Talk:Arctodus

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Hi. I am a 17 year old student. I thought the articles I read about the Arctodus was interesting. I grew up in Kamloops at the bottom of Juniper Ridge in the bush. .I lived there for 12 years and would see on average 6 to 8 black bears a week. The average size of the males was 600 Lbs., the biggest of black Bears I have ever seen because they ate so well. They would eat of the apple trees and the wild berries. They would also stalk the deer. I knew a farmer who kept his cows there in pens,and the bears would stalk the newly born Charlois (name of the breed of cow also known as meat cow since that's what they were bred for. Anyways, the bears would stalk the new borns. I had a job were I would cart all the loose apples in my front yard so they would not kill the grass. I would dump wheel barrow load after wheel barrow load, and when I would come home some of these bears would lay there and gorge themselves. They were so lethargic you could run up smack it with a stick and run away and it would not even bother to move. (a bit of an exageration). Later I moved to Prince George and I lived there for 5 years and the bears there were grizzly bears or brown bears. How ever these were mountian grizzlies so they were a on the small side ranging 700 to 800lbs some were 1000lbs but that was extremly rare. Most were on the small side. Not like average Gizzly Bears that don't live in the mountians. ( Such as coastal Grizzlies which can be 1500lbs and that's big but they can get bigger.) So I have come to the conclusion that Arctodus may have reached 3000lbs easy. Another fact is the grizzly bear can cover 60 feet in 2 seconds. They are faster than a race horse for short distance,but cannot keep that speed up for very long. That is a proven fact. Also most people think the black bear or grizzly bear has short legs and that is not true. Their legs are alot longer than most think. They just have skin and fur that is there on its legs and underneath that give it that appearance. That is also part of the reason they run so fast. A bear can also run up hill faster than it can run down hill,and most can go down hill at a fair speed. I have seen it myself. However black bears, grizzly bears or just bears in general walk pigeon toed especially the Russian Brown Bear. Bears like to stalk their prey and bears are great hunters. When the prey is close enough they charge it, hence they can cover 60 feet in 2 seconds .Now the Arctodus had very long legs for a bear and was not pigeon toed so it must have been extremly fast for a short distance such as 60 feet. And they could probably keep their pace up for a longer time and not get winded as quickly because of their nasal cavity. So another conclusion I have come up with is that they could have been part of the reason it took man so long to get over across the ice bridge to the Yukon and Canada. Also it could be possible that they were such great preditors that they starved themselves to extinction becouse they hunted every thing out. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.59.144.21 (talk • contribs).

Hi, You may find this disappointing. In reality, from the fossil found, the short-faced bear was estimated to weigh 600-800kg, and that was huge for a bear, no modern bear can reach this size, save for some specimen experiencing growth disorder. The largest bear on record is a white bear 3.5m length from nose to tail, this guy weighed an estimated 880kg, however, given the thin dimesion of the bear, 1.5m measured around the body, it is very likely to weigh much less. And, to tell the truth, the Kodiak bear normally peaks at 450kg; however, in winter, they put on too much food to prepare for their winter sleep, and gain up to 180kg of fat. So, the real size of the bear when it is active during the year is just 300-450kg, that's all. What's more, hunters often estimate the weight of the bears, hence the story of 750kg bear or more . Back to the giant short-faced, why it goes extinct, according to popular belief, is due to the demise of its preys as the weather changes and overhunting by humans. Short-faced bears, under the circumstances, cannot compete with the more adpatable and smaller brown bears and hence, die out. All that said, the bear is a huge animal, especially the short-faced bear, but not that huge. And, every so often, a brown bear appears more massive than its real size due to its thick coat. 2000 to 3000 lbs is the range of very large herbivores, inclduing rhinos and wild cattles, a bear cannot come close to this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.57.44.207 (talk • contribs).