If Kodiac bears could unhinge their jaw.

[JerryHusky]

Could their bellies accommodate an average height adult human?

[FillSmith]

Heh, I think they could! It is the largest recognized subspecies or population of the brown bear, and one of the two largest bears alive today, the other being the polar bear

[Tassie]

According to Smithsonian Channel, an adult kodiak brown bear can consume 100Lbs of salmon per day. Some bears are, of course larger, but few are large enough to significantly alter that number.
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/vide ... rica/31812
Reference.com says that the average weight of an adult human is 167Lbs for a woman and 197 for a man.
By these numbers, even if a Kodiak could devour an entire day's worth of food in one gulp, it would be capable of swallowing only the smallest of adults.

However there are conflicting reports on the subject as this "expert" demonstrates with a historically accurate retelling of one camper's experience:
https://aryion.com/g4/view/338982

There is also undeniable photographic proof that a bear can consume an adult human whole here:
https://aryion.com/g4/view/706654



Does this make me a nerd or a creep or both?

[JerryHusky]

According to Smithsonian Channel, an adult kodiak brown bear can consume 100Lbs of salmon per day. Some bears are, of course larger, but few are large enough to significantly alter that number.
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/vide ... rica/31812
Reference.com says that the average weight of an adult human is 167Lbs for a woman and 197 for a man.
By these numbers, even if a Kodiak could devour an entire day's worth of food in one gulp, it would be capable of swallowing only the smallest of adults.

However there are conflicting reports on the subject as this "expert" demonstrates with a historically accurate retelling of one camper's experience:
https://aryion.com/g4/view/338982

There is also undeniable photographic proof that a bear can consume an adult human whole here:
https://aryion.com/g4/view/706654



Does this make me a nerd or a creep or both?

No more of a nerd than me. XD

[JerryHusky]

Heh, I think they could! It is the largest recognized subspecies or population of the brown bear, and one of the two largest bears alive today, the other being the polar bear

Bear attacks would be much less painful & violent.

[GeneticMess]

Bear attacks would be much less painful & violent.

The potential of a bear attack would actually become an upside to going camping in the woods

While not alive today, an extinct ancestor genus of the modern North American brown bear, the Short-faced bear, was roughly double the weight of a Kodiak bear and beat their height by a couple feet, both on all fours and when standing upright on their hindlegs. One of the two species of the genus, the greater short-faced bear, measured around 1.5-1.8 meters (5-6 ft.) tall when on all fours, meaning it would be able to look the average adult human in the eye. It could probably gulp one down and barely lift a paw at that height. Unfortunately, unlike a kodiak brown bear, details of its diet are fuzzy, and it's estimated to only have eaten around 35 pounds a day. At best, it could stomach your average toddler if it could unhinge its jaw, so the Kodiak brown bear wins out in this scenario.

At least, that's what Wikipedia said about the subject. And nothing written on the internet is ever false!

[GREGOLE]

One might argue that if we're allowing them to stretch their jaws like a snake, there's no reason not to apply that same buff to their stomachs.

There's always the question of whether that sudden expansion of weight on their stomachs would damage their other organs. But I mean, a bear is still more equipped to handle it than most of the (extant)animals we like to cram people into.

[GeneticMess]

One might argue that if we're allowing them to stretch their jaws like a snake, there's no reason not to apply that same buff to their stomachs.

There's always the question of whether that sudden expansion of weight on their stomachs would damage their other organs. But I mean, a bear is still more equipped to handle it than most of the (extant)animals we like to cram people into.

Oh yeah, bears would actually likely be more well equipped to hypothetically swallow a human whole than say, your average snake (average, not ruling out every kind of snake because some get freaky) or horse, which I've seen as far more popular animal predators in the vore community, although that mind just be a blind generalization on my part. In this hypothetical where all organisms have easily unhinged jaws and a penchant for live, whole human meals, following the philosophy of the deep sea gulper eel. Minus the people part. Or not? Hell, if they were big enough and surface-dwelling, they'd try it.

[EccentricSwitch]

Would it be able to do it without any other adaptions? Almost certainly not, unless the bear was considerably above average and the human considerably below average.

However, a creature generally would develop an adaption like unhinging jaws because it needs to consume more food than it can otherwise eat. This means that you'd be looking at a bear with a considerably greater need to consume food than your average bear. So logically, you'd be looking at the bear equivalent of that friend who can single-handedly hoover up an extra large pizza and still be hungry enough to finish off your leftovers rather than the average person.

If you were to put those freak of nature bears in an environment where the food of the appropriate size is plentiful enough for them to adapt to be able to consume it reliably, and if they deveolped the ability to unhinge their jaws to do so, I think it would be plausible for them to develop to the point where they could eat 200-300lbs in one go then proceed to go sleep it off.

[ArcaneSigil]

Bear attacks would be much less painful & violent.

The potential of a bear attack would actually become an upside to going camping in the woods

While not alive today, an extinct ancestor genus of the modern North American brown bear, the Short-faced bear, was roughly double the weight of a Kodiak bear and beat their height by a couple feet, both on all fours and when standing upright on their hindlegs. One of the two species of the genus, "the greater short-faced bear, measured around 1.5-1.8 meters (5-6 ft.) tall when on all fours, meaning it would be able to look the average adult human in the eye. It could probably gulp one down and barely lift a paw at that height. Unfortunately, unlike a kodiak brown bear, details of its diet are fuzzy, and it's estimated to only have eaten around 35 pounds a day. At best, it could stomach your average toddler if it could unhinge its jaw", so the Kodiak brown bear wins out in this scenario.

At least, that's what Wikipedia said about the subject. And nothing written on the internet is ever false!

I have quoted and bolded the part I am referencing. At 5-6 feet tall, the Greater Short-Faced Bear, though not that much larger than say... an extra large Grizzly or Polar Bear... is still a significantly large animal. And the average toddler, even these days, barely comes up to my waist and I'm 6' even. The Greater Short-Faced Bear could swallow your average 2foot somethin' toddler with relative ease. Yeah it would struggle around the shoulders because it doesn't have elastic jaws, but a bear that large would only struggle a little with something wider than it's head. If it was determined enough, the Greater Short-Faced Bear could, in fact, swallow a toddler that was no taller than... say... 2-2.5 feet tall. And, the Greater Short-Faced Bear isn't even the largest bear in the fossil record. Arcotherium, a branch off of the Greater Short-Faced Bear, was slightly bigger. The article I'm looking at doesn't say how much bigger, but it was bigger.