Bears appeared more than ten million years ago - in the Middle Miocene. The most famous is the cave bear, which at that time lived in the mountainous regions of Eurasia. They found refuge in caves (hence the name). The structure of the teeth of these bears indicates that their diet included only plant foods. The sizes of modern bear species vary greatly, but they are all similar in appearance. You definitely won’t confuse it with other animals!
Bears (lat. Ursclassae)- a family of mammals from the order Carnivora. They differ from other representatives of canids in having a stockier physique. Bears are omnivores, climb and swim well, run fast, and can stand and walk short distances on their hind legs.
They have a short tail, long and thick hair, as well as excellent sense of smell, hearing and memory. They hunt in the evening or at dawn. They are usually afraid of humans, but can be dangerous in areas where they are accustomed to people, especially polar bears and grizzly bears. Immune to bee stings. In nature they have almost no natural enemies.
Bears have strong jaws with huge fangs. The majority of bears are omnivores. But there are also picky people. For example, the polar bear eats seals, and the sloth bear likes to feast on ants. The bear family currently includes only 7 species. The distribution area is all of Eurasia, the Arctic, and America. The 3 species of bears - spectacled, sloth and malayan - have such different characteristics that all three belong to different genera.
Bears are surprisingly smart and at the same time cunning animals, but despite their weight and height they are very timid, and in anger they are life-threatening when they are wounded or when the female protects their offspring... Although the bear is a carnivorous animal in its diet of meat almost none, he mainly feeds on plant foods: berries, grass, roots, but of course he also likes to eat fish, he can stand motionless in the water for hours on a hot day, creating shade, and when a fish swims up to him, he throws it up with a sharp blow .
The bear's front paws, armed with powerful claws, are a universal tool with which the animal digs a den, digs up the holes of marmots and gophers, turns over stones that are too heavy for humans to lift, breaks trees, and catches fish. The claws are excellent lugs. Thanks to them, bears easily move along steep slopes where it is difficult for a person to stay on. Thanks to their claws, bear cubs climb trees at a speed much faster than electricians climb poles. And let's not forget that the brown bear is the largest land predator living in our country, capable of delivering a fatal blow to an enemy, rival or such large prey as elk or deer with its front paw.
The bear is one of the most famous mavericks in the animal kingdom. Such a phenomenon as a flock is alien to them; Each animal keeps to itself. The only exception is the female, who lives in the same territory with her brood. At the same time, females and males live in separate areas and come together only to reproduce. One adult bear strives to capture a territory of 70 to 400 square kilometers. As a rule, the male's territory area is 5-7 times larger than that of the female. At three years old, a young bear must leave his mother’s territory and find his own area, which he will have to protect and defend.
The bear marks its territory in a very curious way - it makes boundary posts. To an uninitiated person, this sign of bearish limits will look like an ordinary scratched tree. However, bears perform a whole ritual when they mark this tree. First, they make special track marks: when they approach a border tree, they radically change their gait and leave deeper, more noticeable tracks. Then they tear off pieces of bark from the tree, scratch it and make snacks. At the same time, they can bite a tree at different heights: standing on four and on two legs.
In addition to visual marks, there are others that are inaccessible to humans. The bear uses scent glands to mark its territory. Doesn't remind you of anything? Yes, yes, the technology is almost the same as that used by dogs. Only in addition to the liquid “mark”, the bear can also rub its back against the notches left on the tree and leave scraps of fur there, which will emit an additional signal odor.
Among the Slavs, the bear enjoyed special respect - the owner of the pagan forest, a protector from all evil and a patron of fertility.
The Slavs believed that the bear was endowed with special wisdom, omniscience, and was able to protect against witchcraft, disease and all kinds of troubles. The bear's paw was considered a very strong amulet against all sorts of misfortunes, so many Slavs kept such a talisman at home.
An experienced hunter can kill dozens of bears, but there is a limit: “the fortieth is fatal” and he risks hunting the bear, the owner! And such a hunter knows that he can kill thirty-nine bears, but the fortieth bear will kill the hunter.
