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Fun Facts about Goldilocks:
– This fairy tale inspired numerous books, cartoons and movies and her golden hair became a symbol of joyful and happy childhood.
– She was not called Goldilocks back in 19 century. Actually she didn’t have a name at all.
– Goldilocks wasn’t a pretty girl at first.
– Name Goldilocks was first used in 1904 in Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes.
– Gold has strong symbolic meaning in fairy tales, but Goldilocks was not gold from the beginning. Until around 1870 it was silver.
– Before Joseph Cundall it was not a child who enters the bears’ cottage. It was an old lady.
– Cundall decided to change an old lady with a child because in his opinion there were too many fairy tales with old ladies as villains.
– Cundall’s version of Goldilocks was a narration about naughty child who in the end, facing the consequences (angry bears) escapes through the window.
– And there is also a version of brother and sister bears being friends to the little bear.
– Little bear is important because he was originally the protagonist (hero) of the story.
– Because the bears were portrayed as victims of the intruder, little bear was the character with whom kids mostly sympathized.
– In 1837 The Story of the Three Bears was first published, written by Robert Southey describing three bears as well behaved and civilized.
– There is an old English tale named Scrapefoot with three bears living in a castle where the Scrapefoot was actually a fox.
Goldilocks syndrome – when we can’t stop looking for perfect solutions.
– The Goldilocks Theory – Just as Goldilocks found the porridge that was just right, the Earth seems to be just right for living creatures.
– In one version the bears return home and tear Goldilocks apart and eat her.
– Bears live as long as 30 years in the wild. One captive brown bear lived to the age of 47.
– Bears are bowlegged. This gives them better grip and balance.
– Only the polar bear is a true carnivore. All other bears are omnivores, or animals that eat both plants and meat.
– A bear’s normal heartbeat is 40 beats per minute. A hibernating bear’s heart rate drops to 8 bpm.
– Unlike many mammals, bears can see in color.
– A polar bear’s stomach can hold 150 lbs. (68 kg) of meat.
– About 98% of the grizzly bear population in the U.S. lives in Alaska.
– A polar bear can swim up to 100 miles without resting.
– Polar bears are the only bear species that is a marine mammal.
– The name “grizzly bear” refers to the silver-tipped or “grizzled” hair of a brown bear.
– Spectacled bears are the only wild bears that live in South America.
– Polar bears have a thick coat with 9,677 hairs per square inch.
– Most bears are born without fur. Only polar bears and giant pandas are born with thin white fur.
– Only about 1,000 giant pandas live in the wild today.
– Polar bears are the largest land predators on earth.