Life of a brown bear in the wild. Brown bear. Lifestyle and habitat of the brown bear. Speed ​​and agility are the distinctive qualities of the beast

1.The habitats of the brown bear are found almost everywhere. It can be seen in Asia and Europe, as well as in North America.

2.The genus of bears appeared 5-6 million years ago. Its first representative is currently considered to be the bear Ursus minimus, a relatively small animal whose fossil remains were found in France.

3. The brown bear looks very impressive and original: a huge powerful body with high, proud withers, its head is very large, but its eyes and ears are small.

4.The lifespan of a bear can reach thirty years. True, according to verified data, there was one bear who lived in captivity with a farmer for 47 years. But this fact is unique.

5. Recently, quite often bears can be seen in the taiga, among old coniferous trees, rivers and near swamps.

6. Bears’ paws are very powerful. They have huge claws, the length of which reaches up to twenty centimeters.

7. Bears have very good vision, but their hearing and sense of smell are even better. Therefore, they can easily notice their prey and hear its approach.

8.North America is considered the “bear continent”. A third of all bears live there.

9. Bears rarely attack people, considering them to be an unusual animal with unusual manners and gestures.

10. Since 1994, an exhibition of Teddy bears has been held annually in Münster.

11.The color of the fur, as well as its size, depends on its habitat and ranges from light brown to black.

12.Depending on where the brown bear lives, its rather large size and original appearance change.

13. All types of bears are incredibly smart. These animals are very inquisitive, always trying to explore new and unusual objects, and have a very good memory.

14.The fastest way to determine the intentions of bears is to observe the fur on the back of their necks. Of all wild animals, bears are closest to humans in their psychology.

15. The word “bear” is common Slavic, meaning “eats honey.” The bear is one of those lucky ones that a person learns about from the cradle. It seems that there is not a single animal about which so many stories and fairy tales have been written.

16. The brown bear is a fickle animal. It feeds in one place, sleeps in another, and can move several kilometers away from its usual habitat to mate.

17. The largest and most powerful bears live in Alaska and Kamchatka. The weight of these bears reaches 300-350 kilograms.

18.Bears can run at a running speed of forty kilometers per hour. If you compare it with a person, then the fastest and most resilient person can run at a speed of twenty kilometers per hour.

19. Bears’ vision is as good as that of humans, and their sense of smell and hearing is much better developed.

20. Malayan bears are the smallest species of this animal.

21. The cult of the bear existed among the Slavs and Germans, among the indigenous peoples of the northern Urals, Siberia and the Far East. Among the Mansi, Kets and Nivkhs there was a widespread idea of ​​the bear as the ancestor of people, and therefore the animal was especially revered.

22. The color of the bear’s fur is uniform, the fur is very thick. By the way, bears have two layers of fur: one short, it retains and retains heat, the other is long, it protects the bear’s skin from water.

23. Bears are very smart, when they find a trap with bait in the forest, they roll stones into it so that the trap slams shut, and they themselves take the bait and eat it.

24. The bear eats a variety of foods: plant and animal foods, and loves fish. Bears often destroy anthills, hunt for larvae and eat them. The bear is very fond of plant foods: he eats wild garlic, thistle, and when berries appear, he happily eats lingonberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Bears love ripe oats; they also actively consume nuts, acorns, and apples. The bear loves to spend time in the meadow, eating grass, like a cow or horse: he plucks the grass with his paw and sends it into his mouth.

25. Bears feel very good in water, swim well and can catch fish with their paws for food. Therefore, they prefer to live in old forests with the obligatory presence of a river in them.

26. A brown bear marks its territory. Only he can hunt here. He marks boundaries in a special way, tearing off the bark from trees. In areas without plantings, a bear can peel off objects that are in its field of vision - stones, slopes.

27. The life of brown bears consists of searching for food, especially before hibernation. Before falling asleep, the animal diligently confuses its tracks: it walks through the swamps, weaves, circles and even walks backwards.

28. The closest relatives of bears are foxes, dogs, and wolves.

29. Bears are called clubfoot because they rest on either 2 left paws or 2 right paws. As they walk, it seems as if they are waddling.

30.Omnivorousness and endurance are the main qualities that help this animal survive in difficult conditions. The brown bear's diet consists of 75% plant foods.

31.The life of a brown bear living in Russia begins in a den, where newborn cubs (blind, toothless and almost hairless, weighing about 500 grams) feed on their mother’s fatty milk.

32. At the age of four months, wild bears can already follow their mother into the forest in search of food. During this period, the mother bear feeds them with milk and teaches them correct social behavior. The cubs spend almost half of their waking time playing. This is how they learn about the world around them and develop important skills needed for hunting. The rest of the time is spent searching for food and sleep.

33. When young, bears climb trees well. As they get older, they do it reluctantly.

34. The cubs are finally separated from their mother at 3-4 years of age.

35. During hibernation, all waste products in the bear’s body undergo repeated processing and turn into valuable proteins necessary for its existence. The rectum is closed by a dense plug consisting of pine needles, compressed grass and wool. It is removed after the animal leaves the den.

