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1:07

This is But Why, a podcast

1:09

for curious kids from Vermont Public. I'm

1:11

Jane Lindholm. On this show, we

1:14

take questions from curious kids all

1:16

over the world, and we find interesting people

1:18

to help us get some answers.

1:20

There's an animal that's been on our mind

1:22

recently, an animal that apparently

1:25

can look a little bit like a human

1:27

when it stands up on its back legs.

1:30

So much so that some people recently

1:32

got a little confused. It's an

1:35

animal that is important to many cultures

1:37

around the world, but under threat because

1:39

of humans due to loss of habitat and

1:41

climate change.

1:43

We're thinking about sun bears. Sun

1:46

bears are one of the eight types of

1:48

bears in the world, but a lot of people

1:50

don't know much about them. Have you ever

1:53

heard of sun bears? They live in Southeast

1:55

Asia, and we asked a scientist who

1:57

works closely with them to tell us a

1:59

little bit.

1:59

more. My name is Su Ti

2:02

Wong. I am a

2:04

wildlife biologist and

2:07

a tropical forest ecologist.

2:10

Su Ti Wong, who goes by Wong, studies

2:12

the relationship between animals and plants

2:15

that live in tropical rainforests, and

2:17

he runs the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

2:19

Center in Malaysia.

2:21

The center aims to conserve

2:24

and help sun bears from extinction

2:26

in the wild. We do

2:28

rescue the sun bears

2:31

that will keep us illegal pets

2:34

and then give them a safe home. For

2:37

those bears that we can retrain

2:40

and re-wow, or

2:42

we call rehabilitations, we

2:46

are giving them a second chance in

2:49

order for them to live in

2:51

the forest for the second

2:53

time, just like wild

2:55

bears. We also

2:57

help to educate people. Wong

3:00

says the center also does research on wild

3:02

bears to help protect sun bears from extinction.

3:05

I mentioned that some people have recently been confused

3:08

about sun bears. You might not expect

3:10

it when you look at a bear standing on all

3:12

four of its legs, but lots of

3:14

bears can actually look kind of human when they

3:16

stand up on their hind legs. Someone

3:19

recently took a video of a sun bear at

3:21

a zoo in China standing on its back

3:23

legs to get a better look at the people who were on the

3:25

edge of its enclosure. They shared

3:28

that video on social media sites,

3:29

and other people thought it looked like

3:32

a human in a bear costume. Wong

3:34

says it's understandable that people were

3:37

a little suspicious.

3:38

When they stand up, they are like

3:41

our height, like a human height.

3:44

And also, sun bear can

3:47

walk straight up just like a

3:49

human, because that

3:51

bear was standing

3:54

so straight up to

3:56

a point where it doesn't look

3:59

like a sun bear. That's

4:01

why people thought it is a human

4:05

wearing a sun bear costume. So sun

4:07

bears can look a little bit like humans

4:09

in bear suits when they stand up. But

4:12

they're not humans, of course, they're bears. So

4:14

let's learn a little bit more about them.

4:16

A sun bear is the

4:18

smallest bear species in the

4:20

world. It looks just like other

4:22

bears, but they are very small.

4:25

How small is small? If

4:28

it is a female adult

4:31

sun bear, they weigh about 35 kilograms.

4:34

If it is a male,

4:37

they would be about 45 kilograms. That's

4:41

about 75 to 100 pounds. By

4:43

comparison, American black bears, which

4:45

are considered medium sized bears, weigh

4:48

anywhere from about 200 to 600 pounds. And

4:51

brown bears can weigh more than 1,000 pounds. That's

4:54

the weight of 10 or more sun bears

4:57

put together.

4:58

Sun bears are

5:01

obviously very small. And

5:03

then they have short,

5:07

sleek black fur. Their

5:09

hair is unlike the American black

5:11

bears and

5:14

the brown bears, where they only

5:16

have one type of hair, which

5:19

is the very short and

5:22

sleek. They kind

5:24

of protect them from the rain rather

5:27

than keep them warm because

5:29

they live in this tropical rainforest

5:34

that is warm and hot year

5:36

round with a lot of

5:38

rain. That makes sense. Bears living

5:41

in cold climates need fur that can keep

5:43

them warm. For example, polar bears

5:45

living in very cold regions have a thick

5:47

layer of soft fur right next to

5:49

their skin and an outer layer

5:52

of coarse fur called guard hairs that

5:54

act a little bit like a raincoat to keep the water

5:56

from getting in. Sun bears don't

5:58

need that warm inner layer.