Canadian Indians consider bears to be a kind of human race. As proof, they point out that bears have five toes on their paws, that bears can, like humans, walk and run on two legs, that all types of bears have common characteristic features, and that bears have a sweet tooth, like people's teeth deteriorate.
According to statistics, the number of bears at the moment is less than it was before, when they were countless in the northern hemisphere of the earth. Now bears are found in Canada, North America, northern Europe and Russia, and are less common further south - in Spain and Turkey. There is also a bear living in the Himalayas, this is also a very interesting individual. The Himalayan black bear is a good climber and lives in mountains and forests from Iran to Korea. It can climb to the tops of trees and feast on their fruits, but the peculiarity of this species is that they do not hibernate and mate at any time of the year; they say that these bears are lovebirds and create pairs for life.
The most famous. Different peoples made him a character in their fairy tales and legends. The brown bear has a fairly high level of intelligence, which is why its performances are often included in the circus program. It is known that among other wild animals, the psychology of the bear is closest to that of humans. On average, the weight of this bear is three hundred kilograms. However, there are both smaller individuals (weighing from 80 kilograms) and larger representatives (weighing up to 800 kilograms). The body length of brown bears is usually approximately 2.5 meters. It got its name due to the brown color of its fur.
There are many differences between representatives of brown bears. Once upon a time they were even divided into a large number of independent species. But now all varieties of brown bear form one species.
The brown bear is the owner of the taiga. Representatives of this species inhabited the entire forest zone of Eurasia and North America. The brown bear's favorite place to live is an old forest with streams and rivers in it. For most regions of the Russian Federation, the presence of brown bears in forests is considered common.
Brown bears are sedentary. Unlike whites. Behind each animal there is a certain piece of land. Within its boundaries there are special places where the bear finds refuge, feeds, and lies in a den. It is easy to spot bear trails here - the most frequent routes for bear movement.
The brown bear is clumsy. But only in appearance. Everything is fine with their speed of movement - brown bears run fast - they reach speeds of up to 55 kilometers per hour.
The main nutritional base of the brown bear is plant food. These can be a variety of fruits, plant rhizomes, juicy greens. To diversify their diet, representatives of this species hunt fish and eat insects. And in the spring, deer, elk and wild boar can become the object of his hunt. It happens that a brown bear sits with amazing patience at the holes of marmots and gophers, waiting for their appearance.
Brown bear hibernates in winter. It lasts from 75 to 195 days a year. They sleep in dens that they build under fallen trees. Before hibernating, brown bears must accumulate a sufficient amount of fat. There are times when brown bears cannot sleep. Then they wander around the taiga - staggering - hence their second name - connecting rod bears.
May-June is rutting time for bears. When two males compete with each other, things often turn into fights. But here’s what’s interesting: after the rut, the male no longer wants to know the female. Having met her, can kill a female along with her cubs.
The brown bear is listed in the Red Book. Its status in this book is: "endangered species." According to rough estimates, the number of all brown bears is about 200 thousand individuals, most of which live in Russia.
Compared to the weight of adults, cubs are born very tiny. Their body weight is only half a kilogram. They are born blind (they gain sight only after a month) and deaf. For three whole years, the cubs live next to their mother, who takes care of them. The older cubs help take care of the younger ones. Typically, a female bear gives birth to offspring once every two years. The older cubs (mostly sisters) often look after the younger ones.
One of the subspecies of brown bear. Grizzlies inhabited the territories of North America. It has a lighter color, which also has a gray tint. Plant food for him faded into the background. The main source of food is hunting ungulates and fishing. The largest subspecies of grizzly bears lives on Kodiak Island, close to Alaska - some individuals weigh seven hundred kilograms.
Black bear
Black bear (baribal), (lat. Ursus americanus) belongs to the most numerous species in the world. It populated the forests of Canada and the USA. The weight of these bears reaches 150 kilograms.
The black bear is omnivorous. Its diet includes fruits and leaves of plants, insects, and sometimes small vertebrates. The cubs of this bear are born in a den, their weight barely reaches three hundred grams. The number of cubs varies from one to four.
With the arrival of spring, the mother bear and her cubs leave the den. After about a year, the cubs separate from their mother. At the same time, young females live on their mother’s territory. And young males are forced to look for another place for themselves. Only 15% of young males are known to survive and reach sexual maturity.