Den of brown bears

36.All winter long, the brown bear sleeps on its side, curled up comfortably. Poses on the back or sitting with the head down are less common. Breathing and heart rate slow down during hibernation.

37 The clumsiness of bears is deceptive; when danger arises, they very easily break into a gallop and can easily catch up with a person.

38. It’s hard for a bear in the spring, after hibernation. At this time of year, the bear hunts ungulates - roe deer or elk, and if there is not enough food for it, it can even feed on carrion.

39. The bear’s legs are crooked, thanks to this “defect”, the bear can climb trees very well.

40.Bears are not susceptible to bee stings.

Spectacled bear

41. Spectacled bears live in South America.

412An adult panda can eat up to 20 kilograms of bamboo at one time.

43.Usually a female bear gives birth to offspring once every two years. The older cubs (mostly sisters) often look after the younger ones.

44.The mental abilities of brown bears are evidenced by the following fact: they know from memory everything in their vicinity of the clearing with berries, fruits and mushrooms, and they know when they are ripe.

45. Having regained strength after a long sleep, brown bears are ready to mate. The rut begins in the spring, in May, and lasts about a month. Females signal their readiness to mate with a special secretion that has a strong odor. Using these marks, males find their chosen ones and protect them from rivals.

46. ​​Even in ancient times, bears were depicted on coins. This happened approximately in 150 BC.

47. During the mating season, bears are very dangerous. They make a wild roar and can attack a person.

48. The bear chooses its winter shelter with special care. For dens, reliable, quiet places are chosen, located on the borders of swamps, in windbreaks, on river banks, in secluded caves. The shelter should be dry, warm, spacious and safe. The bear arranges its den with moss, laying out a soft bedding from it. The shelter is camouflaged and insulated with tree branches. Very often a bear uses a good den for several years.

49.Before hibernation, the bear must gain the required amount of fat reserves. If it is not enough, the animal has to wander further in search of food. This is where the name comes from - connecting rod.

50.Sometimes fierce battles arise between two bears for the female, in which the fate, and sometimes the life, of one of them is decided. If one of the males dies, the winner may even eat him.

Currently, the number of brown bears is quite difficult to determine. The calculations, carried out using data on harvesting both over large areas and in individual regions, are unacceptable due to the obvious discrepancy between the hunted bears (including those under licenses) and a certain, close to reliable indicator of their number in the areas. It is enough to pay attention to a number of factors on which in our time not only the distribution of bears among stations depends, but also their availability for hunters.

In rural areas, the indigenous population who know the land well is becoming smaller due to widespread urbanization. The vast majority of sports hunters visit areas accessible to transport. For these reasons, bears are almost never caught in hard-to-reach places. The productivity of hunts, the most common in the European part of the USSR (hunting on oats), remains low, and from year to year it is heterogeneous and largely depends on the yield of the bear’s main food: in a good year, the percentage of prey drops sharply due to a decrease in the feeding intensity of bears in the fields sown with oats. Den hunting is currently underdeveloped due to the fact that bears lie in places that are difficult for humans to reach, and there are few experienced den hunters. The disturbance factor is now one of the ocular factors influencing the phasic distribution of bears.

Work on recording the number of bears in nature reserves has been done quite well. However, most protected areas serve as reserves for bears, and the density of the latter here does not reflect the actual indicators of the overall density for a particular region, and therefore cannot be taken as a cross-polational indicator.

Currently, we have information on the total number of brown bears only for certain regions, which are presented in special publications. Thus, in the Amur-Ussuri region there are 7-8 thousand brown bears, of which 2-2.5 are in Primorye, 9 in Kamchatka, and in the river basin. Kolyma (on an area of ​​199 km2) - 0.62-0.65, in Altai (on an area of ​​60 thousand km2) - 2-3, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory - 10-15, in the Vologda Region. - about 4, in the central regions of the European part of the RSFSR - 3.5-4 (generalized data from Prikloya), in the North-West - 5-6, of which in the northern part of Karelia about 2.5, in the Baltic states - 0.1 -0.2, in the Caucasus - 0.6-0.7, of which in the Caucasus Nature Reserve 0.3, in the Stavropol Territory - 0.25-0.3 thousand individuals.

Brown bear numbers have declined in many parts of their range due to forest loss and land development. However, the overgrowth of clearings contributed to the restoration of large areas of spruce forests - the main habitats of the brown bear.

Judging by the data on the geographical distribution of this animal, there have been no significant changes in the boundaries of its range in the USSR; it still lives in the entire forest zone of our country, excluding only certain “island” populations in Western Siberia and in the central regions of the European part of the RSFSR.