5:59

because they're already in a warm place. They

6:02

are the true tropical bears that

6:04

do not hibernate, meaning that there's no

6:07

winter here and the sun bear

6:09

do not sleep

6:10

over the winters, like

6:13

the American black bears or the grizzly

6:15

bears. They are found across

6:17

South Asia, ranging from eastern

6:20

tip of India,

6:21

eastern tip of Bangladesh, southern

6:24

tip of China, Myanmar,

6:27

Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,

6:31

Vietnam, Peninsula of Malaysia,

6:33

Sumatra, and Borneo.

6:36

Besides being small, they have

6:38

some other characteristics that make them easily

6:40

identifiable. For one thing, they

6:43

have a yellow or white mark on their chest that's

6:45

shaped like a crescent. A crescent

6:47

is the shape of the moon when it's just bigger than a sliver,

6:50

or the shape of the pastry known as a croissant,

6:53

which means crescent in French.

6:54

Sun bears also have

6:57

tiny ears. They

6:59

have really, really small ears

7:01

compared to other sun

7:03

bears also have the

7:06

longest claw compared to other

7:08

bears like the American black bears and

7:11

the brown bear. They use their

7:13

claws

7:14

to dig the soil

7:17

and also they use the claw to

7:19

help them climb up to the tree

7:22

all the way to the treetop. As

7:24

for what they eat, like many bears, they

7:27

like lots of different foods. Sun

7:29

bears is an omnivore.

7:32

They eat both plants and

7:35

animal material. In the forest,

7:37

when the forest have fruits,

7:40

the sun bear would eat this

7:43

kind of fruits as much as possible.

7:45

When fruits are not available, sun

7:48

bear would feed on a wide variety of

7:50

invertebrates like ants,

7:53

termites, beetles, birolava.

7:57

They also eat sandipid, millipids.

8:00

and also earthworms. Samba

8:03

also eat meat as well but they are not a good

8:05

hunter. If they come across

8:07

a tortoise in the forest,

8:10

they would not hesitate to

8:12

kill the tortoise with their very strong

8:14

jaw and teeth

8:16

and eat their meat. Their

8:18

favorite food by far is

8:21

honey. Samba would

8:23

climb the trees very

8:25

high to find a beehive

8:27

and then use their

8:30

very sharp teeth to

8:32

rip apart the tree trunk, excavate

8:35

the tree hole and

8:38

get hold of the honey. Speaking

8:41

of which... My name is Robert

8:44

and I live in

8:46

Montpelier and it's

8:48

my birthday and how do birds

8:51

climb trees? Happy birthday

8:53

River! Bears climb trees using

8:55

their muscles, kind of like how humans would climb

8:58

trees but they also have sharp

9:00

claws to grasp the bark. Remember

9:03

how Wang said sun bears have very long

9:05

claws? That makes them much better

9:07

climbers than humans.

9:09

As for why they climb trees, mostly

9:11

for protection and to get food. Here's

9:14

a question from Felix. Four

9:17

years old and I live in Cincinnati

9:20

and I want to know why do

9:23

bears live in bear

9:25

caves? Some

9:27

bears stay in caves if they can find them

9:29

for hibernation but they'll also stay

9:32

happily in the hollow of a tree or under

9:34

tree roots wherever they can stay safe. They

9:37

sleep through the winter because it allows them to conserve

9:39

energy when there's very little food around

9:42

them. And some bear species have

9:44

babies while they're hibernating and staying

9:46

in a

9:46

safe place like a cave or a tree hollow

9:48

will keep the cubs safe while they're at their most

9:50

vulnerable. Sun bears

9:53

don't hibernate and they don't use caves

9:55

but... They will sleep in a tree

9:57

cavities if they can find one. If

10:00

not, they will sleep high

10:02

on top of trees. This is the place

10:05

in the rain forest where they

10:07

can sleep with a dry body and

10:10

also escape from blood-sucking

10:12

leeches and other predators

10:15

like tigers and leopards that

10:18

may kill them if they come across

10:21

one.

