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Grizzly Bears, Chicago Bears, and Gummi Bears! Oh My! - Mental Floss Scatterbrained | Mental Floss
Aug 11, 2026
Today on Scatterbrained, we kick off the episode with a scientific study about hibernation. We learn the history of the gummy bear. Then we move on to quick facts! Afterwards, we talk about the history of the Chicago Bears, which actually started in Decatur, Illinois. Then we finish up with a fact list of all kinds of fictional bears, from Berenstain to Bad News.
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John Green: @johngreen
Amanda Suk: @sukiestyles
Becca Scott: @thebeccascott
Elliott Morgan: @elliottcmorgan
Dani Fernandez: @msdanifernandez
Mike Rugnetta: @mikerugnetta
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello and welcome to Mental Floss Video. Today we're going to be talking about bears, but not just the big hairy ones
0:05
We're going to talk about the Chicago bears and gummy bears and the right to bear arms. Let's get started
0:21
For a long time, we didn't know many details about the hibernation habits of black bears
0:25
other than the fact they slept for about five to seven months with no eating or drinking
0:29
It's not exactly super easy to follow sleepy bears into their dens and do tests on them
0:34
Some would even say that's creepy. So scientists knew much more about smaller mammals that hibernate
0:39
But a group in Alaska managed to study bears in research published in 2011
0:44
They put biological sensors in five American black bears. Three were males and two were females
0:50
The bears were put in an outdoor location with fake dens made of things like plywood and straw with styrofoam as insulation
0:56
One of the researchers, Brian Barnes, later recalled, We anticipated they might just tear the place up or go on strike or something
1:02
but they actually showed very natural behavior of getting ready to hibernate. That's good
1:06
The dens also contained video cameras, so the researchers could see what the bears were doing at all times
1:11
Think of it like Big Brother, but like Big Bear Brother. You get it. They were monitored for five months
1:16
which is quite impressive when you consider that another one of the researchers had to cross-country ski to a location nearby every morning
1:22
They learned some very interesting things about bear hibernation, like bears are able to regulate their body temperature during that time
1:28
keeping it between 86 and 96.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Before hibernation, their body temperature could reach up to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit
1:36
Although there was one pregnant bear in the study that kept her temperature level up
1:40
where it would be pre-hibernation, but after giving birth, she had a typical hibernation
1:44
Temperature shifts happen slowly in cycles that last from two to seven days. Meanwhile, the bears are also lowering their metabolism by 75%
1:51
This is unusual compared to smaller animals that hibernate. Their body temperatures drop significantly to almost freezing temperatures
1:58
and their metabolism can drop to 2% of their typical rates. One might expect that bears would also need to shift their body temperature that low
2:04
to have the effect they're getting on their metabolism. As for why they don't, according to Barnes
2:09
the bears get insulation from their fat and fur. They also shiver when their body temperature is below about 90 degrees Fahrenheit
2:15
and the shivering helps increase body temperature a bit. The bears' heart rates and breathing seem to be connected in an interesting way
2:20
They'd inhale only about once or twice per minute, and right after inhaling, their heart rates quickly increased
2:26
But after exhaling, their heart rate could be just a few beats per minute
2:30
The lowest recorded was 8.9 beats per minute. The researchers were also surprised that bears don't go back to their normal metabolic rate right after hibernation
2:37
It stays below normal for about three weeks. Experts think that knowing more about bear hibernation could help us make developments in fields like space travel or hospital recovery
2:47
It would be great for humans to be able to slow their metabolic rates during these times like bears can
2:51
or even be able to go into hibernation of their own for deep space travel
2:56
There's no bear more delicious than the gummy bear. Let's learn the origins
3:03
There's a Roman cookbook from the 4th century CE called The Art of Cooking
3:07
that contains a recipe for something that looks a lot like modern jelly
3:11
That might seem unrelated to gummy bears, but as candy historian Beth Kimmerly once put it
3:17
cooking sugar along with fruit has long been a way to preserve or store summer's harvest
3:22
so technically gummy candies are cousins of jams and jellies. Kimberly also considers Turkish delights to be predecessors of gummy bears They been around since at least 1776 Another gummy relative she cites is Japanese rice candy
3:36
During the 19th century, confectioners started to make gummy candies for the first time
3:41
