October 17 Chatty Thread!

Subject: October 17 Chatty Thread! Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:02 am

Halloween is almost here! a Time of Candy, Ghosts, Games, Witches, Ghouls, Faries..Princess..Who knows what else!

Today is a day dedicated to the Andean Bear!

The Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also known as the Andean Bear and locally as ukuko, jukumari or ucumari is the closest living kin of the short-faced bears of the Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene age. The Spectacled Bear is a relatively small species of bear native to South America. It has black fur with a distinctive beige-coloured marking across its face and upper chest. Males are 33% larger than females.Males can weigh 130 – 200 kilograms (286 – 440 lb),
and females 35 –82 kilograms (77 – 181 lb). They are found in several areas of northern and western South America, including eastern Panama, western Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina.
Spectacled bears are the only surviving species of bear native to South America, and the only surviving member of the subfamily Tremarctinae. Their survival has depended mostly on their ability to climb even the tallest trees of the Andes.

Real bear: