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Brookline bear was Cape bear
By adamg on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 2:43pm
Ryan Schulteis at WHDH reports state wildlife officials say the bear somehow made it back east from where they brought him after he was captured on the Cape and are depositing him at an unspecified location even further west this time.
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Comments
Are they flying the bear
to Colorado?
Further west this time?
This will not end well.
Bears are part cat
Read some time ago that bears are actually very distant descendants of cats (not dogs as many think) - so I think you are on to something there Kaz - and as a long time cat owner - thanks for the afternoon chuckle.
Nope
Bears are caniform (dog-like) carnivores -- along with skunks, weaels, racoons, seals and walruses. Apparently, genetically speaking, the closest relatives of bears are seals (etc.).
You might have been thinking of hyenas -- whcih got re-assigned from caniform to feliform (at least for now).
No not hyenas
Bears are a genetic enigma - I can't recall the exact explanation if it was a DNA analysis, anatomical etc. but the article talked about how bears don't fit easily into an evolutionary chain and that while they are caniform and were long considered part of the "dog" family" - mostly I think due to tooth structure, they bear (no pun intended) more similarities in anatomy, movement and behavior to cats than dogs.
Hey - I probably read it on the internet - so it must be true! :-)
I think you're misremembering
Not sure where you read that, but bears are much more Caniformia (dog-like) than feliformia (cat-like). They have non-retracting claws, they are omnivorous opportunity eaters whereas feliforms are almost entirely meat eaters, and part of the bone structure around their ear differs between bears and cats.
The big discovery recently is that seals and walruses (Pinnipedia) are actually also Caniformia instead of a separate sub-order unto themselves.
That was the whole point Kaz
Bears are still a bit of an enigma to zoologists with no clear lineal ancestry, but generally get classified into the Canine family due to the physical similarities you point out. The article was interesting because at least this research (and I can't recall the foundation - I'm guessing DNA), pointed to the fact that bears more closely resembled cats - perhaps at least at the genetic level if not the physical. This was some time in the last decade but several years ago so perhaps it was quickly discredited, but the fact that the research ran against conventional wisdom is why I remember reading it. This stuff changes from time to time (per what you point out about seals and walruses) and probably changes back.
I found it interesting because certain bear behavior is very cat like - climbing trees, more of an ambush rather than chase style hunters, solitary rather than pack lifestyle etc. Just find it interesting that despite all of our knowledge and science there can still be at least a little bit of debate about so called "settled" science.
Personally and with no professional skin or knowledge in the game it sounds like bears at some level may very well walk a middle road between dogs and cats. Recently it looks like that road ran through the cats and dogs of Brookline! :-)
Check the link above
I included a link that shows what the likely ancestor of the bear. It is almost like a tree-climbing dog basically. In fact, there is an extinct branch of the family that was a bear-dog hybrid (no man-pig hybrids that have been discovered yet though, sorry, Al Gore).
So, I don't think it's as unsolved as you think it is.
Stuff changes all the time
Again that's what made the article interesting. Note Michael above points out that Hyenas were recently re-classified into feliformia as were pinipeds classified into canids when they were thought to be a distinct animal branch. And actually as I look at the family tree canids outdate felids by millions of years - so if anything it's probably not that the bear is descended from the cat, but more likely that the cat is possibly descended from a relative of the bear that did not become a bear but instead went in a different direction. All very fascinating, in part because new evidence can make major changes in our understanding of the world around us Kaz - IF you keep an open mind.
This all happened tens of millions of years ago Kaz - little to none of it is settled. We are just making our best guesses with the evidence available and we've only been at it for a little over 100 years. It'll take longer than that to straighten out 50 million years of animal interbreeding.
Put him on the other side of
Put him on the other side of the Connecticut River?
Cape Cod canal didn't deter him either...
...so who knows. Stay safe bear!.
Where did Ryan report this?
I don't see it on his page that you linked to.
Sorry, on his Twitter feed
Which I mistakenly didn't link to. Linked now.
Wlidlife officials
obviously don't know what they are doing. Who the hell tranquilizes a bear 80 feet off the ground with no net or fall protection.
Not as dumb as they look
Version of the story I heard was that they tranquilized him on the ground, then he ran up the tree before passing out?
They should have consulted anon commenters first
Where would you rather they tranq it? If he comes down first, he is running around for five minutes while the tranq works through his system...and he'll be pissed off at having been shot.
When he's up the tree and scared, his instinct is to hold on when he's shot until he finally passes out. The tree breaks most of his fall and they cushioned the ground with either a fall bag or trampoline. We are talking about a large animal that sometimes fights other large bears and survives. I think he can weather a few dozen feet of falling just fine but he appreciates your concern.
And the Fire Department ....
.... had no equipment that could be borrowed?
Florida, maybe?
Florida, Massachusetts, that is, where there are "bear crossing" signs posted along Route 2.
The things a man will do
for a booty call (one assumes)
Wandering bear...
The bear has been to better places this summer than I have!
This is an endangered species
One of the last specimens of homing bears!
No, no
First time they caught this Bear in Provincetown. I can assure you, there's plenty of Bears out there this time of season.
If they keep deporting him west
He'll never make it to P-town in time for Bear Week.