The American Black Bear

The American black bear, Ursus Americanus, is the most common bear species native to North America. These bears live throughout the continent with a range that stretches from Alaska all the way south into Mexico. They can also be found from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This range includes 41 of the 50 United States, all of the Canadian provinces except Prince Edward Island, and some of Mexico.

The majority of bears found in the Southern United States remain in the protected mountains and woodlands of parks and nature preserves. Occasionally, bears will wander outside of a park's boundaries. In some cases, bears have set up new territories on the margins of urban environments. This has occurred more frequently as the bear's population increases.

Prior to European colonization, there were probably as many as 2 million black bears in North America. Unfortunately, the population declined to a low of 200,000 bears as a result of habitat destruction and unrestricted hunting. Current estimates place the population around 800,000. The black bear is a close relative of the Asiatic black bear. It is suspected that the bears may share a common European ancestor.

The American black bear is typically 5 to 6 feet long from nose to tail with a height of 2.5 to 3 feet at the shoulder. When the bear stands up, the bear can stand up to 7 feet tall. Male bears are typically one-third larger than female bears. Females typically weigh between 90 and 400 pounds while males weigh between 250 and 600 pounds. Adult black bears have been known to reach 660 pounds while exceptionally large males have been recorded at weights up to 800 pounds, a length of almost 8 feet. Cubs typically weigh between 7 ounces and a pound at birth.

Adult bears have small eyes, rounded ears, a long snout, a large body, and a short tail. Like all bears, black bears have an excellent sense of smell. While they typically have shaggy black hair (hence the name black bear), their fur can vary from white through chocolate-brown, cinnamon-brown, and blonde. Blonde black bears are found mostly west of the Mississippi River in the United States and in the Canadian provinces west of Ontario. Occasionally, a black bear will have a v-shaped white chest blaze.

While black bears can stand and walk on their hind legs, it is more normal for them to walk on all four legs. If a bear is standing, it is typically to get a better look at something or to figure out from where a scent is coming. The shuffling gait we all associate with bears is a result of their flat-footed walk. In addition, the hind legs are slightly longer than the forelegs. In addition to the flat-footed walk, bears also use a pacing gate. Unlike many other quadrupeds, the legs on one side of the bear's body move together instead of alternating.

For more information on bears and other animals, please visit http://www.atlantaveterinarianclinics.com.

Joseph Devine

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How to Throw a Charming Teddy Bears Picnic Birthday Party!

A Teddy Bears Picnic is the perfect party theme for both boys and girls! It can be held indoors or out, in a park or in your very own backyard. The best of all it is simple and very cost effective.

Decorations: If your having the party outdoors, use the natural setting as your decoration. Set up beside a big tree for shade, cover picnic tables with gingham tablecovers and have large picnic blankets for the kids and their special friends to sit on. If you choose to have the party indoors, decorate the main party room like a forest. Cover 1 or 2 walls with butcher paper and paint on simple trees, flowers, grass, sky, clouds and some friendly birds and insects flying by. Use gingham fabric to decorate tables and lay out picnic blankets for sitting. Gather all the Teddy Bears you can find through friends and family and place them all around room. Indoors or out, helium filled balloons are always an important part of this theme. Don't forget the giant homemade "Teddy Bears Picnic" party banner!

Invitations: Find cute teddy bear scrap booking paper or use brown construction paper cut into the shape of a Teddy Bear. A cookie Cutter works great for this! Put the teddy bear picnic rhyme on the front of the invite. The teddy bear picnic rhyme goes like this..."If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise, If you go down to the woods today, you'd better go in disguise, For ev'ry bear that ever there was will gather there for certain, because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic." On the inside of the invite, using your computer, print out the party information. Cut and paste if your not printing right on to the invitation. Use some cute clipart to dress up the inside party information. Be sure to request that every child bring their favourite teddy bear.

Craft: Before the party, make each child a set of Furry Bear Ears. The ears can be made with a brown furry material or brown felt. Make a template of an oval approximately 6" long by 3 1/2 inches wide. You need 2 ovals per set. Trace onto material and cut out oval shapes. Fold the ovals in half lengthwise around an inexpensive hair band and affix with a hot glue gun. Voila! Fuzzy Bear Ears!

