“Smarter than the average bear. Playin possum for 20 years. Maybe they’ll turn on us one day…”

That way I could have gotten brown bears AND possums into the gag, not to mention combining a Yogi Bear self-assessment with a Yosemite Sam remark. And straddling two cartoon companies. Ah well. 3AM wisdom.

In The Bugs Bunny cartoon Fair Haired Hare https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2feyla Bugs emerges from a hole in the floor of Sam’s cabin, right into and through the mouth of a bearskin rug, in which he becomes trapped and starts screaming for help. Sam comes in, sizes up the situation, blasts the rug with a shotgun, and then complains the bear’s been playing possum for 20 years.

Amazing the stuff that sticks in the mind for decades.

Always liked the pandas. No inclination to freak out and go see them every time China loans out a couple, but I’m glad those guys are out there. They always look at the camera as if they know things and aren’t talking.

And yeah- I think I was under the impression bears need meat proteins for their diet, and in quantity, maybe not life or death necessity like cats, but they might not be able to subsist entirely on berries and such for reasons of sheer quantity required. But they do eat berries and other plant matter. I think all bear types do.

I’m just surprised at the surprise, to tell you the truth. Even polar bears eat lichen and moss, or so I’ve been told.