy in the world at 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wadlow) to show the size of humans. Yes we can get that large, but it's an extreme example.

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  • [โ€“] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    If one of the average sized ones rises up in front of you and roars, I bet it would look just as big as that painting.

    Can anyone confirm? Probably not.

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  • [โ€“] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    Yup, Not many people get the opportunity to see one up close and live to tell about it, unless there's something REALLY solid in between them. Like that Nat Geo guy in the cage. https://youtu.be/U-S4NbX5IYE They're absolutely terrifying up close...

    They don't typically roar tho, unless they're fighting or f..uh screwing. And they're not scared of anything.

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