Currently, there are many ways to count the number of wild animals, including brown bears. The ecology of bears, depending on their habitat in a particular region, changes significantly. Various physical-geographical and climatic conditions, the presence and accessibility of certain types of plant food, as well as the level of human development of land form adaptations that determine the degree of sedentism of the animal, its confinement to certain types of land by season, daily and seasonal biorhythms, activity, etc. These adaptations, as a rule, are inherent in the entire population as a whole and are considered traditional, manifested in complex biological forms of behavior of individuals in a given region.

Regional behavioral differences, as well as the typology of tree stands and terrain features may determine the choice of the brown bear survey method that gives the best results for a given region or its individual parts. For example, in the vast, sparsely forested areas of Kamchatka and Yakutia, it is most convenient to conduct aerial surveys of brown bears after they leave their dens. In the Far East, good results can be obtained in the fall, during the period of mass transition of brown bears to winter survival stations. In the central part of Yakutia and the North-West, as well as in the Kalinin region. techniques are effective for mapping and identifying plantar callus width impression sizes. In mountainous areas, it is possible to count bears based on traces of their life activity and visually, and in lowland forests, surveys by mapping individual areas using survey data are acceptable. The choice of a particular methodology should be determined taking into account the natural conditions of a particular territory and the capabilities of the accounting organizers.

Taking into account the number of brown bears is also very important in the sense that the reproductive capacity of this species is quite low: a producing female gives birth to cubs every 2, and in some cases every 3 years. The lifespan of the animal is about 30 years, but the production period is much shorter, for example, two old females, 20-22 and 23-25 ​​years old, killed in September in different years, did not have offspring.

The brown bear is an object of sport hunting. When exploiting a certain population, it is necessary to correctly determine the percentage of removal in order to maintain the population at a level that ensures stable growth and levels out losses from fishing and other causes of death of bears in the population. When conducting censuses, it is also necessary to have an idea of ​​the sex and age composition of the population. Questionnaire-survey and combined methods allow one to get a general idea of ​​the number of brown bears over large areas, but are unacceptable when counting in a certain territory due to the known errors made by the correspondents themselves due to the low their preparation. Censuses based on vital signs or visual encounters usually provide only additional information.

The single distribution of bears over a territory, relative sedentarism, and differences in the size of tracks have long been used by researchers as auxiliary factors in censuses. However, this often required special, sometimes lengthy, training for an accountant capable of distinguishing individual bears by a complex of individual differences noticeable in the traces of their activity. This method is very complicated and excludes the possibility of conducting censuses over a large area by a large number of census takers who do not have special training. A simple, most accessible method of accounting was required. Repeated attempts were made to count bears based on the size of their paw prints, but more often they measured the longest length of the hind paw print. The fact is that the bear is a large animal, and the largest paw print was perceived with great interest. A detailed study of the motility of the animal’s movement showed the advisability of measuring the width of the plantar callus of the front paw.

A specific lifestyle (climbing trees, turning over stones, logs, etc.) caused greater development of the forelimbs in the bear: the mass of the muscles of these limbs makes up 54% of the total mass of the muscles of the front and hind legs. The increase in the load on the front paws also led to a redistribution of the time spent supporting them when running: during a slow gallop, the support of the hind paws accounted for 36 frames (at a shooting speed of 120 m/s), and 42 frames for the support of the front paws. The animal’s center of gravity is also shifted forward due to the strong protrusion of the humerus, the development of the muscles of the shoulder girdle, powerful muscles of the cervical region and a massive head, usually lowered or extended horizontally. The increased load on the forelimbs causes them to be placed more firmly on the plane of support. Thus, when moving at the moment of stretching the body, the front paws are under significant load and fit tightly to the substrate, which ensures a clear imprint of the plantar callus at any gait.

The print of the hind paw, which experiences less load, changes in relation to the area of ​​support at different gaits, so it is less clear and cannot always be registered, especially in places where. the animal leaves 1-2 impressions. During a quiet step, the toes, distal and middle sections of the tarsal bones are located horizontally to the support area and ensure a tight fit of the toes and the entire callus of the hind leg. The proximal section of the tarsal bones has a constant inclination to the plane of support of 9-15°, does not have a callosal formation on the ventral side, is covered with coarse hair and comes into contact with the substrate only when the animal is sitting.

With a fast gait, medium and fast step, trot (this is a very rare gait in a bear) and gallop, the autopodium of the hind limb changes the angle of inclination relative to the fulcrum due to an increase in the tension of the extensors of the hind limb, which entails a change in the length of the imprint of this limb, t i.e. palmar callus. The large support area of ​​the hind paw also helps to reduce the pressure per 1 cm2 of the substrate, so a clear imprint of the callus remains only on soft soils. In all cases, the plantar callus impression has the most constant configuration and size. Often, when a bear moves, it places its hind leg in the imprint of its front leg. In this case, some displacements may be observed, and the width of the palmar callus impression is clearly visible, which is usually 1 cm less than the width of the plantar callus, which should be taken into account when working.

