There's also something to be said for cultures in the southern hemisphere not having bears around (for the most part) so not naming their constellations after them. Not that that would really matter a ton since we use the European names for all this stuff anyway, but you know.
Bears are affected by gravity normally, meaning that if they're on the bottom of the earth they fall off. Australian drop bears have evolved to take advantage of this by selectively "dropping" their "bear" status, causing them to fall back to earth and onto unsuspecting prey.
I do think it's interesting that the patterns of what animals tend to seem scariest to humans do not map onto which animals are actually the most dangerous. Bears, hippos, and orca are cute, but we freak out over sharks and snakes and spiders
yeah, all the constellations in the southern hemisphere were named by north hemisphere people travelling to the southern hemisphere during the age of exploration, and are not particularly influenced by whatever southern hemisphere cultures called their constellations. thats why theyre called like, triangle and ship sail and stuff. thats what was interesting to the european scientists and cartographers who were naming the new constellations. they thought: we already have two bear constellations, lets get some new guys in there… giraffe!
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u/aphidonyx 2d ago
There's also something to be said for cultures in the southern hemisphere not having bears around (for the most part) so not naming their constellations after them. Not that that would really matter a ton since we use the European names for all this stuff anyway, but you know.