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…
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
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!
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.