Thus, taking into account the peculiarities of the constitution and motor skills of movement of the brown bear, it is most advisable to register the impression of the plantar callus (without fingers and paw claws) as the least variable in size, and therefore the most reliable in determining whether it belongs to a particular animal. However, during measurements, especially those carried out by inexperienced observers, errors are possible due to some displacement of the animal’s paw on uneven ground. In this case, the width of the plantar callus impression may not correspond to its true width. Measuring the length of the impression helps to avoid errors, since it is known that the ratio of the width of the callus to its length is usually 2:1; Only in very large bears is there some change in this ratio, and starting from the width of the plantar callus impression of 20-22 cm (n = 8), this ratio has the expression 2: 1.60 ± 0.12. We recorded plantar callus prints with dimensions, cm: 20:12, 22:13, 25:14. The technique for registering and sizing prints is extremely simple and does not require any special training other than brief instructions.

During the research conducted in the Kalinin region. on the basis of the Central Forest Reserve, it was found that recording the size of plantar callus impressions of bears using only two parameters during the period of their wakefulness without any special time restrictions allows us to collect material reflecting the true state of the population, as well as determine the number of females with cubs of the year , and in some cases with second-year students and calculate the percentage of population growth.

In accordance with the size of plantar callus impressions, bears of a certain population can be divided into 4 classes (Table 5).

Long-term studies of the brown bear population in the area of ​​the Central Forest Reserve make it possible to provide indicators of the movement of bear numbers by year, taking into account size classes (Table 6).

When studying the sex and age composition of a particular population, one should take into account some features of ecology and behavior, individuals and family groups. Solitary bears under the age of 4 years can often be recorded visually, since this is the most mobile age group of the population, in which basic forms of behavior are still being developed, connections with the habitat continue to be established and strengthened. It is these animals that most often appear in places visited by people and walk along the same paths. Naturally, they will be registered more often. The same goes for family groups. The she-bear brings the young to the most feeding places, open to the sun, and moves slowly; only females with cubs sometimes travel long distances, but they do this not often. Adult solitary bears behave more cautiously. Sometimes it is enough for a person to appear in the habitat of such a bear for the animal to leave.

For these reasons, the probability of multiple registrations of young bears and family groups is much higher than that of single adult bears, which entails a distortion of the true data on the sex and age composition of the studied population. Only long-term data collected using a unified methodology provide the most reliable results.

Let's take, for example, data for the Kalinin region. Makarova, Khokhlov, 1972). Of the 133 visually recorded bears, the following were identified: 32 males (24%), 41 females (30.8%) and 60 cubs (45.1%). Obviously, such a ratio of individuals for a normally functioning population is unrealistic and “selectivity” of registration occurs.

In some years, the number of young of the year can reach 20% of the total number of a certain population, which is about 100 individuals. Typically, the number of underyearlings does not exceed 15%, and in a non-exploited population, which has a density close to optimal (10 individuals per 100 km2), such as in a nature reserve, the number of underyearlings only in some years exceeds this figure (see Table 6) .

In the Lapland Nature Reserve for the period 1958-1971. The sex and age composition of the population had the following indicators, %: single bears 60.8, females with young 12.4, offspring 14.4, single teenagers 12.4. Composition of the Altai bear population, %: females 13.4, young animals with them 23.2, including lonchaks 3.2 (128). In the Stolby Nature Reserve in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the sex and age structure of the group of bears, according to visual observations, is ,%: adult males 28, females with offspring 21, young under 2 years 37 and three-year-olds 6, in addition, there are 7% of empty females (51).

In our opinion, a very high percentage of young in these indicators is characterized by a low number of studied individuals (about 20).

In this article, we present the results of a study of brown bear nutrition in the central part of European Russia using the example of several districts of the Tver and Novgorod regions, where a very large complex of biotechnical measures is being carried out aimed at increasing the number of brown bears.

The bear is an omnivorous animal, feeding on a variety of animals (from insects to moose and deer) and a variety of plant foods.

The size of its habitat depends on the abundance of food.

In forests rich in food, the animal can live on an area of ​​300 - 800 hectares.

In the mountains, as a rule, it migrates: starting in spring, it feeds in the valleys, where the snow melts earlier, then goes to the chars and alpine meadows, then gradually descends into the forest belt, when berries and nuts ripen here.

Often, for the first half of summer, a bear lives on one slope of a mountain, and for the second half, on another, tens of kilometers from the first (“Hunting in Russia” WiMo, 1992).

The climatic features of this strip of Russia in winter are known for their mildness. This contributes to the earlier awakening of bears from winter sleep.

The entire period of activity throughout the year is divided into four stages: early spring, spring, summer, autumn.

Having left the den, bears still have sufficient reserves of fat and are in no hurry to leave their winter refuge. For two weeks, they may not move further than 200 m from the den. This depends on the height of the snow cover in the forest.

Bears are very lethargic at this time. Having come out to a place well lit by the sun, they can freeze for a long time in one position, swaying and only occasionally looking in different directions.

