• hotspur@lemmy.ml
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    3 months ago

    So are polar bears considered more dangerous and aggro than grizzlies? I mean it wouldn’t be too crazy, particularly since it’s probably rare to encounter one, compare to grizzlies. But just had never really heard that.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Polar bears, because of their location, see everything as food. Black bears and grizzlies, while omnivores, are more specific.

      And I feel like I have to say this to counter this weird perception online: black bears and grizzlies do not hunt humans. They generally don’t like humans and will stay away. But carry bear spray.

    • butter@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      Polar bears don’t find food as readily as Grizzly bears. If a Grizzly hesitates on a salmon, it’ll find another salmon.

      If a Polar hesitates on a penguin, it could starve.

      • hotspur@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Gotcha so the idea is they’re just gonna give it a shot and try to eat you, regardless, because the stakes, they are high?

        To be fair, in a moral sense, they should absolutely try and eat every human they can get their claws on; we have done a bang up job on making their habitat and food sources disappear.

        • DarkSirrush@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          Their habitat has also shrunk so much, and their population dwindled so much, that they have gotten fairly inbred and that is causing more aggression and insanity.

          There is also a female polar that keeps breeding with grizzlies, and those offspring are consistently more aggressive and dangerous.

          • MeThisGuy@feddit.nl
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            3 months ago

            There is also a female polar that keeps breeding with grizzlies

            what do those look like? light brown but still big af?

        • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
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          3 months ago

          because the stakes, they are high?

          I also heard it’s because a typical polar bear has never encountered anything that moves that isn’t food.

          So they don’t have any mental category for “moving things on the ice I should flee from” or even “moving things on the ice that isn’t totally delicious”.

    • Curious Canid@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Polar bears will most likely hunt you, even if they don’t immediately attack. They are terrifyingly good at it.