At the polar bear(lat. Ursus maritimus) several names. The first is the polar or northern bear, because it lives very close to the North Pole. The second is sea bear, since this bear is an excellent swimmer; it is also called oshkuy.
Polar bears have white fur. Somewhat erroneous judgment. The fur itself is colorless, formed by many colorless tubes. It’s just that the inner surface of these tubes is uneven, so it splits the light, reflecting it at all sorts of angles - hence the feeling of white color.
The polar bear species emerged relatively recently. Paleontologists attribute the emergence of polar bears to 250 thousand years ago.
The polar bear descended from the same ancestor as the brown bear. Only the polar bear has adapted to life in harsh conditions among the ice. The population of polar bears is small, so this species is included in the Red Book.
The polar bear's distribution zone is limited to the Arctic. It inhabits the territory up to 88 degrees north latitude, most often it lives between ice floes and icebergs.Individual individuals can be seen more than a hundred kilometers from land. Polar bears are excellent swimmers; without rest, they can swim up to sixty miles without rest.
The polar bear is a predator. He specializes in predation. Hunts seals, ringed seals and even walruses. You can’t refuse him patience! A polar bear can stay near the breathing holes of seals for a long time and attack them when they appear. But the time is worth it. After all, seal fat and its skin are the most favorite food of polar bears.
Interestingly, a polar bear can eat an amount of food in just one hour, the weight of which is equal to 10% of the body weight of the bear itself.
The polar bear often wanders. Indeed, he makes seasonal migrations that last a very long time.
A polar bear's pregnancy lasts up to 250 days. It is interesting that the rut of polar bears occurs in the first months of spring, and the fertilized egg “awaits” for the bear to come to land (this happens in the fall) - until this moment its development is suspended.
Polar bears have "maternity wards". Childbirth takes place in strictly defined places - this is where polar bears build dens in the snow. Babies (weighing up to 800 grams) are born between January and April.
Polar bears hibernate relatively briefly. On average, two months. Yes, and it can be called hibernation with a slight stretch. Polar bears do not fall into complete stupor; female bears can wake up, watch what is happening in the den, and lick their babies.
Polar bears are sociable. They can often be found playing and are friendly to each other. Polar bears do not form communities.
Himalayan bear
Himalayan bear(lat. Ursus thibetanus) (also white-breasted and Ussuri) is relatively small. Males weigh on average 130 kilograms, females - 70 kilograms. These bears have noticeably wide and long ears. The Himalayan bear received one of its names due to the presence of a light spot on its chest. The rest of the fur is black and slightly shiny. In Russia, these bears live in the Far East region and willingly settle in river valleys.
The Himalayan bear makes "bear nests". These are the broken branches that remain after these bears climb trees. Here they find fruit. Acorns, pine nuts, bird cherry fruits, and plant stems are eaten. Sometimes he adds various insects to his diet.
Himalayan bears have a lot to do with trees. In addition to eating their fruits, they build shelters in hollows and use the crown of trees to protect cubs. In case of danger, the female drives her cubs upstairs, and a little further she drives the enemy’s attention away from them.
Malayan bear
Biruang- this is the same as the sun bear, honey bear, Malay bear and even dog bear - that’s how many names people gave this animal. And why? The Malay definition is clear: his homeland is there. And the bear is found, as a rule, in the lowland and mountain forests of Indochina, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Burma, Thailand, Malacca, Borneo, although it can also settle in more mountainous areas and swampy small forests.
Biruang is “dressed” in a black fur coat made of short, hard, shiny fur, decorated on the chest either with a whitish or yellow-orange horseshoe, or - neither give nor take - an image of a solar disk. On its muzzle, short and wide, there is also a round marking, including an elongated part, which in reference books is called “roan-yellow,” and the hind limbs may have a brown tint. It is believed that it is for these color features that the bear is called sunny.
Although the hero of our story has small round ears, he has excellent hearing, as well as a sense of smell. But the vision let us down, however, like all animals that prefer a nocturnal lifestyle. And he also has a special tongue, compared to other relatives: very long and sticky. Having such a tool, the animal is able to get prey in the form of termites and worms much more efficiently, and it is more convenient to scoop out honey with such a “spoon”. That's why they called biruanga "honey bear", - he is a noble earner.