Not far from the main den, there are usually several more bedding areas with bedding. When, finally, hunger makes itself felt, bears begin to wander in search of food and often anthills fall under their disfavor. The last to leave the dens are females with cubs born in winter.

To restore their strength, they need high-calorie food. In the early spring, the basis of their diet is food of animal origin. Bears have been repeatedly observed pursuing litters of wild boars and elk calves. On 16 thousand hectares (the area of ​​the studied area) there are 17 attachments, which are regularly updated.

Visiting them begins around the beginning of April, with the exception of 2007. The first bear was observed at the bait on March 10 due to the abnormally warm winter.

Driving around the boundaries of the site, every now and then you come across traces of bears returning from their winter quarters. The number of bears visiting the baits increases every week.

As a rule, a bear does not throw away carrion it finds, especially if it is a large animal. But there is a fact when an animal, having fed once or twice, throws the carcass and leaves in the direction from which it came.

This was confirmed in the following. We laid out two fallen calves in different places. One is where traces of the observed bear are constantly found (the width of the palmar callus is 14 cm), the second is five kilometers to the south.

As a result, within three days the bear ate the bait, which lay in the place where its tracks were most often found. Then, after a three-day break, he found the second calf, ate the entrails and left.

The direction of the wind during the study changed from north to north-west, that is, it can be assumed that the bear simply walked around this area of ​​​​the forest. A day later, he again came to the burial place of the first bait, although there was nothing left there except bones.

After a week, the bear did not appear at the second visit, but visited the remains of the first one regularly. It could be assumed that he sensed the presence of another, larger bear and moved away. But during our observations, we did not come across any bears or mother bears with cubs in this area.

Having examined this area more carefully, we discovered a marker tree with old claw marks at a height of more than two meters.

The withdrawing bear confirmed the fact of the territorial attachment of the individuals.

Throughout the summer and autumn, its traces can be found along the roads in the vicinity of this tract. As a rule, bear cubs behave this way at the beginning of their independent life. They look for food where their mother took them in their first two years of life.

Both in the early spring and spring, as well as in the autumn, there is a very high activity in visiting the bait. In the spring, this is due to the replenishment of the lack of calories after winter sleep, and in the fall, with the replenishment of fat reserves before going to the den.

One adult male is capable of eating about 30 kg of meat at one time, and if you take into account that at least three individuals visit the bait, then you have to lay the bait two or even three times a week.

I would like to note that laying a bait of cattle has a positive effect on bear attacks on herds of cows. Over the seven years of the farm’s existence, no such facts have been recorded.

Bears are practically not picky about food of animal origin, but we decided to check what they still prefer. Having buried a horse, a cow, an elk and a pig at the same depth (30 cm) and at a distance of about 3 meters from each other, they began to observe.

The bears ate the bait in the following sequence - the elk, horse, cow, and pig were practically left untouched, only the internal organs were eaten. In all cases, the internal organs and udders of cows are eaten first; they are the richest in biologically active substances and enzymes.

Later, when organizing bait hunts, when a bear worthy of becoming a trophy appeared, we restrained it with a bait of horses.

As noted above, bears, like most other animal species, have their own territories, which they mark with scratches on the bark of trees, usually coniferous trees.

This fact has been noted by researchers before. The area of ​​an individual plot is from 5-15 to several tens of square kilometers (Mashkin V.I., 2003).

The bear is a vagabond, wandering in search of the areas richest in food, but almost always returning to spend the winter in the places where it was born. Any, even the most powerful biotechnology, is powerless here.

Every autumn we observe a massive exodus of bears outside the boundaries of the farm. Bears are characterized by changes in biotopes throughout the year, and in some areas, seasonal migrations.

In the Urals, sometimes bears make transitions from the western to the eastern slopes in the fall, covering distances of up to 300 km. Changes in habitats are associated with changes in feeding conditions, with the massive appearance of blood-sucking insects, with earlier snowfall on slopes of certain exposures, etc. Movements can be caused by forest fires or drought (Mashkin V.I., 2003).

Over the course of several years, I have had to observe, during visual surveys on oats in the fall and on bait in the spring, the behavior of bears when meeting each other. They have an age hierarchy and the right of the strong to be able to feed on, say, the same bait, but this, as a rule, occurs when there is a shortage of food.

Once I had to observe how, in an oat field of about three hectares, eleven bears of different age categories and a herd of nine wild boars were simultaneously feeding. At the edge of all feeding fields, as I already noted, bait is laid.

The bears did not react to each other in any way, only from time to time some of them rose on their hind legs to inspect the newcomers to the feeding field. They approached the bait one by one. Having made sure that once again one of the brothers had eaten, the next one approached.

Bears usually go out to feed at sunset, but the older and more cautious the animal is, the later it comes out. Repeatedly when driving around feeding fields, I had to observe feeding bears in the interval from 9 to 11 a.m., but these were young bears.

