Free Republic

A bear took a stroll through a California neighborhood and paused for a dip in a resident's backyard pool. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department warned residents of a neighborhood in San Dimas to remain in their homes when a bear was spotted wandering through the area. The bear wandered through multiple back yards before taking a swim in a resident's pool. "I see a bear jump in the pool and I told my buddy, 'Hey, I gotta get off the phone. I gotta film this," homeowner Christian Brown told KABC-TV. "The next thing I know the bear is just...

There are new claims of bigfoot encounters -- in Siberia and rural Michigan -- that will likely add to the debate over whether the creatures really exist, although neither holds the smoking gun of a photograph, tissue sample or other scientific evidence. A group of Russians claim a living "snowman" roams the cold Shoria Mountain area of southern Siberia. Meanwhile a woman in Newaygo County, Mich., told Discovery News that she has been interacting with and actually feeding a large family of close to 10 Bigfoot-like creatures who live in the woods near her home for the past two years....

Ancient polar bear jawbone found By Jonathan Amos Science reporter, BBC News, San Francisco The jawbone is about 23cm long What may be the oldest known remains of a polar bear have been uncovered on the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic. The jawbone was pulled from sediments that suggest the specimen is perhaps 110,000 or 130,000 years old. Professor Olafur Ingolfsson from the University of Iceland says tests show it was an adult, possibly a female. The find is a surprise because polar bears are a relatively new species, with one study claiming they evolved less than 100,000 years ago....