This bear is omnivorous: its diet includes both plant foods (fruits and leaves) and animal foods (insects, reptiles, as well as small mammals and birds).
This handsome fellow is the smallest representative of the bear family. The length of its body is no more than one and a half meters, its weight does not exceed 65 kg, and its height at the withers reaches only 70 cm. Moreover, the male half of the genus is ten to fifteen percent more massive than the female half.
Spectacled bear(Tremarctos ornatus) is the only representative of the family that lives in South America. It got its name from the white circles around the eyes. This is a very shaggy bear. The body weight of a male can reach up to 140 kilograms. The spectacled bear is found mainly in mountain forests. The main food is vegetable.
Just the facts
The quickest 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.
A wild bear grows to be healthy for 25-30 years of life through a brutal program of exercise and nutrition unmatched by any other animal of its weight.
Bears have what are called “bear trees.” They are usually located in various widely separated places in the forest. A common belief is that such trees serve as a kind of notice board.
In the second year of life, female bears begin to look for a suitable bachelor, this happens a year or two before mating.
Although most zoologists consider bears to be carnivores, they have an enviable digestive system that can digest a wide variety of foods.
All polar bears are left-handed.
The front legs of bears can stretch quite significantly. And if you add claws, which can reach 10 - 12 cm in length and as thick as a human finger.
Of all the animals, the bear is best adapted to living in a temperate climate.
The smallest adult bear weighs approximately 50 kilograms. This is a Malayan bear. With such weight, how can we call him small?
The largest bear can weigh up to a ton. This is a large predator - a polar bear.
Although polar bears' fur appears white, it is actually colorless and consists of hollow tubes. The bear appears white because the uneven inner surface of the tubes splits the light and reflects it at different angles, which creates the appearance of white.
If you spray antiseptic on a polar bear, its fur will turn purple.
Over the past 30 years, only 7 people have been killed by polar bears in Canada.
Not all polar bears hibernate, only pregnant females.
Polar bear liver contains so much vitamin A that if a person eats it, it can have fatal consequences.
Polar bears are excellent swimmers. They can swim more than 60 miles without resting.
A polar bear can eat 10% of its body weight in food in an hour.
The running speed of a grizzly bear is up to 60 km/h, which is equal to the average speed that a racehorse can reach. Polar bears can run at a speed of 40 km/h.
A bear runs uphill faster, and downhill much more slowly.
Polar and brown bears, which belong to the bear family, are considered one of the largest predatory animals. Club-footed beauties live in almost all zones of Eurasia, North and Latin America. The only exception is the southern region of Russia. Depending on their habitat, their name, diet, and speed of movement vary.
Maximum running speed in km/h
Thus, the ordinary brown clumsy bear, repeatedly shown in children's cartoons as a very good-natured animal, is in fact one of the largest predators inhabiting the forests of central and northern Russia, the Apennine Peninsula; you can find it both in the Alpine mountains and in China; It is located quite comfortably in Finland and the Carpathians, and feels excellent in the northwestern zone of the USA. This subspecies of bears, with its rather large body with a large head and heavy, powerful paws, is decorated with small ears and eyes, as well as a barely noticeable short tail. The bear is “dressed” in thick fur of brown, gray or reddish color.
Maximum speed of brown bear and grizzly bear
The clumsy Toptygin runs quite quickly; its speed can reach up to 52-55 km/h, which significantly exceeds the speed of even a trained athlete. His North American counterpart, the grizzly, runs even faster, and has settled mainly in Alaska and Canadian forests. It can also be found in the Rocky Mountains. The speed reaches 60 km/h or more.
The brown bear eats everything: fruits, berries, roots and stems of young grass; will not refuse to eat fish or the meat of some animal; loves to destroy termite mounds, and in search of honey often breaks into the hollows of wild bees. Despite its clumsiness, a brown bear can break the spinal bone of an elk or deer with one blow of its paw. Nevertheless, he rarely hunts, preferring to take ready-made game from the wolf.