They learned that they could combine sugar and gum Arabic, which you might know is an ingredient in chewing gum
3:47
Then they boiled it along with flavors like fruit. You know, fruit flavor. In 1909, wine gums debuted in Great Britain
3:53
These were non-alcoholic, chewy sweets containing gelatin According to Kimmerle, these predate gummy bears along with gumdrops, jujubes, and chuckles
4:02
Around the same time, there was a German confectioner named Hans Riegel making his own candy
4:07
At first, his focus was hard candy He'd make them, then his wife would deliver them to people on bicycle
4:13
He named his company Haribo, which came from the letters of his name and the town where he lived, Bonn
4:18
But their business wasn't taking off like they'd hoped So in 1922, they made a chewy candy shaped like a bear
4:24
A dancing bear to be exact, which was a trained bear you could find in 19th century German celebrations
4:30
The candy wasn't totally like today's gummy bear. It was taller and slimmer
4:34
Regal was inspired by other candies, but he did come up with his own pectin and starch recipe
4:39
which candy experts considered to be an improvement. And they were popular. The next year, they got a car for their deliveries
4:46
Probably more convenient than the bicycle. During the 1930s, a more compact gummy bear was added to their Haribo products, the Teddy Bear
4:54
They'd also experienced major growth. According to the company, they started the 30s with 160 employees and ended with 400
5:02
In 1945, Hans Riegel died at age 52, but his family was able to continue managing the company
5:08
Then in 1960, Haribo started making gold bears, a name you'll recognize
5:13
But it wasn't until 1978 that they started to look exactly like they do today
5:17
Before then, their feet pointed outward. In 1981, the American Jelly Belly Company started making gummy bears of their own
5:24
That same year, Trolley released gummy worms under their brand. At this point, gold bears were for sale in the U.S
5:30
But in 1982, they opened an American office. This was around the time that gummy candy became ubiquitous all over the world
5:37
Throughout the 1980s, American companies produced all sorts of new gummies in all kinds of shapes
5:43
And of course, what better way to celebrate than a TV show? The Adventures of the Gummy Bears premiered on NBC in 1985
5:50
According to a legend, this was all thanks to Disney CEO Michael Eisner's son
5:55
who liked gummy bears. The show ran until 1991. Alright, let's learn some quick facts about bears
6:04
You can call male bears boars and female bears sows, but you can also just call both of them bears
6:11
So you may have seen a movie in which there's a black bear growling or roaring
6:15
and that's inaccurate. They only make that noise in fiction, and you're probably hearing other animal sounds edited in
6:22
On the other hand, grizzly bears do roar. And speaking of grizzlies, the California grizzly bear is the official state animal of California
6:30
but sadly, California grizzlies are extinct in California, and also everywhere else
6:36
But there are attempts to reintroduce grizzlies into the state. Grizzlies are a subspecies of brown bear, by the way, so every grizzly is a brown bear
6:44
but there are brown bears that aren't grizzlies. And brown bears have an interesting feature
6:48
They have humps above their shoulders, basically a large muscle that helps them dig
6:53
Moving on to sloth bears. They don't have a pair of top front teeth, so they can eat insects by sucking them up into their mouths Polar bears look white but their fur actually isn It clear and hollow They appear white because their fur is reflecting light
7:07
allowing them to camouflage in their surroundings. Polar bears have some very committed scientists studying them, by the way
7:13
They've reported that polar bear milk tastes like chalky cream with some fishiness
7:18
As researcher Andrew DeRocher put it, Don't get me wrong, I'm not walking around drinking cups of the stuff
7:23
but I'm always amazed when you take a graduate student all the way out onto the sea ice and they won't try it
7:29
Polar bear researchers, inspiring portrayals of Luke Skywalker since 2017. But speaking of polar bear research, in 2013, geneticist Brian Sykes revealed that he'd
7:38
examined hair samples from two animals. Both were collected from modern day animals from India and Bhutan, but their DNA connected
7:45
them to an ancient polar bear from Norway. Sykes believes this may have meant that there was some kind of polar bear in the ancient
7:52
Himalayas that might explain the legend of the Yeti. But later researchers argued that it was actually a rare Himalayan brown bear, so this one's yet to be decided
8:01
But finally, let's finish up with a panda fact. They eat a lot of bamboo, like up to 80 pounds per day
8:10
It doesn't have a lot of nutritional value, so they need a lot of it in addition to the small animals they eat, like rodents and fish and bugs
8:21
There are many sports teams in the U.S. named after bears. the Boston Bruins, the Memphis Grizzlies, the Chicago Cubs
8:29
But today we're going to focus on a football team, the Chicago Bears
