Trivia: ‘Arctic’ comes from the Greek word for bear: Arktos. The name doesn’t come from the iconic polar bear, but from constellations in the northern sky of the Arctic, ‘Ursa Minor’ (Little Bear) and ‘Ursa Major’ (Great Bear).
See also post 8.
Believed by some to be linked to the etymological origins of the name “Arthur”.
That’s interesting, because the name “Beowulf” (or “bee-wolf”) is also a euphemism for bear.
Turns out Gretchen McCulloch is a real person:
I did not know that.
Well, sure, there’s that… but I posted it with much more panache!
Sorry Francis_Vaughan, I missed your post
Well, she was, until she inadvertently summoned the Brown One. 
I should update her wikipedia page, then.
Wow, I’ve never even thought about that, but now that you mentioned it, yeah, I also never heard about African bears. But I’m still a little mind-blown: given that Africa is connected to Eurasia, a continent full of bears, why is that? Not even bears in Northern Africa, Maghreb? Is the whole continent too hot or too dry for bears?
(I wished we still had Colibri around. He definitely would have known the answer.)
There was - the Atlas Bear. It was hunted to extinction 150 years ago.
Ah damn, I could have seen that coming. We’re a terrible species to all the others.
See also