Slightly smaller than the brown bear is the baribal - black bear. It differs from its brown counterpart not only in the smaller size of its body (its height is approximately 2 m), but also in the color of its coat, which has a bluish-black tint. It also has a sharper snout and long legs with small feet. The black bear lives over a fairly vast territory from Alaska to Canada. It is also found in all US states, except for the area near the river. Mississippi; in the central and western regions of Mexico.
The black bear is quite agile, fast and strong. Can run at speeds of up to 50 km/h and can easily turn over heavy boulders weighing more than 140 kg.
Black bear in nature The baribal feeds in the same way as its brown accomplices. But unlike them, he goes fishing at night so that salmon do not see his black fur. By setting up an ambush in the thickets, a black hunter can kill an elk or deer. Climb a tree or rock and feast on bird eggs or chicks.
A distinctive feature of the next brother of the bear genus - the Himalayan or white-breasted bear - is the presence of an attractive white or light yellow spot on the chest, covered with silky dark brown or completely black hair.
white-breasted bear The habitat of this species is mainly hills and wooded slopes of the mountains of Iran, Afghanistan, the Himalayan mountains, Korea, and Japan. In the northeast of Asia they occupy the area of Manchuria, Primorsky and the southern region of Khabarovsk Territory, Yakutia; in the south - northern Vietnam, the islands of Taiwan and Hainan. In summer, it settles in the Himalayan mountains at an altitude of up to 4000 m; with the onset of cold weather it moves lower to the foot of the mountains.
In Tibet, the white-chested handsome man is respectfully called “meti” or “yeti.” Researchers do not rule out that due to the similarity of the footprints with those of “homo sapiens” and the local name for the bear, the legend of “Bigfoot” arose.
The handsome bear's diet mainly includes the same plant foods as other brown bears, supplemented with pine nuts and acorns. He rarely hunts, but on occasion he will not disdain to try carrion. Can destroy anthills, find a shellfish or catch a frog. Mainly leads a semi-arboreal lifestyle; he climbs trees well, where he gets his food. For the winter, he equips himself a den in the hollows of trees, in which he sleeps until the weather warms up.
The sloth bear, another brother of the bear kingdom, also belongs to the species of brown bear. The predator, with a body length of slightly more than 1.75 m and a height of approximately 85 cm, differs from its accomplices primarily in the structure of the body. This is a heavyset, powerful specimen with a large head and flat forehead; the muzzle is extended forward, like a dog with practically no hair. The lips are protruded forward in the form of a tube, which gives it the opportunity, when hunting insects, to immediately blow out dust and then draw in the “prey”. The bear's long black or dirty-brown fur in the neck area turns into a shaggy mane. There is a lighter colored spot on the chest.
Slobber – a type of brown bear For its residence, the sloth fish found India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, and Bangladesh, giving preference to tropical and subtropical forests. It eats everything that falls into its paws, as it is omnivorous. It eats both insects, eggs or larvae, and fruits, which make up more than 45% of its diet. But still prefers ants and termites. Hunts mainly at night. The bear is very strong and is not afraid of predators. For all his non-aggressiveness, he is able to repel anyone who attacks him. Therefore, he never tries to hide from danger. He runs as fast as other bears.
Maximum speed of the Polar Bear.
This unique, beautiful animal differs from its fellows not only in the color of its coat, but also in its lifestyle and diet. These amazing snow-white bears live only in the northern part of the globe, in the Arctic, withstanding severe frosty and blizzard winters, suffering from global warming and poaching. This is the largest representative of the bear family; its height reaches more than 3 m, and its weight is about 1000 kg. At the same time, he is the slowest of his brothers - his speed is only 28 - 30 km/h. Since the polar bear lives mainly on ice, where there is no plant food, the basis of its diet is fish, northern species of birds and rodents, beached whales and walruses. But their favorite food is seals. This northern beauty is an excellent swimmer; can jump out of the water to a height of up to 2.5 m. In the water, he is not afraid of anyone except killer whales, which can sometimes attack him.
In general, bears in a dream can have different meanings that are completely contradictory to each other. They can be dreamed of both as friends and as enemies; can personify both the forces of good and the forces of evil.