To determine daily activity, for a long time I observed bears from observation towers located directly on feeding fields and sites in various hunting grounds of the Tver region in the Penovsky, Toropetsky, Selizharovsky, Firovsky, Andreapolsky districts, as well as the Marevsky district of the Novgorod region.

As a result of the research, it turned out that both in spring and autumn, bears visited feeding fields and areas in the period from 21:00 to 24:00. This was followed by a break until four o’clock in the morning, and bears again appeared wanting to feed, but at that time of day there were no young bears to be seen.

The young began to appear around six o'clock in the morning. However, in the spring of 2005, instability was noticed in visiting the camp, and in all of the above areas.

More than 90% of the bears went out to bait reluctantly and after 12 o’clock at night or between 4 and 7 o’clock in the morning. For the period from 2000 to 2007, this was observed for the first time. This may be due to the fact that the winter was not very cold, and since the fall the bears have stored up a sufficient amount of fat.

After a successful spring bait hunt (early May), the subcutaneous fat layer of the male (the width of the palmar callus was 15 cm) on the seat was 8 cm thick.

The need for animal feed in the early spring continues until the appearance of plant feed. As a rule, this occurs at the beginning of May, and plants are still the basis of the bears’ diet.

This fact was previously noted by researchers in their works. At this time, bears on bait can be seen less and less often. In the spring of 2007, at the Zhukovskoye hunting farm in the Smolensk region, a bear with a palmar callus width of 18 cm carefully collected oats from the ground that had been sown in the food field.

In the spring, bears often eat various ballasts: stump rot, cereal rags, construction debris from anthills.

At the same time, they eat spruce and pine needles, blueberry shoots and their roots, buds of aspen, linden, rowan, maple, willow, sometimes chaga (birch mushroom), as well as various sedges that have melted from under the snow, gnawing the stems until internodes, in swamps - cotton grass and squat cranberries (V.S. Pazhetnov, 1990).

We have identified several major and minor species from different plant families that form the basis of the diet from spring to late autumn. These are mainly grasses, sedges and umbelliferae.

A study of bear excrement was conducted in the spring to determine the composition of feed.

The ratio of animal and plant feeds turned out to be almost the same. In the early spring period, excrement consists of more than 95% of digested meat, the remaining 5% consists of tree buds, plant roots, spruce and pine needles and the so-called ballast.

15 excrement samples collected from different locations on the farm were examined. Based on the structure of plant food remains, it turned out that preference is given to more juicy shoots, such as dissected hogweed (Heracleum sibiricum L.), angelica (Archangelica officinalis), angelica (Angelica silvestris), and common raspberry leaves (Rubus idaeus).

These herbaceous plants and shrubs are united by their ability to stimulate and have a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract, especially since after a long stay in a state of winter sleep, in which neither the stomach nor intestines work, bears urgently need to restore the functions of these organs.

Looking ahead, I would like to note that fragments of these plants are found in excrement from early spring to autumn.

The number of plant species eaten by bears is not the same in different months. The minimum species diversity of plants in the diet of animals in April is 7% (cereals, sedges) of the total list of species eaten by animals. This is due to the beginning of the plant growing season, when the main food plants have not yet sprouted (Okaemov V.S., 2004).

As for mammals and ungulates, based on the structure and appearance of the hair found in excrement, these are wild boar (Sus scrofa), elk (Alces alces), badger (Meles meles), which may have died for some reason.

The remaining components of excrement (spruce needles, insects, mosses) are ballast.

The Gobi brown bear is also called the mazalay. This animal is a subspecies of the brown bear and lives in the Mongolian Gobi Desert.

Mazalai are perhaps the only bears that can be found only in Mongolia. Nowhere else, in any zoo in the world, will you see this species of clubfoot. The International Fund for Wildlife Welfare published the results of registration of all bears - there are 56 subspecies. However, the Gobi brown was not included in this list.

Description of the Gobi bear

Gobi bears are relatively small in size. Their coarse, sparse fur is colored in light brown or whitish-bluish tones.

The chest, shoulder parts of the body and throat are “threaded” with a white stripe. The bear's claws are light. The second and third toes on the hind legs are fused by almost a third. In the summer, Mazalai males have brown fur, and in the winter they acquire a brown-gray color. Their legs and neck are darker than their body.

Lifestyle, nutrition and reproduction of Mazalai

For the winter, Mazaalai settle in caves or make dens under trees. In summer, they can be more often seen near the water, where there are many plants that are part of the bear’s diet. In addition, Gobi bears enjoy rhubarb roots, berries, wild onions and other plants that can be found in the desert. Sometimes clubfoots feed on carrion, rodents, birds, lizards or insects. Unlike other bears, Mazaalai are primarily herbivores.

After mating, the female cruelly breaks up with the male, driving him out of her territory. Every two years, a mother bear gives birth to a pair of cubs. Each weighs approximately 500 grams. In harsh times, it was noticed that the female sacrificed one of the cubs for the sake of survival.