10:21

It's not just leopards and leeches that are

10:23

threats to sun bears. They are threatened

10:26

because of human activities like

10:29

deforestation. Humans

10:32

want the valuable timber and

10:35

after logging happens, humans

10:38

convert the forest

10:42

into agriculture land and

10:44

therefore sun bears will

10:47

loss their habitat

10:49

or their home. When logging starts,

10:52

it also means that humans invading

10:56

or entering their habitat

10:58

at nighttime, these people will

11:00

go out and hunt for their food.

11:03

If they come across a sun bear, they

11:06

would not hesitate to kill the sun bear

11:08

and eat them. It is the same for

11:10

other wildlife species that live in

11:13

the forest as well. Besides

11:15

deforestation and hunting

11:17

and poaching, sun bears

11:19

also face another threat from

11:22

humans keeping them as

11:25

pets. Sun bear cubs

11:28

or the baby sun bears are extremely small

11:30

and cute when they are little and

11:33

humans thought they may make

11:35

good pets. However,

11:37

in reality, they do

11:39

not make good pets.

11:42

They are wild

11:43

and ferocious and dangerous

11:46

when they grow up.

11:48

It is not a good idea to keep them

11:50

as pets. Sun bears are

11:52

facing a lot of threats and the fact that they've been

11:55

all over social media with that silly story

11:57

about the bear at the zoo people thought might

11:59

be a huge threat.

11:59

human in a bear suit actually

12:02

means more people might now learn

12:04

about sun bears and start to think about

12:06

ways to protect them.

12:08

Wang says those of you hearing about

12:10

sun bears today can share the information

12:12

you've learned and help other people know a little

12:14

bit about these fascinating creatures. He

12:17

says that of all the bear species in the world, sun

12:19

bears are the least well known. So

12:22

spread the word.

12:23

Thanks to Su Ti Wang, who runs

12:25

the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center

12:27

in Malaysia, we have a picture of him with

12:29

a sun bear on our website and our Instagram

12:32

account, But Why Kids?

12:34

Coming up, we'll learn a little bit more about

12:36

other bears.

12:40

This is But Why, a podcast for curious

12:42

kids. I'm Jane Lindholm. If you

12:44

care

12:45

about bears, you should

12:48

be aware there ain't

12:50

unique species

12:53

to compare. Some

12:55

are fairly common, some

12:57

extremely. This is Key Wild

12:59

and Mr. Clark with a song that's simply called

13:02

a bear song. We have a few

13:05

bear facts to share.

13:08

We've been learning a little bit about sun bears.

13:11

Sun bears love to eat honey and

13:13

bees. They climb through the trees like

13:15

chimpanzees from Southeast

13:18

Asia, the smallest bear of all. Some

13:20

people say that they look like dogs.

13:23

In addition to sun bears, there are seven

13:26

other types of bears. Do you think you can

13:28

name them all? Let's let the song

13:30

do it with us. Polar bears, sun bears,

13:32

moon bears, sloth bears, spectacle,

13:34

panda, brown bear, black bear,

13:37

one thing in common, love, we've

13:40

named all eight.

13:41

So sun bears, moon bears, polar

13:43

bears, giant pandas, sloth bears, spectacle

13:46

bears, black bears and brown bears. How'd

13:48

you do? Thanks to Key Wild

13:50

and Mr. Clark for letting us use this fun song.

13:53

You can find a link to the full song in our

13:55

show notes. A lot of you have sent

13:57

us questions about bears over the years.

13:59

question we get a lot is this. My

14:02

name is Sanjana and I live in

14:05

Nuneaton, England. I'm eight years

14:07

old. And my question is, why

14:10

do bears and some other animals

14:12

hibernate?