Guest arrival: When the guests arrive, paint on them a perfect little black bear nose and give them their very own Fuzzy Bear Ears to wear. Adorable! While waiting for everyone to arrive, have a small activity set up like teddy bear colouring pages. When all guests are accounted for, start out the days activities by sitting on the picnic blanket and have everyone introduce their Bear. Then read the classic children's book "Teddy Bears Picnic" to get everyone in the mood.

Lunch: Make Picnic Baskets for the guests attending. Purchase inexpensive wicker baskets at your local dollar store or craft store. Dress up the baskets by hot gluing red & white gingham fabric to the inside of basket. Lunch is to be served in the baskets including a plate, napkin and utensils. The kids will feel so special when the receive their special pre-packed lunch in their own beautiful basket. After lunch, their basket doubles as their "loot bag" for all the items they will collect on their "Bear Hunt." The lunch baskets can consist of Honey and Peanut Butter Sandwiches cut with a teddy bear shaped cookie cutter, a juice box, a fruit cup and of course a pack of teddy graham cookies. A neat idea for dessert is to make paw print cupcakes. Using your favourite cake flavor and your child's favourite colour for icing, make little paw prints using 1 junior mint and 4 upside down chocolate chips. To cute!

Games: Bear Hunt - Proceed just like you would on an Easter Egg Hunt. Even use those plastic eggs and fill with candy and trinkets. To make it more Teddy Bear like, decorate the Eggs with a Bear sticker or draw on a Bear paw print with a black sharpie. You can let them go and find anything or you could colour co-ordinate so every child gets the same amount. For example, Sally finds and gathers the pink eggs, John finds and gathers the blue..so on. You can also use shapes coloured on the eggs for definition. Squares, triangles, hearts, stars - anything a toddler can recognize. With help of course! Another fun game to play just before the party winds down is "Is that your Bear?" Have the kids sit in a circle with all their Bears piled in the middle. The birthday child will go first. They are to put on a blindfold and when they are ready, they are presented with 3 bears, one of which is their own. Through touch they are challenged to figure out which Bear belongs to them. Perfect for toddlers!

http://www.partydepot.ca - Purchase party supplies in Canada

http://www.partycanada.blogspot.com - More great party planning ideas!

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Who is Teddy Bear?

There is nothing like a Teddy Bear!

Since his existence, he has brought pleasure, serenity, and comfort to children and people of all ages worldwide. A Teddy Bear is very special, because he is more than a toy - he is a companion. He has wonderful qualities, he consoles when needed, he has compassion when required, and he knows everything about us including our deepest thoughts. He is our most intimate friend! Did you ever feel like that about your Teddy Bear? I am sure you did, we all did! How can a stuffed bear, although cute and cuddly bring so much pleasure and happiness to our lives? Let's look at some of Teddy's origins.

It is well known that the name "Teddy" originates from Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America 1901-1909, who was referred to as Teddy by the public. There are numerous stories of how the Teddy Bear received the President's name. One story refers to a Mississippi bear-hunting trip where villagers wishing to please the President captured a bear for him to shoot, however, the President flatly refused. He drew a line, as this was not fair hunting sportsmanship. This encounter became a famous cartoon story by Clifford Berryman under the title of "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." The cartoon caught very wide attention, which eventually led to the Teddy Bear and its name. Another story suggests that the staff of Hotel Colorado wanted to cheer-up President Roosevelt during a hunting trip with a gift. They presented him with a small stuffed bear made by the housekeeping employees. His daughter, Alice, liked the bear and gave it the name Teddy.

Based on my findings, it seems that Teddy was born around 1902, but this was not just a US birth. Coincidentally, at the Steiff Company in Giengen an der Brenz, Baden Württemberg in Germany, the owner Margarete Steiff, produced stuffed animal toys. Her nephew Richard Steiff was an artist who drew animal pictures for the stuffed animal toy production of the company. In 1902, Richard visited the Stuttgart Zoo and made a sketch of a bear cub. The company started production of his design and the German (Teddy) bear was born. How wonderful sometimes coincidences work. Was it destiny to remember internationally a great President throughout the ages with this divine toy? In 1903, at the Leipzig Toy Fair Steiff sold 3000 bears to an American toy merchant and by 1907 the Steiff Company sold 974,000 bears. Whatever the stories are, the fact remains that the Teddy Bear became a famous and beloved toy ever since the time of President Theodore Roosevelt. A nice long stretch!

