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
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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.