14:13

And this is when

14:16

I grow in Connecticut and I'm

14:19

four and a half years old. And my

14:21

question is, um, I

14:23

do bears hibernate. Not all bears

14:25

hibernate. We just heard, for example, that

14:28

sun bears don't hibernate and neither

14:30

do sloth bears, giant pandas, and spectacled

14:32

bears. Polar bears will

14:35

find a den to spend short amounts of time in. Their

14:37

body temperature and activity levels lower, but

14:40

they don't truly hibernate. Black bears,

14:42

brown bears, and moon bears do

14:43

hibernate. Technically,

14:46

they go into what's called torpor. We

14:49

actually talked a little bit about hibernation in the

14:51

very first episode we ever made.

14:54

We were talking with a Vermont naturalist named

14:56

Mary Holland, who spends a lot of her time outside

14:59

looking for things to write about and photograph. She

15:01

told us a little bit about what happens in the winter

15:03

with the bears here in Vermont, black bears.

15:06

Before they go to sleep in

15:09

late summer, they

15:12

go on an eating binge and they eat

15:14

and eat and eat. Lots and lots

15:16

of plants and fruits and insects.

15:19

And they get fatter and fatter

15:21

and fatter. Sometimes

15:23

they even double their weight. So a bear

15:26

weighing 200 pounds would weigh 400 pounds possibly.

15:30

And then when they get all big and

15:32

fat, they find a den

15:35

to sleep in. And sometimes the den

15:37

is under a root or sometimes

15:40

it's in the snow under

15:42

a broken branch, or sometimes

15:44

they even sleep right out in the open

15:47

under some evergreen trees.

15:50

But what they do is they slow

15:52

down their body and their hearts beat much,

15:55

much slower than when they were active.

15:58

And then the... They also

16:01

breathe much less frequently. They

16:03

take a breath every 45 seconds

16:05

or almost every minute, which is much

16:07

slower than they normally breathe in the summer.

16:11

And they go into hibernation.

16:13

So what Mary's saying is the bears get really

16:16

fat so their bodies have enough energy to allow

16:18

them to sleep all winter, and they slow

16:21

their breathing down. It's a way to survive

16:23

through several months of cold, harsh

16:26

weather when there's not enough food outside

16:28

to eat. Breathing all winter is

16:30

what is meant by hibernation. People

16:32

didn't used to consider bears hibernators

16:35

because their temperature only

16:37

drops about 10 degrees. It's

16:39

roughly from about 100 degrees

16:42

Fahrenheit to down to

16:43

about 88 degrees Fahrenheit, about

16:46

12 degrees actually. And scientists,

16:50

biologists used to think that your

16:52

temperature had to drop way, way

16:54

down in order to be called a hibernator. But

16:56

they've since decided that bears are hibernators,

17:00

and you can be a hibernator even if

17:02

your temperature doesn't drop very, very low.

17:05

So once they go into hibernation, they

17:07

don't eat, they don't drink, they

17:09

don't pee, and they don't poop. And

17:12

they're in hibernation for four to five

17:15

months, sometimes even longer.

17:18

And what they have is they have a plug

17:20

actually in their butt that keeps

17:23

them from going to the bathroom. And

17:25

when they wake up in the spring in

17:27

April and come out of there again,

17:30

the plug comes out naturally and they

17:32

start eating again. So does

17:34

anything happen to bears in winter or

17:36

do they just sleep?

17:38

While they're sleeping, they

17:41

are using up their fat and

17:43

those cells break down and

17:45

provide them with water and calories.

17:49

They also break down some

17:52

of their muscle and organ tissues

17:54

and those turn into proteins

17:56

to keep the bear alive.

17:59

back bearers actually give birth

18:02

in January to

18:05

tiny little cubs,

18:07

anywhere from two to five of them usually,

18:10

and they are actually not

18:13

completely asleep. Their sleep is quite

18:15

shallow so that when the baby cubs need

18:18

to nurse, then the mother wakes

18:21

up and arranges herself so that

18:23

they can get her milk. And then when

18:25

the baby cubs nap, the mother naps,

18:27

it's very much like people. And

18:30

so the babies, how big are they when

18:32

they are born?

18:34

They weigh about half a pound and

18:36

they're roughly seven inches long.

18:39

They're tiny. Very tiny, very

18:41

tiny. So when they come out of

18:43

hibernation in April though, the cubs are much

18:45

bigger. Are they able to feed themselves

18:48

and they have the bare fur that everybody

18:50

thinks of a bare as looking like? They're

18:52

not completely weaned.

