Bear Garden

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The Bear Garden

People love bears for many reasons, including their cuteness, strength, and the comfort they provide.
Bears are powerful animals that care for their loved ones.
They are also highly evolved social animals that form hierarchies and kinship relationships. A big symbol of protection.

Bears are often depicted as cute and cuddly, especially as teddy bears. Teddy bears can be a source of comfort and security for children.
They can also help children develop their imagination.

Design of the bear garden

People love Bears because of their symbol of protection. Bears offer a lovely sense of warmth and protection. Toy bears have open arms, ready for a cuddle, and by design, they are always on hand to be squeezed and snuggled. This may tie back to the idea that bears are very protective, powerful animals. They care deeply about the ones they love.

By placing hand-selected stone sculptures to symbolize and share the joy, love, and comfort of bears. We designated them at different parts of the garden among many other landmarks within the garden. So when you come across a bear in the maze, you'll meet a friendly stone statue of a bear leading you the way. With its large comfy presence as your guidance, you will find your way out of the maze.

You might also come across sculptures of stone lions in our lion garden as a great balance between the topiaries, flowers and green foliages.

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History of Bears

The history of bears is a story of evolution and adaptation to changing environments. Bears first evolved from small carnivorous mammals about 40 million years ago.

Early evolution
The first identifiable bear, Ursavus elmensis, lived about 20 million years ago. These early bears had dog-like features and ate insects and vegetation.
There are also fossils that indicate that bears once lived in Africa.

Modern evolution
Modern bears appeared in Eurasia about 5 million years ago.
Bears spread across Europe, Asia, North America, and eventually South America. Bears adapted to climate change, competition, and food and territory availability.
Bears faced hunting by early humans.

Bear Species

The six bear species of the subfamily Ursinae are the polar bear, brown bear, American black bear, sun bear, sloth bear, and Asiatic black bear.
These species are genetically closely related and morphologically distinct.
The evolutionary relationship between polar bears and brown bears is complex, as they can mate and produce fertile hybrids.

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Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae (/ˈɜːrsɪdiː, -daɪ/). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout most of the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, and Eurasia. Common characteristics of modern bears include large bodies with stocky legs, long snouts, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and short tails.

While the polar bear is mostly carnivorous, and the giant panda is mostly herbivorous, the remaining six species are omnivorous with varying diets. With the exception of courting individuals and mothers with their young, bears are typically solitary animals.

They may be diurnal or nocturnal and have an excellent sense of smell. Despite their heavy build and awkward gait, they are adept runners, climbers, and swimmers. Bears use shelters, such as caves and logs, as their dens; most species occupy their dens during the winter for a long period of hibernation, up to 100 days.

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Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for their meat and fur; they have also been used for bear-baiting and other forms of entertainment, such as being made to dance. With their powerful physical presence, they play a prominent role in the arts, mythology, and other cultural aspects of various human societies.

In modern times, bears have come under pressure through encroachment on their habitats and illegal trade in bear parts, including the Asian bile bear market. The IUCN lists six bear species as vulnerable or endangered, and even least concern species, such as the brown bear, are at risk of extirpation in certain countries. The poaching and international trade of these most threatened populations are prohibited, but still ongoing.

How bears Communicate

Bears produce a number of vocal and non-vocal sounds. Tongue-clicking, grunting or chuffing many be made in cordial situations, such as between mothers and cubs or courting couples, while moaning, huffing, snorting or blowing air is made when an individual is stressed. Barking is produced during times of alarm, excitement or to give away the animal's position. Warning sounds include jaw-clicking and lip-popping, while teeth-chatters, bellows, growls, roars and pulsing sounds are made in aggressive encounters. Cubs may squeal, bawl, bleat or scream when in distress and make motor-like humming when comfortable or nursing.

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Bears sometimes communicate with visual displays such as standing upright, which exaggerates the individual's size. The chest markings of some species may add to this intimidating display. Staring is an aggressive act and the facial markings of spectacled bears and giant pandas may help draw attention to the eyes during agonistic encounters.

Individuals may approach each other by stiff-legged walking with the head lowered. Dominance between bears is asserted by making a frontal orientation, showing the canine teeth, muzzle twisting and neck stretching. A subordinate may respond with a lateral orientation, by turning away and dropping the head and by sitting or lying down.

Bears also communicate with their scent by urinating on or rubbing against trees and other objects. This is usually accompanied by clawing and biting the object. Bark may be spread around to draw attention to the marking post.

Pandas establish territories by marking objects with urine and a waxy substance from their anal glands. Polar bears leave behind their scent in their tracks which allow individuals to keep track of one another in the vast Arctic wilderness.

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Bears in cultures

Bears have been popular subjects in art, literature, folklore and mythology. The image of the mother bear was prevalent throughout societies in North America and Eurasia, based on the female's devotion and protection of her cubs. In many Native American cultures, the bear is a symbol of rebirth because of its hibernation and re-emergence. A widespread belief among cultures of North America and northern Asia associated bears with shaman; this may be based on the solitary nature of both. Bears have thus been thought to predict the future and shaman were believed to have been capable of transforming into bears.

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There is evidence of prehistoric bear worship, though this is disputed by archaeologists. It is possible that bear worship existed in early Chinese and Ainu cultures. The prehistoric Finns, Siberian peoples and more recently Koreans considered the bear as the spirit of their forefathers.

Artio (Dea Artio in the Gallo-Roman religion) was a Celtic bear goddess. Evidence of her worship has notably been found at Bern, itself named for the bear. Her name is derived from the Celtic word for "bear", artos. In ancient Greece, the archaic cult of Artemis in bear form survived into Classical times at Brauron, where young Athenian girls passed an initiation rite as arktoi "she bears".

Bears in Constellations

The constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the great and little bears, are named for their supposed resemblance to bears, from the time of Ptolemy. The nearby star Arcturus means "guardian of the bear", as if it were watching the two constellations.

Ursa Major has been associated with a bear for as much as 13,000 years since Paleolithic times, in the widespread Cosmic Hunt myths. These are found on both sides of the Bering land bridge, which was lost to the sea some 11,000 years ago. and "The Brown Bear of Norway". An early version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", was published as "The Three Bears" in 1837 by Robert Southey, many times retold, and illustrated in 1918 by Arthur Rackham.

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Bears, like other animals, may symbolize nations. The Russian Bear has been a common national personification for Russia from the 16th century onward. Smokey Bear has become a part of American culture since his introduction in 1944, with his message "Only you can prevent forest fires".

The Hanna-Barbera character Yogi Bear has appeared in numerous comic books, animated television shows and films.The Care Bears began as greeting cards in 1982, and were featured as toys, on clothing and in film.[ Around the world, many children—and some adults—have teddy bears, stuffed toys in the form of bears, named after the American statesman Theodore Roosevelt when in 1902 he had refused to shoot an American black bear tied to a tree.

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