Conservation of Gobi brown bears

Mazaalai was listed as an endangered animal species, since the number of these bears is very low, and this fact was noted in the national “Red Book”. Researchers were not too lazy to count the number of Mazalai in the territory of the “Great Gobi” and reported that there were no more than 30 bears left.

The number of Gobi clubfoot has decreased so much that it is time to sound the alarm not only at the national but also at the global level.

Limited by insufficient funding and extreme conditions in the Gobi Desert, Mazalai bears cannot be adequately studied by specialists, and as a result, no plan has been drawn up to develop their conservation activities. However, thanks to the creation of a supplementary food supply program initiated by the government in the 1980s, it is playing an important role in preserving the tiny population of Gobi bears.

A group of scientists and staff of the reserve carries out monitoring, observing the behavior of the Mazalai in their natural habitat, directly in the spring, when the bears emerge from hibernation. During this period, animals need food. Food is left in special feeders until new vegetation grows. It is thanks to such data collection points in the form of feeders that it is possible to install remote-controlled cameras and study the behavior of the Mazalai.

The brown or common bear is a predatory mammal from the bear family. This is one of the largest and most dangerous species of land predators. There are about twenty subspecies of brown bear, differing in appearance and distribution area.

Description and appearance

The appearance of a brown bear is typical of all representatives of the bear family. The body of the animal is well developed and powerful.

Appearance

There is a high withers, as well as a fairly massive head with small ears and eyes. The length of the relatively short tail varies between 6.5-21.0 cm. The paws are quite strong and well developed, with powerful and non-retractable claws. The feet are very wide, five-toed.

Dimensions of a brown bear

The average length of a brown bear living in the European part is usually about one and a half to two meters with a body weight in the range of 135-250 kg. Individuals inhabiting the central zone of our country are somewhat smaller in size and can weigh approximately 100-120 kg. The Far Eastern bears and bears are considered the largest, their sizes often reaching three meters.

Skin color

The color of a brown bear is quite variable. Differences in the color of the skin depend on the habitat, and the color of the fur can vary from a light fawn shade to a bluish-black. Brown color is considered standard.

This is interesting! A characteristic feature of the grizzly bear is the presence of hair on the back with whitish ends, due to which there is a kind of graying on the coat. Individuals with a grayish-white color are found in the Himalayas. Animals with reddish-brown fur inhabit Syria.

Lifespan

Under natural conditions, the average life expectancy of a brown bear is approximately twenty to thirty years. In captivity, this species can live fifty years, and sometimes more. Rare individuals survive in natural conditions to the age of fifteen years.

Subspecies of brown bear

The brown bear species includes several subspecies or so-called geographical races, which differ in size and color.

The most common subspecies:

• European brown bear with a body length of 150-250 cm, tail length of 5-15 cm, height at the withers of 90-110 cm and an average weight of 150-300 kg. A large subspecies with a powerful build and a pronounced hump at the withers. General coloration varies from light grayish-yellow to blackish-dark brown. The fur is thick and long enough;
• Caucasian brown bear with an average body length of 185-215 cm and body weight of 120-240 kg. The coat is short, coarse, and paler in color than that of the Eurasian subspecies. Color ranges from a pale straw color to a uniform gray-brown color. There is a pronounced, large dark-colored spot in the withers area;
• East Siberian brown bear with a body weight of up to 330-350 kg and a large skull size. The fur is long, soft and dense, with a pronounced shine. The wool has a light brown or blackish-brown or dark brown color. Some individuals are characterized by the presence of fairly clearly visible yellowish and black shades in color;
• Ussuri or Amur brown bear. In our country, this subspecies is well known as the black grizzly. The average body weight of an adult male can vary between 350-450 kg. The subspecies is characterized by the presence of a large and well-developed skull with an elongated nasal part. The skin is almost black. A distinctive feature is the presence of long hair on the ears.

One of the largest subspecies in our country is the Far Eastern or Kamchatka brown bear, whose average body weight often exceeds 450-500 kg. Large adults have a large, massive skull and a wide, raised front of the head. The fur is long, dense and soft, pale yellow, blackish-brown or completely black in color.

The area where the brown bear lives

The natural distribution area of ​​brown bears has undergone significant changes over the last century. Previously, the subspecies were found in vast areas stretching from England to the Japanese Islands, as well as from Alaska to central Mexico.

Today, due to the active extermination of brown bears and their eviction from inhabited territories, the most numerous groups of the predator are recorded only in the western part of Canada, as well as in Alaska and in the forest areas of our country.

Bear lifestyle

The period of activity of the predator occurs at dusk, early morning and evening hours. The brown bear is a very sensitive animal, orienting itself in space mainly through hearing, as well as smell. Poor vision is characteristic. Despite their impressive size and large body weight, brown bears are almost silent, fast and very easy to move predators.

This is interesting! The average running speed is 55-60 km/h. Bears swim quite well, but they can move through deep snow cover with great difficulty.