18:54

I'm going to stop Mary right there for just a second.

18:57

Weaned means a baby has stopped getting milk

18:59

from its mother. So when the bears come

19:02

out of their dens and Mary says they're not fully

19:04

weaned, it means they're still getting some

19:06

of their food from their mother's milk.

19:09

They look like a miniature adult.

19:12

They can walk and climb. They're

19:14

very agile and they are starting

19:17

to eat solid food. Usually

19:19

it's some of the green vegetation

19:21

that comes up earliest in the spring, often by

19:23

ponds. Mary, do you think the bears

19:26

dream while they're hibernating? I mean,

19:28

I would dream if I was asleep for that long. I

19:30

would too.

19:32

I think I would be, yes, I would be dreaming

19:34

about the coming summer and turning

19:37

over logs and finding all kinds of ants

19:39

to eat. That's

19:41

what I'd be dreaming about.

19:43

Hi, my name's

19:45

Garen. I'm nine years old.

19:48

I live in Beckinsfield in England.

19:52

I heard that bears don't hibernate.

19:54

They twerp, which means that while other

19:57

animals, when they're hypernating, they're hypernating.

20:00

they can't hear anything. Bears

20:02

can and can wake if a predator

20:05

comes. Is that true?

20:08

Yes, this is true. Bears

20:10

can still hear and they can be woken up if

20:12

they're disturbed while they're in their dens. Black

20:14

bears don't have a ton of predators, but

20:16

they can be disturbed out of hibernation by

20:19

weather or by humans. That

20:21

could be dangerous for the bear if there aren't enough

20:23

food sources around when it comes out of its den.

20:26

Black bears usually hibernate for four

20:28

or five months in places like Vermont where the winters

20:30

are cold and dark. In Alaska

20:32

and northern Canada, they'll sometimes hibernate

20:34

for six months or even more. But

20:37

in some places where it's warmer and there's

20:39

food throughout the winter like Mexico, black

20:41

bears will barely hibernate at all.

20:43

Hi, my name is Kinga. I

20:45

live in Poland. I'm

20:49

five years old. And

20:52

my question is, why

20:54

are bears hungry after their winter

20:56

sleep?

20:57

When the bears wake up, they have one mission, to

21:00

gain weight. So they spend most

21:02

of their time after coming out of hibernation, eating,

21:04

eating, eating. At the beginning of the spring,

21:07

they look for tender green shoots. But

21:09

over time, as trees and plants start to blossom,

21:11

they find nuts and berries and if they're lucky,

21:13

things like honey or fish.

21:15

Henry in Michigan wants to know why bears

21:18

eat berries. Berries are a common

21:20

food source in the summer months when bears are trying

21:22

to gain weight to prepare for hibernation. And

21:25

bears can actually eat tens of thousands

21:27

of berries in a day during the summer. Plus,

21:30

berries have a lot of good energy and they taste good.

21:33

Bears can also get a taste for human garbage

21:35

and birdseed. That's not so

21:37

great. So if you share your habitat

21:40

with bears, you should try to keep your trash cans

21:42

away from them. And you might want to think about putting

21:44

away your bird feeder during the spring, summer and

21:46

fall months so bears can't get at them.

21:49

That's it for this episode. If you have a question

21:52

for But Why, have an adult record it.

21:54

It's easy to do on a smartphone using a voice

21:57

recording or voice memo app. Then have

21:59

your adult record it.

21:59

email the file to questions at but

22:02

why kids org. We can't answer

22:04

every question we get, but we love hearing from

22:06

you and knowing what's on your mind. But

22:08

why is produced at Vermont Public by Melody

22:11

Baudet and me, Jane Lindholm and distributed

22:13

by PRX. Our engagement

22:15

producer is Kiana Haskin and we want

22:17

to offer special thanks to some of the people who also

22:20

make But Why awesome. Our educational

22:22

coordinator Heather DeHamel and graphic

22:24

designer Laura Nakasaka. Our

22:26

theme music was composed by Luke Reynolds. We'll

22:29

be back in

22:29

two weeks with an all new episode. Until

22:32

then, stay curious.

22:48

From PRX.