The bear market is still going strong to this day. Teddy Bears or stuffed bears in general are here to stay for generations to come. It is interesting to know that in some families Teddy Bears have become heirloom pieces. Did you know that bear collectors are called arctophiles? The word derives from the Greek language "arcto" meaning bear and "philos" meaning lover. Bears are not just a toy for children, bears are also used as mascots by many organizations or as corporate gifts and uncountable other special uses. There are also Teddy Bear Clubs and some organizations even have annual conventions to celebrate these lovable keepsakes.

Teddy Bear has reached its 106th Birthday, that is a good old ripe age, but we all know he will live forever.

Tina Nyary, researched a beloved stuffed animal toy, the Teddy Bear. Stuffed teddy bears are without a doubt one of the most adored stuffed animal toys.

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Backpackers, Lock Up Your Food and Save a Bear

Hikers and backpackers, you can save a bear by modifying the way you handle your trail food. The food that you take with you to the wilderness can be lethal to bears. That's right. Your food could spell the death sentence for one of these wild creatures. No, it is not a problem of a bear's digestive system not being able to handle human food. If that were the case, the problem would not be so acute.

On the contrary, many bears love the food that we find palatable. And therein lies the problem.

Here is an often too frequent scenario. A bear gets the taste for human food and starts increasingly to crave it. His appetite for our kind of nutrition becomes so acute that he gets aggressive and dangerous in his quest for the food of man. As in all too many cases, he could become so aggressive that he will have to be killed for your safety and mine. The bear's fault? Not really.

BALANCING ACT

I remember waking up and finding my brother's mauled and shredded backpack lying at the edge of our camp. I also recollect our consternation at finding all the food having been filched by a hungry bear. Fortunately it was our last night on the trail and there was enough food among our group to keep everybody going until we reached the Yosemite Valley floor. Even more fortunate is the fact that my brother had the presence of mind to not keep the food inside his tent. That could have spelled disaster.

Forty years ago, when this story took place, the prevailing wisdom was to hang your food as far out on a tree branch as you could to keep it out of the reach of bears. Hopefully there was such a tree nearby.

The idea was to tie a small rock to the end of a string and throw it over a tree branch which was neither too high for you to lob the rock over nor so low that the bear could swat down your grub. Then you tied a nylon rope to the string and pulled it over the branch. On one end of the rope, you tied your food sack and, on the other end, a rock to counterbalance it. After that you took a stick and pushed the bag of food that was on the end of the rope up as high as you could, higher than a bear could reach, all the while hoping that the rock didn't come down low enough for the wily bear to grab and gnaw off.

The next morning, the trick was to reach the food sack yourself, if indeed it was still there. By the time you were finished with your wild dance of leaping, swatting and hooking, you were more than ready for a hearty breakfast and far more than unwilling to share it with a bear.

My brother and the rest of us were way too exhausted that night to even think about such a taxing enterprise, having arrived at our campsite extremely weary and well after dark. So he did the next best thing that his muddled mind could think of. He put what he figured to be a safe space between his food and his tent. Good thing, but not good enough.

DRASTIC MEASURES

Bears, especially black bears of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, have become a lot smarter than they were 40 years ago. This is true to the extent that, in many places in the Western United States, drastic measures have had to be taken to not only protect your food while you hike, but to also protect the lives of bears.

We humans are no physical match in this fight over food with a bear that has been habituated to our sustenance. And with its sense of smell being 100 times stronger than that of a dog (one can only guess how much stronger that is than the sense of smell of a human being), hoping that a resident bear will not find your food is an exercise in futility.

SOLUTION: BEAR-RESISTANT FOOD CANISTERS

So, what is the answer to the bear problem with regard to our food?

The best current answer is bear-resistant food canisters. Bears on a number of high traffic trails in California, for instance, now associate these handy devices with lost luck in obtaining tasty food. So they tend to pretty much leave them alone. One bear, according to my daughter, who hiked recently in Yosemite National Park, on finding a bear-resistant canister in her camp, batted it about for awhile, tried to gnaw her way into it without success and then ambled off disappointed and still hungry.

In many wilderness areas, bear-resistant canisters are mandatory. These areas include National Parks, National Forests and other wilderness areas, especially in the western states. Be sure to check the rules in the particular wilderness area where you plan to hike.

SAVE THE BEARS

So, please don't be sloppy with your food management in the wilderness. Save a bear's life as well as your own food. Invest in a bear-resistant canister. It's the right thing to do. What's good for you is good also for the bears.

