Comments on: Happy St. John’s Day

By: Artist

Artist — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:24:08 +0000

TaishaMcGee — “The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done…’” ~ George Carlin

By: TaishaMcGee

TaishaMcGee — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:22:29 +0000

For some reason, I replaced “battled” with “armed”. Flame-throwing grasshoppers would be something to remember, all right.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:28:49 +0000

Matt: thanks again! You pretty much confirmed what I suspected about the current state of information on that bear. I appreciate your time.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:47:56 +0000

Sten Bergman, the zoologist who wrote in 1936 about seeing the Kamchata giant bear’s pelt around 1920, suggested it might merit its own classifcation, but he did not offer a suggested name. No one ever pursued that. It was lumped with the Kamchatkan brown bear, called U. a. piscator.

(Many references, including my first crypto book, reflect the misunderstanding that piscator was a new name proposed by Bergman. It’s still on Wikipedia that way.)

Bergman thought the animal distinct based on the combination of sheer size, a solid black coat (though that is not unheard of in brown bears), and the animal’s uniformly short fur (which characteristic is really odd for a brown bear).

Secondhand reports from the 1980s are the last thing we have on this animal. If it was a distinct race, it may be extinct. Alternatively, it may be an occasional oddity, as with the king cheetah.

(One note on an oft-asked question – Bergman is not the same man who authored Bergmann’s Rule about the size of animals in high latitudes.)

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:17:40 +0000

Matt, thanks. It was the latter that I was thinking of. For that matter, has it been decided that the Kamchatkan brown bear is a species unto itself? I seem to recall there being claims it was just a regular brown bear or perhaps a grizzly of unusual size.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:18:38 +0000

Ceroill,
There are a couple of giant bear mysteries from the Siberia region. One is reports of odd-looking white bears of polar bear size, and one Russian zoologist made so bold as to suggest it was a surviving giant short-faced bear. The other concerned a giant black form of the Kamchatakan brown bear. No good resolution on either one of these.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:24:45 +0000

Great day, indeed.

Spent the day partially at Borders reading a book on fabulous beasts. Great reading. Happy 24th!!!

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:57:33 +0000

What a fortean date this is! Thanks for that Loren

By: chupachups

chupachups — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:06:41 +0000

I ued to have a cat whose birthday was June 24th– he was a major presence and I always told people he was a boddhisattva.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:04:48 +0000

Matt, thanks for the further info. I’ve long had a bit of a fascination with bears in general. A few years back there was a bit of a to do about ‘giant’ bears in Sibera, I think. Was there ever any determination of what they actually are?