Hand puppet brown bear - Puppet Buddies - Puppet Company

Dense brown short-pile plush, a light muzzle and two arms held invitingly to the side: the brown bear hand puppet from The Puppet Company Puppet Buddies range is deliberately compact and fits small hands. The bear suits the picture-book corner as much as the morning circle, where he can grumble a greeting about whatever the day brings. For a group talking about winter, woodland animals or courage, a bear is a figure that feels large and stays friendly. The Puppet Buddies span more than thirty characters from the farm, the house and the wild that can be combined freely in play.

Head and front legs work by hand. The puppet is made from 65 per cent recycled materials.

The brown bear, scientifically Ursus arctos, lives in several subspecies across Eurasia and North America. In Europe the larger populations are found in Romania and Scandinavia, while only remnant groups remain in the Alps and Pyrenees. Depending on the region, head and body length ranges from one to nearly three metres. Despite its teeth, its diet is mostly plant-based: grasses, berries, nuts and fungi make up the bulk, alongside fish and insects. In winter it withdraws into a den but does not truly hibernate — its body temperature drops by only four to five degrees.

Did you know that newborn brown bears weigh about as much as a bar of chocolate? At 340 to 680 grams they are born in the middle of the winter rest, while their mother weighs several hundred kilograms. The rich milk lets them grow so quickly that they can head outside with her by spring.