Polar bear size

[oldindigosilverback]

The polar bear is the biggest bear. It weighs up to 800kg (1,763 pounds) and when it stands on its hind legs it is more than four metres (13ft) tall. They can run at up to 50km/h (31mph) for short distances on land, and have been known to swim for up to 600km (372 miles) when there is no ice.

www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23799875.amp

[Gorilla king]

HERE IS ANOTHER HUGE WEIGHED POLAR BEAR, 97.6 STONE, 620 KG (1366 LBS)


Victor the polar bear gets tested for pollen allergy

Every hay fever sufferer know how much of a struggle it has been this summer, but what if you’re an animal with pollen?

Workers at Yorkshire Wildlife Park believe their polar bears Victor and Nobby may be sufferers after discovering painful abscesses on their feet.

They believe the allergic reaction happened after they moved them from a concrete bear pit enclosure to the more natural setting at the attraction near Doncaster.





A team of three vets, a nurse, three dermatologists and five park workers were on hand when 97.6st (620kg) Victor was given an allergy test.

The operation was so big that even Press Association’s photographer Danny Lawson was asked to help manoeuvring Victor into a comfortable position after he had been anesthetised.

Dermatologists from Liverpool University were brought in to carry out tests on Victor’s skin to verify the theory.





The results will be known in the coming days.

Animal manager Debbie Porter said: ‘It has been a bonkers day. Victor was shaved and there are about 50 test sites on his side.

‘Fingers crossed we can find out which allergies he has and we can set about making life more comfortable for him.’



Ms Porter said it was often the case that bears which had previously been in sterile, frequently disinfected enclosures developed pollen allergies when they were moved to more natural quarters.

Antibiotics have previously helped, while antihistamines have not, but Ms Porter said finding the right serum for Victor and fellow sufferer Nobby was the best idea long term.

And he seemed none the worse for the experience on Wednesday, with Ms Porter saying: ‘He’s come around nicely, he’s very calm and seems settled.’


www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2018/08/16/victor-polar-bear-gets-tested-pollen-allergy-7846295/amp/

[nocap]

[arctozilla]

/\ a 1 ton polar bear is an exaggeration.

[nocap]

Nov 21, 2021 9:05:33 GMT -5 arctozilla said:

/\ a 1 ton polar bear is an exaggeration.

In your opinion, yes. The fact is that the male claimed to have weighed in at this amount was actually measured at dimensions that would belong to a 900kg bear at the very least, and closing in on a ton or more if a fattended up state is considered.

[Gorilla king]

Nov 21, 2021 9:05:33 GMT -5 arctozilla said:

/\ a 1 ton polar bear is an exaggeration.

Nobody knows if the bear was actually weighed, but it is an exact number, 2210 lbs. Also, it looks like this specimen was accepted into the Guinness book of world records and they only accept actually weighed specimens.

Also, from reply # 2 of this thread:

"That it is possible for polar bears to exceed 2000 lb, 907 kg has also been confirmed by Ognev (1962), who says that some of the old males killed on the Taimyr peninsula, NW Siberia have scaled as much as 60 pood (979 kg, 2158 lbs) and yielded up to 12 pood (196 kg, 432 lbs) of fat"

[Gorilla king]

Anyways, awesome comparison nocap .

[arctozilla]

Nov 21, 2021 10:07:37 GMT -5 nocap said:

In your opinion, yes. The fact is that the male claimed to have weighed in at this amount was actually measured at dimensions that would belong to a 900kg bear at the very least, and closing in on a ton or more if a fattended up state is considered.

I was saying nothing against you. I like polar bears way more than brown bears anyway. But thanks for telling me that a 1 ton polar bear is reliable.

[Gorilla king]

HERE IS A ANOTHER HUGE SPECIMEN, 679 KG (1497 LBS)





Meet Fat Albert, the overweight polar bear

The bear, named ‘Fat Albert’ by locals, is hugely overweight because an average polar bear should weigh around 450kg, but this polar bear weigh a whopping 679kg!

Many claim he’s one of the fattest in the world, earning him the nickname ‘Fat Albert’ (a character from a famous American sitcom).

Albert’s size isn’t all his fault. He lives in Alaska, USA, where the locals throw out large amounts of whale blubber to the bears as a sign of ‘respect’.

Photographer Edward Boudreau captured candid shots of the bear just as the villagers had harvested a whale. They would cut a large portion of the whale and blubber and drag it four miles out of town for the bears to find.

This stops the bears from travelling into town to harvest and disrupting the process.