Copyright (c) Richard Davidian, Ph.D.
Dr. Davidian, Professor of Research and Writing, writes on topics as varied as internet marketing and the outdoors. Visit his Great Outdoors Information blog for hiking and backpacking information.

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Bear Bile Farming Causes Unnecessary Torture to Poor Bears

Bear bile farming is a very disturbing, yet a common practice, in some places. It causes extreme pain to the bears. During the process, it can be observed that bears gnash their teeth, bite their cages, moan, and even chew their own paws because of the pain.

The Process - Bile extraction is done in the crudest manner, and without any form of sanitation. The persons conducting it are unskilled and the process is not up to modern veterinary standards. Most of the bears die during or soon after bile extraction. If they live, they suffer from liver cancer, as a result of chronic inflammation and infection of the gall bladder and liver. Generally, farmed bears live only up to 4 years.

Why People Bile Bears - Bile is a digestive liquid produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. Bile gathered from bears has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for at least three thousand years for a variety of purposes. It is used in Chinese physiotherapy, to cure inflammations and to dissolve gall stones and kidney stones. Also, it is thought to help detoxify the liver and improve eyesight. And according to research, bears are the only mammals that produce the bile salt ursodeoxycholic acid, which is effective in treating some liver diseases.

Originally, bear bile was gathered by killing wild bears and removing their gallbladders. In recent decades, when wild bears became increasingly rare, bile became prohibitively costly for most Chinese. But then, during the year 1980, the Chinese bear bile farming industry adapted a technique first developed in North Korea. This involved extracting bile from captive bears without having to kill them.

Bear Abuse - The bears are housed in cages hardly large enough to hold the animal itself. To get the bile, an incision is made in each bear's abdomen and a catheter (which is basically a plastic or rubber tube) is then inserted into the gallbladder. The bile is drained through the catheter and then gathered for sale.

To gather the bile from the gallbladder, a connection from the gallbladder (located deep inside the body) to the surface has to be established. The connection, which is medically called fistula, is made in any of the three ways: insertion of a metal tube, insertion of a plastic tube, or creation of a tissue bridge between the gallbladder and skin. The connection is conducted by untrained and unskilled individuals who do not observe modern veterinary standards.

To gather the bile, some bears wear a "metal jacket". It is worn around their bodies and it has a collection container attached to it. There are bears forced to lie on the floor of their small cages so the bile will drip downward. Keep in mind that their crush cages are extremely small. The floor is made up of iron bars so the bears cannot stand or lie down on firm ground. This results in neck and back injury. Since a bear's body will try to exclude the inserted metal or plastic tube or close the tissue bridge, scarring and damage is done to both the inside and outside of the bear. Sometimes, to prevent the closing of the incision, hot pieces of metal are inserted without any form of sedation or anesthesia. Bile is collected twice a day, and this goes on for the rest of their lives.

Why Its Unnecessary - There is no need to make poor bears undergo such abuse. The use of bear bile is obsolete. There are at least 75 herbal medicines that can be used as an alternative to bear bile. Of which, 54 are proven to work. These alternatives are a lot cheaper and more convenient.

Synthesized bear bile that contains UrsoDeoxyCholic Acid (the active constituent in bear bile) is available. All these alternatives are just as effective without the deaths of innocent bears. Let us put a stop to bear bile farming. It causes unnecessary torture to poor bears.

Read more about stricter punishment for animal cruelty [http://stopanimalcruelty.info/category/animal-cruelty]. Learn more about bear bile farming [http://stopanimalcruelty.info/] and other animal abuse.

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Teddy Bears Appear On All Kinds Of Products And Collectables - You Could Fill Your House With Them

Teddy bears appear on all kinds of products, from wallpaper to slippers. You can decorate your whole house with bears, wear teddy bear slippers and sleep in teddy bear sheets. You can buy chocolate teddies, cereals promoted with teddy bears and bears have even appeared on some laundry products! But this isn't just a modern craze. Teddy-decorated china appeared almost as early as the first bears themselves. Early examples are highly prized by collectors since the fragile nature of their materials means that few have survived in good condition, and complete sets are very rare. Some modern makers of limited-edition bears also offer bear-sized accessories for their special bears. And of course, we're all familiar with images of Pooh Bear and Paddington being used across a whole range of items.

