Information About Carnivores and Bears

 Also known as the grizzly, Kodiak, and Kamchatkan bear, the brown bear Ursus arctos, with a head and body length of 2 to 3 meters (6½ to 10 feet) and weight 110 to 450 kilograms (240 to 990 pounds), is one of the largest ursids. Along with the Asian black bear Ursus thibetanus and American black bear Ursus americanus, they feed on tubers, berries, fish, and carrion. Polar bears live in an extremely harsh environment without such food resources, and they are adapted to feed almost exclusively on marine mammals, especially seals.


Polar bears have large, long heads, and their skulls closely resemble those of their neared relatives, the eared seals. They range in length from 2.5 to 3 meters (8 to 10 feet), and in weight from 175 to 650 kilograms (375 to 1,430 pounds). Polar bears may travel on ice floes as much as 65 to 80 kilometers (40 to 50 miles) in a day in search of seals. The females do not breed until they reach five years of age. When pregnant they isolate themselves in a den to have the young.


A carnivore is an animal that eats principally meat, but the word is most often used as a general term to refer to the members of the Carnivora. Being carnivorous means that an animal specializes in eating meat as a principal part of its diet; this is a food habit of some, but not all, of the members of the carnivora.


Throughout their common evolutionary history, members of the Carnivora have acquired some unique features that distinguish them from other orders of mammals.

These features relate to the basic eating habits of the early members of the order and can be grouped under these modifications. In order to survive by eating other animals, carnivores must not only be able to eat them efficiently, but must first be able to catch them. Modifications to find the animal they feed on, such as acute eyesight, hearing, or smelling, allow them to locate prey before it locates them.


Second speed and dexterity are essential, and modifications have allowed carnivores to catch prey quickly without undue expenditure of energy. Third, once the prey is caught, a carnivore must be able to kill and digest the animal efficiently and derive all its essential food requirements from it. And fourth, the carnivore must be smarter than the animal it is trying to catch!


The most widely accepted theory about the relationships among carnivore families is based primarily on modifications in the ear region and the sensitivity to hearing particular frequencies. Carnivores have a highly developed ear region, often with more than one inner ear chamber, which increases the sensitivity to certain frequencies and makes it easier to locate prey that makes those particular sounds. Skulls from each of the families of carnivores can be identified from their unique ear region alone. Insect-eating Carnivora have small teeth with small shearing surfaces that can pierce the exoskeleton of insects and get to the food inside.





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