Cosmo: Hey, Dr. Universe. Knock, knock.
Dr. U: Who’s there?
Cosmo: Bear.
Dr. U: Bear who?
Cosmo: Bear with me; I’m trying to tell a joke!
Dr. U: Hey friends, I’m Dr. Universe.
Cosmo: And I’m Cosmo.
Dr. U: And if you’re anything like us, you’ve got lots of big questions about our world. Today we’re answering a question sent in by a kid just like you.
Cosmo: Florian wants to know: Would it have been possible to domesticate bears instead of wolves?
Dr. U: Dogs and humans have hung out for maybe 30,000 years. It’s fun to imagine what it would be like if humans had cute bear pets instead.
So, I asked my friend Sean Farley about it. He’s a wildlife biologist in Alaska. He studied at the Washington State University Bear Center.
It turns out dogs share a common ancestor with gray wolves. Sometime between 11,000 years ago and 32,000 years ago, dogs split off from wolves on their family tree.
And those dog-wolves probably domesticated themselves.
Cosmo: I’m not surprised. Dogs are pretty needy.
Dr. U: Back then, humans were hunter-gatherers. Over time, some wolves became less fearful of humans. They became friendlier and more dog-like. They would have been great partners for hunters.
That probably wouldn’t have worked with bears. Bears don’t live and work together. Wolves hunt as a pack to take down big prey like a moose. But bears can do that on their own.
Plus, bears are massive.
Cosmo: I’ve seen bears while I was camping. They’re scary big.
Dr. U: And ancient bears were even bigger. Think about the prehistoric cave bear. It definitely lived around humans. That ginormous bear weighed as much as 2,000 pounds. It would take tons of food to maintain their size.
As they sat by the fire, humans probably tossed bones and bits of meat to friendly wolves. That would have been a steady food source for them. But scraps wouldn’t be enough to feed a bear.
Cosmo: Keeping a big hungry bear around sounds problematic.
Dr. U: Baby bears would be kind of a problem, too.
Wolf pups stay inside a den with their mother for a few weeks. Then they’re big enough to run and play with the pack.
Bear cubs are born while their mother hibernates. And they’re altricial—or super helpless. They won’t come out of the den for months.
That long hibernation and those needy babies wouldn’t have worked with the early human lifestyle.
Hunter-gatherers moved around a lot. They traveled to find food and shelter from the weather. They met up with other groups of people. Humans would have had to change their whole lives to try to domesticate a bear.
Cosmo: I guess humans couldn’t bear the huge cost of trying to befriend those furry guys.
Dr. U: That’s all for this episode, friends.
Cosmo: Big thanks to Sean Farley.
Dr. Universe: As always, if you’ve got a science question for me, you can submit it at askdruniverse.wsu.edu. That’s A S K D R U N I V E R S E dot W S U dot E D U.
