Greetings, friends and bear-readers! If you're like most people in America today, you're probably travelling a great and vastly inconvenient distance in order to spend a long weekend with people you pretend to love for one giant and potentially unpleasant meal. (At least, that's what the Internet and larger news media suggests. Are you instead staying at home with your friends and roommates, eating a meal in a stranger's home and maybe doing a 90-minute boutique spin class? Congrats on your originality and lack of travel money / meaningful vacation time!) But the most important thing to remember here as we enter the Official Holiday Season™ is that 1) You are almost allowed to play Christmas Music again 2) All C O N T E N  T is Recyclable and 3) the Bears are still active, angsty and full of adventures. Many, many thanks this issue to all the IMPORTANT BEAR NEWS subscribers who sent news items this month, most importantly Kat Chow, Dakota Williams, Andrew Helms and Cameron Gaitling. (They know what they did, and they are appreciated). You, dear reader, are more than welcome to contribute your own IMPORTANT BEAR NEWS as it comes to you out there in the wild. Did your mother happens to strike a bear in the course of her daily life and then proceed to write a "IT HAPPENED TO ME" column in your local newspaper? Send it in! There's always, always room for more bear news. And now, as always, TO THE BEARS.

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Lovable Prisoner Escapes Prison
Election Of Attractive Leader Spurs National Bear Die-Off 
Fool Your Friends, Enemies, Bears While Sleeping
Motherless Bears Still Find Time For Food
Terrifying Kickstarter Teddy Bear, Part 1
Terrifying Kickstarter Teddy Bear, Part 2
Finnish Bears Are Dense, Beautiful
Area Man Lives Out Everyone's Dreams, Survives 

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Koala bear [Phascolarctos cinereus], tree-dwelling marsupial of coastal eastern Australia. Virtually tailless, the body is stout and gray, with a pale yellow or cream-coloured chest and mottling on the rump. The broad face has a wide, rounded, leathery nose, small yellow eyes, and big fluffy ears. The feet are strong and clawed; the two inner digits of the front feet and the innermost digit of the hind feet are opposable for grasping. 

food: The koala feeds very selectively on the leaves of certain eucalyptus trees. This diet is relatively poor in nutrients and provides the koala little spare energy, so the animal spends long hours simply sitting or sleeping in tree forks, exposed to the elements but insulated by thick fur.

habitat: Though once again widespread, koala populations are now scattered and separated by urban areas and farmland, which makes them locally vulnerable to extinction. In the southern part of their range, they became practically extinct except for a single population in Gippsland, Victoria. Some were translocated onto small offshore islands, especially Phillip Island, where they did so well that these koalas were used to restock much of the original range in Victoria and southern New South Wales. 

[Via Encyclopedia Britannica]

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We Need To Talk About Our Turkey Problem
Did You Miss That? WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TURKEYS
Marilynne Robinson Is A National Treasure
Just Say No: A Story With Pets
Remembrance Of Art Schools Past