Sleepy Bear 

Fast Face: Did You Know?

They don’t hibernate. Pregnant females will curl up in their dens and become less active, but polar bears in general will keep hunting and eating throughout the whole winter. While land bears hibernate, their body temperature drops to about 0C (32F). When polar bears sleep in winter, their body temperature never goes below 31C (88F).

Read more at Tundra Buggy and explore more polar bears at explore.org.

Too Cute Tuesday

There are about 1,600 pandas left in the wild, which is actually a small increase since the 70s. Many organizations are working to save the pandas for future generations.

Did You Know? Yes, pandas are good climbers, but they are also good swimmers! Read more facts here. 

Explore more pandas. 

Don’t party too hard this weekend. 

It might make you dog tired. 

Too Cute Tuesday

Why are they SO darn cute? Let the science tell you. 

In 2005, The Washington Post asked Stephan Hamann, a psychology professor at Emory University, to explain why humans think certain animals are cute. His studies “found that ‘cute’ pictures cause increased activity in the middle area of the orbital frontal cortex, located behind the bridge of the nose, and in the amygdala, the emotion-control center of the brain responsible for fear and arousal,” the Post reported.

‘According to Hamann, increased activity in the middle orbital cortex is usually associated with pleasure and positive emotion. Some evidence suggests the brain activity there is greater when the stimulus is ‘neotenous,’ which is to say it has juvenile characteristics — a button nose, big eyes, a large wobbly head, chubby extremities or pudgy cheeks.’” (NPR and Washington Post). 

So get your amygdala going.