8:33
And I might mention the Cubs once or twice too. As reluctant as I am because I'm from St. Louis, go Cardinals
8:38
So before they were the Bears, the team was known as the Decatur Staley's
8:43
Very intimidating. The founder was Augustus Eugene Staley, not the typical sports team owner you might picture today
8:50
He attended a one-room school and didn't make it past third grade. He went on to become successful in the food processing business
8:56
In 1909, he bought a plant in Decatur, Illinois for $45,000, then upgraded it with $150,000
9:04
By 1919, he was making $2 million profit, pre-tax, with the Staley Starch Company
9:11
During this time, there were a few plants that had their own baseball teams made up of employees
9:16
Staley workers did this as well. but eventually A.E. Staley added football, which was better known as a college sport back then
9:23
He thought the team would be a good way to publicize his business. In 1919, the Staley team beat the Arcola
9:30
independents 41 to 0, but the teams they played started to get more and more competitive
9:34
So Staley decided to bring a coach on board, a former collegiate football player named George Hallis. When he was hired in
9:41
1920, he was 25 years old and working as a bridge engineer. He got $50 a week to work in the plant
9:48
play on the Staley baseball team, plus coach and play on the football team
9:52
That year he went out to recruit players, which is considered today to be the
9:56
first professional football recruiting trip. He offered players a job at the
10:00
Staley company, but they'd also get two hours of training per day. This is four
10:05
I meant two. Also in 1920, Hallis and Staley went to Canton, Ohio together. They
10:11
met with a group of men who created the American Professional Football Association which later became the NFL. Dun-dun-dun-dun
10:19
They came up with an official set of rules and named Jim Thorpe the president
10:24
That year the Decatur Staley had 10 wins 1 loss and 2 ties Players earned that season But they couldn stay in Decatur forever In 1921 the team moved to Chicago where they played at Wrigley Field then known as Cubs Park
10:40
Staley paid $5,000 for the team to maintain his name for the 1921-22 season
10:45
When it was time for a rebrand, the team became Da Bears. You gotta commit, right? Da Bears
10:51
Halas once explained football players are bigger than baseball players, so if baseball players are Cubs, then certainly football players must be Bears
11:00
That is perfect logic. As for where Staley ended up, he kept working in food processing after the team left the town
11:07
He eventually started processing soybeans in addition to corn. He also had a part in creating Lake Decatur
11:14
And the Bears mascot is Staley Da Bear in his honor. Along with the Arizona Cardinals, they're the only NFL team still around from that first season
11:25
In addition to real bears and gummy bears and the Chicago bears, there are tons of fictional bears you need to know more about
11:34
Jan and Stan Berenstain created the Berenstain Bears. They sort of based Mama and Papa on themselves, though there are some differences
11:42
Stan once explained, I'm not quite as dumb as Papa seems to be sometimes, and Jan is not quite as wise and patient as Mama, but she is Mama
11:52
Jeez, Stan. And speaking of literary bear creators, Don Freeman wrote and illustrated Corduroy
11:58
Before that, he was hoping for a career in jazz trumpeting. He did illustration on the side, and it eventually became his priority
12:05
Plus, he'd lost his trumpet on a subway train. Paddington is another children's book bear
12:11
Author Michael Bond was going to make Paddington from Africa until he found out that there aren't bears in Africa nowadays
12:17
That is why Paddington is Peruvian. Like Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears were designed by American Greetings
12:23
to be featured on cards. At first, there were 10. Now, there's about 70 bears and other animals
12:30
in the Care Bear universe. You can watch the Country Bear Jamboree animatronic show
12:34
at Walt Disney World in Orlando, but it was originally going to be at a ski resort in California
12:40
In the 1960s, the company was making plans to open a ski resort
12:44
which would have included the Jamboree, but it didn't happen, and the bears ended up in Florida
12:49
where they look much more comfortable. filming the original Bad News Bears in the 1970s, the director wanted his actors to ad-lib, so he
12:57
gave a reward, one dollar each day to the person who improvised the best line. Only one Latin book
13:04
has made it onto the New York Times bestseller list. It was Winnie the Pooh, translated into
13:10
Latin by Alexander Leonard and released in 1960. It stayed on the list for 20 weeks. The Muppet
13:16
Fozzie Bear is known as a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, despite his cheesy jokes
13:21
That wasn't always the case. Initially, he would cry when one of his jokes flopped, but that wasn't an audience favorite
13:29
so he was made more optimistic. Waka waka. Thank you
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