Bear Facts 3
The “dawn bear” is considered as the first bear ever to walk the Earth, dating as far back as 10 million years ago.
Scientists discovered an ancient bear that weighed between 2,000 and 3,500 pounds. That is several times larger than polar bears!
The largest mammalian carnivore that ever lived on land was the giant short-faced bear. Twice the size of the biggest modern bear, it was 6' 5" tall at the shoulder when standing on all fours. Scientists believe it had very long legs and chased antelope on the North American prairies. It died around 12,000 years ago.
Given the proliferation of so-called bear dogs millions of years ago—including the standard-bearer of the family, Amphicyon—you might assume that modern bears are most closely related to dogs. In fact, molecular analysis shows that the closest living relatives of bears are pinnipeds, the family of marine mammals that includes seals and walruses. Both of these mammalian families descend from a last common ancestor, or "concestor," that lived sometime during the Eocene epoch, about 40 million or 50 million years ago. The exact identity of the progenitor species, however, remains a matter of speculation. Given that the populations of medieval Europe didn't have much contact with polar bears or panda bears, it makes sense that European peasants associated bears with the color brown—which is where the English name of this animal derives, from the old Germanic root bera. Bears are also known as ursines, a word that has ancient roots in Proto-Indo-European languages that were spoken as far back as 3500 BCE. The long history of this word makes sense, given that the first human settlers of Eurasia lived in close proximity to cave bears and sometimes worshiped these beasts as gods.
Male bears are called “boars”, while females are called “sows”. Their babies are “cubs”. If you see a group of bears, then you can refer to them as a “sloth”.
Bears are some of the most sexually dimorphic animals on earth—that is to say, male bears are significantly bigger than females, and, what is more, the bigger the species, the larger the disparity in size. In the largest brown bear subspecies, for instance, males weigh about 1,000 pounds and females only slightly more than half that. Even though female bears are smaller than males, they're not exactly helpless. They vigorously defend their cubs from male bears, not to mention any humans foolish enough to interfere with the child-rearing process. Male bears, however, will sometimes attack and kill cubs of their own kind, in order to induce females to breed again. Female bears generally become sexually mature at between 4 and 8 years of age and have litters every three or four years. Bear breeding occurs during the summers, it is the only time when adult bears get together at all. Total gestation time is 6.5–9 months. Cubs are born singly or up to three at a time, generally in January or February, while the mother is still in hibernation, females will rise to push out as many as four cubs. The tiny hairless newborns are completely dependent on their mothers for milk and warmth. The young usually stay with their mother for two years. After mating, females are left to raise the young by themselves for a period of about three years, at which point, eager to breed with other males, the mothers chase the cubs away to fend for themselves. Bear cubs learn survival skills from their mother, who may take them around while gathering food. They see which plants are good to eat, where to find them, and which foods are available in each season.
DO NOT GO TO THE POSTED CORDS. YOU WILL NOT FIND THE CACHE THERE. YOU NEED TO SOLVE FOR THE CORRECT CORDS.
Please remember you are in Greene County, PA and satellite service is not the best. So, plan accordingly to have a good caching experience.
****Please be cautious when doing these caches as they are hidden along busy highways. Caches are kid friendly but hides are not necessarily kid friendly. Caution is highly suggested. ****
Now on to the puzzle.
This puzzle is based on a board game. The game board and pieces have changed over the years. This puzzle is based on the board used in the 1960’s.
Number of properties __________________________
Number of rail roads ___________________________
Number of utilities _____________________________
Number of taxes _______________________________
Pass GO Collect ________________________________
Buy all three Light Blue Properties _________________
Buy all three Redish Purple Properties _____________
Buy all three Orange Properties ___________________
Buy all three Red Properties ______________________
Buy all three Yellow Properties ___________________
Buy all three Green Properties ___________________
Buy both Blue __________________________________
Buy both Purple ________________________________
Buy 4 Rail Roads _______________________________
Number of properties + 17 = _____________________________________
Number of properties + Number of properties – 1 = _________________
Buy all three Redish Purple Properties + Buy both Purple - 27 ____________
Pass GO Collect – 120 = ___________________________________________
Number of properties + 3 = _________________________________________
Buy all three Orange Properties + 15 = _______________________________
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