Brown bears belong to the category of sedentary animals, but young animals separated from the family are capable of wandering and actively looking for a partner. Bears mark and defend the boundaries of their territory. In the summer, bears rest directly on the ground, nestling among forbs and low shrubby plants. With the onset of autumn, the animal begins to prepare for itself a reliable winter shelter.

Nutrition and prey of the brown bear

Brown bears are omnivores, but the basis of their diet is vegetation, represented by berries, acorns, nuts, roots, tubers and the stem parts of plants. In a lean year, oats and corn are good substitutes for berries. Also, the predator’s diet necessarily includes all kinds of insects, represented by ants, worms, lizards, frogs, field and forest rodents.

Large adult predators are capable of attacking young artiodactyls. Roe deer, fallow deer, deer, wild boar and elk can become prey. An adult brown bear can break the back of its prey with one blow of its paw, after which it covers it with brushwood and guards it until the carcass is completely eaten. Near water areas, some subspecies of brown bears hunt seals, fish and seals.

Grizzly bears are capable of attacking baribal bears and taking prey from smaller predators.

This is interesting! Regardless of age, brown bears have excellent memory. These wild animals are able to easily remember mushroom or berry places, and also quickly find their way to them.

The basis of the diet of the Far Eastern brown bear in summer and autumn is salmon going to spawn. In lean years and poor food supply, a large predator is capable of attacking even domestic animals and grazing livestock.

Reproduction and offspring

The mating season of the brown bear lasts a couple of months and begins in May, when the males engage in fierce fights. Females mate with several adult males at once. Latent pregnancy involves the development of an embryo only during the hibernation stage of the animal. The female carries the cubs for approximately six to eight months.. Blind and deaf, completely helpless and covered with sparse hair, the cubs are born in a den. As a rule, the female bears two or three babies, whose height at the time of birth does not exceed a quarter of a meter and weighs 450-500 g.

This is interesting! In the den, the cubs feed on milk and grow up to three months, after which they develop milk teeth and become able to independently feed on berries, vegetation and insects. However, cubs are breastfed for up to one and a half years or more.

Not only the female takes care of the offspring, but also the so-called nurse daughter, who appeared in the previous litter. The cubs live next to the female until they are about three or four years old, until they reach puberty. The female usually produces offspring once every three years.

Brown bear hibernation

The sleep of a brown bear is completely different from the period of hibernation characteristic of other species of mammals. During hibernation, the brown bear's body temperature, breathing rate, and pulse remain virtually unchanged. The bear does not fall into a state of complete stupor, and in the first days only dozes.

At this time, the predator listens sensitively and reacts to the slightest danger by leaving the den. In a warm winter with little snow, and with plenty of food, some males do not hibernate. Sleep occurs only with the onset of severe frosts and can last less than a month. During sleep, the reserves of subcutaneous fat that were accumulated in the summer and autumn are wasted.

Preparation for sleep

Winter shelters are established by adults in reliable, remote and dry places, under a windbreak or the roots of a fallen tree. The predator is able to independently dig a deep den in the ground or occupy mountain caves and rock crevices. Pregnant brown bears try to create a deeper, more spacious, warm den for themselves and their offspring, which is then lined from the inside with moss, spruce branches and fallen leaves.

This is interesting! Young bear cubs always spend the winter with their mother. Such a company can be joined by bear cubs in their second year of life.

All adult and solitary predators hibernate alone. The exception is individuals living on the territory of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Here, the presence of several adult individuals in one den is often observed.

Duration of hibernation

Depending on weather conditions and some other factors, brown bears can stay in a den for up to six months. The period when a bear lies in a den, as well as the duration of hibernation itself, may depend on the conditions imposed by weather conditions, the yield of the fattening food base, gender, age parameters and even the physiological state of the animal.

This is interesting! An old wild animal that has gained a lot of fat goes into hibernation much earlier, even before significant snow cover falls, while young and insufficiently fed individuals lie down in a den in November-December.

The period of occurrence lasts for a couple of weeks or several months. Pregnant females are the first to settle in for the winter. Lastly, old males occupy dens. The same place for hibernation in winter can be used by a brown bear for several years.

Bears-rods

Shatun is a brown bear that has not had time to accumulate a sufficient amount of subcutaneous fat and, for this reason, is not able to hibernate. In the process of searching for any food, such a predator is capable of wandering around the surrounding area all winter. As a rule, such a brown bear moves uncertainly and has a shabby and relatively exhausted appearance.

This is interesting! When meeting dangerous opponents, brown bears emit a very loud roar, stand on their hind legs and try to knock down their opponent with a strong blow from their powerful front paws.

Hunger forces the beast to often appear in close proximity to human habitation. The connecting rod bear is typical of northern regions characterized by harsh winters, including the Far East and Siberia. A massive invasion of connecting rod bears can occur during lean seasons, approximately once every ten years. Hunting connecting rod bears is not a commercial activity, but a necessary measure.