Various other materials have been formed into bear shapes over the last century or so. Early 20th century wooden carvings of bears - often called Black Forest Bears - after the region of Southern Germany where they were made, are very popular with collectors. Some were intended purely for use as ornaments, but others were made into useful objects, ranging in size from pincushions to coat stands.

Silver teddy bears were once used to adorn christening gifts such as teething rings or rattles, and bears also appear on silver spoons and egg cups, also popular christening presents. Early examples again are particularly sought after, and the hallmarking system means that they can be accurately dated.

Postcards featuring bears have also been around almost as long as the teddy himself, and an enormous number have been published. These could once be obtained extremely cheaply, but prices have soared in recent years. Luckily for bear-lovers everywhere, larger numbers of new cards continue to appear at collectable prices, most recently from DevonBear Designs, who offer a whole set of bear-ish images. We also offer bears on e-cards if you want to send other bear-lovers some great English bear images, absolutely free!

Old adverts and packaging - ephemera - are also very collectable, and even modern items can be grouped together very effectively to create a talking point. Think about Rupert Bear and Sooty, Paddington and Pooh to name just a few. Other collectable items with a bear theme include decorated toffee or biscuit tins and the metal buckets that many will remember from seaside holidays of days gone by.

Whenever bears appear on items, you can be sure that someone somewhere will have started a collection. But for real bear-lovers, the only problem is deciding where to begin - and also when to stop!

Helen Dickson is the owner of DevonBear Designs. She designs and makes a small range of really practical - and pretty - textile items and stationery all inspired by the wonderful coast and countryside of South Devon, England. Helen is a talented watercolour artist and all DevonBear Designs products feature one of her images. Visit her site at http://www.devonbeardesigns.com

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10 Steps For Caring For Your Teddy Bear

1. Check your teddy bear over to see if their is a washing instructions label. Some synthetic bears can actually be machine washed on the most gentle cycle. Do not wash with other colored clothes or items. Using a mesh bag to put the bear in is not a bad idea. I would not use much detergent if any but maybe a little fabric softener would be a nice touch. Allow it to air dry. Do not put in dryer or use a hair dryer. Machine washing is not something that would be recommended for antiques or real old or fragile teddies. Remember that bears that talk or make sounds probably have a device inside them that may get ruined if machine washed.

2. Let me say that for the next steps "patience" is a must. For a really dirty teddy bear the human instinct is to get some strong cleaner and put it in a spray bottle and spray and scrub the heck out of it. While this may get some good results some times, it may also ruin certain fabrics by changing color, texture, and overall appearance of the teddy bear.

3. For the many teddy bears that are not machine washable, The material of an old teddy bear is really not much different than the care you would give to an antique piece of upholstery or tapestry. Brush gently with a soft brush to loosen particular dust and soil. Carefully vacuum it by putting cheese cloth or using a nylon over the vacuum head of your vacuum tool to remove loose soil.

4.Using a clean damp cloth (warm water only-no soap as soap tends to leave a residue that can cause quick re-soiling) wipe down the teddy bears fur. You'll be surprised how much soil can be removed with simply wiping down the bear. This should help restore some of the shine and brighten the color like it had when it was newer.

5.If teddy is severely soiled you may have to repeat this process 2-3 times to get as much soil removed as possible. Do not soak the teddy bear. If you have to, allow it to air dry then repeat the process.

6. The next step is allowing the teddy bear to air dry. It is best to lightly brush the teddy bear's fur before it dries, so that the nap is all laying in the same direction (usually laying down) . If you let it dry first before you brush it it may change the texture and appearance and you may not be able to get it back after it's dry.

7. At times a little mending may be needed.

8. Don't forget to hug them at least once a day.

9. Make sure to allow as many kids as possible to admire and maybe hold them. Teddy Bears love children.

10. For teddy bears that don't get used much and maybe sit on a shelf for a long time, you can either buy a case to put them in or you can use a large clear zip lock bag or freezer bag and slip on over the bear's head & body. This allows you to still see the bear but will help keep the dust and dirt for getting them dirty.

Hopefully some of these tips have helped you care for your teddy bears. Remember the older and more antique the teddy bear the more caution and care needs to be used.

Bruce Simmons is a Teddy Bear Designer for "Mainely Bears Collectable Teddy Bear Gifts" checkout some of the different designs at [http://teddy-gift.com]

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