This is a tradition, as a sign of respect to the incredible animals, is thousands of years old.


www.dawn.com/news/1547550

[oldindigosilverback]

***Status report on the size of polar bears by "Polar Bear International"***

> *"In Hudson Bay, the mean scale weight of 94 males >5 years of age was 489 kg. The largest bear in that group was a 13-year-old, which weighed 654 kg (Kolenosky et al. 1992). The heaviest bear we have weighed in Alaska was 610 kg, and several animals were heavy enough that we could not raise them with our helicopter or weighing tripod. Some animals too heavy to lift have been estimated to weigh 800 kg (DeMaster and Stirling 1981). Females are smaller, with peak weights usually not exceeding 400 kg. Total lengths of males in the Beaufort Sea of Alaska ranged up to 285 cm. Such an animal may reach nearly 4 m when standing on its hind legs and is 1.7 m shoulder height when standing on all four legs. Chest girth for large males is close to 200 cm. Although smaller, females in the Beaufort sea were as long as 247 cm with chest girths up to 175 cm."*

Studies Mentioned : DeMaster and Stirling (1981)

[oldindigosilverback]

[oldindigosilverback]

Polar bear and truck size comparison.

[oldindigosilverback]

If we see the height of this trainer, we know the captive polar bear is not that big:

Ursula Böttcher was named for the animal to whom she would devote her life: her given name “Ursula” derives from ursus, the Latin word for “bear.” Böttcher started her circus career as an usher and cleaning woman and became a star performer in the state circus of the German Democratic Republic (the former East Germany). She was a petite woman, standing five feet, one inch, and the sight of her commanding a troupe of large and lumbering polar bears was visually stunning. Audiences raved and newspapers covered her act. As Böttcher's fame grew, she and her bears were invited to perform throughout the world, a guest of top circuses in France, the United States, and many other countries.

reference.jrank.org/biography/Bttcher_Ursula.html

[oldindigosilverback]

More pictures.

[oldindigosilverback]

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-20448847

Circus polar bear jumping through a ring of fire.

[oldindigosilverback]

Reply to op, the male polar bears form West Hudson Bay is only 400kg (880 pounds) which is close to Churchill. I understand why Big Bons once said that male polar bears in Churchill can be as small as 600 pounds.

[oldindigosilverback]

Churchill, Canada, is known as the polar bear capital of the world and for good reason. Canada has 60% of the world's polar bears (there are between 25,000-30,000 in the world) and Churchill is the southernmost place to see them and the most accessible. It is one of the few human settlements where polar bears can be observed in the wild. Churchill is a remote town of fewer than 1,000 people and sits on the edge of the Hudson Bay in Canada. There are no roads to Churchill so travelers can only get there via train, plane or boat. What makes Churchill world-famous, of course, is that it lies on the migration path of the polar bears.

www.forbes.com/sites/judykoutsky/2021/11/15/the-inside-scoop-on-seeing-the-arctic-polar-bears-in-churchill-canada/?sh=12d503356874


If we combine average together, I understand why some books say male polar bears overall average 900 pounds not 1100 pounds. I guess, they are averaging the weights out overall.

[oldindigosilverback]

chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93067846/1907-12-11/ed-1/seq-1.pdf%20%28https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93067846/1907-12-11/ed-1/seq-1.pdf%29

Alright this captive polar bear is one of the largest of its kind but it is also one of the best trained probably indicating it has been in the circus as a cub. Training adult bears are hard.
In fairness, it is also easier to train tiger cubs than adult tigers in the circus but tigers are way more adaptable to temperature change.

[oldindigosilverback]

Ursula Böttcher: circus animal trainer.

Ursula Böttcher found fame around the world as the diminutive woman who braved death by kissing a huge polar bear during her circus act. The creature, regarded as the most dangerous and unpredictable of all circus-trained animals, towered above her at nearly 12ft in height; she was just over 5ft.

She worked for her entire career in the state circuses of the German Democratic Republic (DDR). In 1995, at the age of 71, she celebrated her 40th anniversary in the circus big cage. In 1999 her employment was summarily dismissed in a two-line letter from the liquidator of the Berliner Circus Union, after the reunification of Germany.


www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ursula-bottcher-circus-animal-trainer-rw3jgl8l8gf

The polar bear is called the most dangerous and unpredictable circus animal. 12 feet might be an exaggeration given the 12 ft male polar bear shot in Alaska is most likely skin stretched.

[oldindigosilverback]

The note you cite above (about the polar bear vs tiger fight) is from the early 20th century. The point is not only that then journalists checked information worse than now. The main thing is that at that time the circus did not perform with adult male polar bears. There are few such cases in history, and the German trainer in the photo above is a rare exception. I know one more exception in the modern Russian circus, when a 400 kg male polar bear performed there, but in the circus they clearly advertised themselves that this is a rarity. So you can be sure that this "biggest bear" is a female. And the outcome of a duel in captivity between a polar bear sow and a tiger/lion, as we know, can be different.

carnivora.net/siberian-tiger-v-polar-bear-sow-t8456-s120.html#p224220

An interesting feedback given by a new poster on Carnivora. Interested to know what everybody here thinks.

It seems that the large male polar bears (400kg and above) in circus advertise on posters are a rarity to attract visitors.