- If you dreamed of hunting a bear, it means in reality you will seek the favorable attitude of a person who is absolutely indifferent to you. But this shouldn't bother you. The main thing is not to be aggressive, and you will succeed.
- If in a dream you are running away from a predator, you will find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. But don’t be afraid, everything will end well for you.
- Fighting Toptygin in a dream - in reality you cause a lot of problems for your loved one.
- A young girl dreams of a cute white bear for marriage; she should think about her wedding dress. But if you dream of an angry, embittered bear, it means she herself will decide to break off relations with the groom, leaving him to a more successful rival. For a married lady, a bear in a dream means a dangerous romance.
- Meeting a clubfoot in the forest warns you against rash actions that you are ready to commit as revenge. A bear in a circus dreams of winning a lottery or game; at the zoo - you will incur losses by making an unprofitable operation.
- If in a dream you fight with an angry beast, this actually means that in reality you underestimated your opponent. If you defeat the bear, then you are destined to win over your enemy. What if the bear defeated you? Be prepared to lose in the fight against your enemy. The skin of a polar bear symbolizes victory over difficulties and achieving unprecedented success.
- You dream that a bear wants to dine on you and you had to pretend to be dead - in reality you are very resourceful and smart. And if you eat bear meat yourself, you will have a fun party at a luxurious wedding celebration.
In nature, bears are divided into several subspecies, differing both in coat color and in lifestyle, diet, and speed of movement. The slowest runner is the largest specimen of the ursidae - the polar (polar, northern) bear.
The grizzly bear is a subspecies of brown bear that reaches four meters in height and weighs about a ton, and lives primarily in Canadian forests, the Rocky Mountains and Alaska in North America. From a distance, the bear appears gray, so the settlers, when they first saw it, gave the bear a name that means “gray” in English.
Previously, the animal’s habitat, in addition to the indicated territories, covered northern Mexico and the state of Texas, but the advancing civilization pushed the animal far to the north and high into the mountains.
A distinctive feature of the grizzly is its long fifteen-centimeter claws, which are its formidable weapon. Due to the long claws, a grizzly bear can climb trees only in childhood.
This bear has a notorious reputation as a bloody killer. However, in its diet the bear gives preference to young shoots of plants and nuts, berries and fruits, algae and roots. Sometimes this bear eats bird eggs, feasts on fish and honey, does not neglect reptiles, frogs, insects and their larvae, and does not even disdain carrion, the smell of which it can smell at a distance of almost 30 km.
Since the grizzly bear is a predator, its diet includes large animals, among which the old and sick, or inexperienced young people predominate.
Therefore, the bear is considered an omnivore and its teeth are adapted to a varied diet.
Among North American Indians it is considered a great honor to wear a necklace made from the teeth and claws of a grizzly bear.
The animal with enormous force, striking with its paw and tenacious claws, can overwhelm a deer, and when chasing prey at a speed of about 60 km/h, it shows miracles of dexterity. In pursuit of prey, a grizzly bear can swim across a river without much effort.
During salmon spawning, bears gather near the river, occupying a certain area, and begin fishing, using all sorts of techniques: sticking their heads into the water and grabbing fish with their mouths or paws. Some individuals manage to catch a fish when it jumps out of a stormy river.
Like a brown bear, a grizzly bear, having accumulated fat reserves over the summer and autumn, goes into hibernation. During the thaw, the grizzly leaves the den and begins to wander through the forest in search of food, and when the frost intensifies, it goes back to the den.
Grizzlies keep to themselves, avoiding company except during mating season. After romantic meetings between a female and a male, naked, blind and toothless cubs weighing less than 700 grams are born in a den 250 days later in January. The mother looks after her offspring for about two years. Therefore, with the onset of the next winter, the bear settles down for the winter together with the cubs that have grown over the summer.
Small grizzly bear cubs are easy to tame. They quickly get used to a person and even rush to his defense in case of danger.
Under natural conditions, grizzlies are afraid of humans and try to go home.
Grizzlies can attack a person, but this happens extremely rarely in cases where the person himself provokes the animal. If this bear is wounded, it will defend itself fiercely and become very dangerous.
Video: Hunting of a grizzly bear (lat. Ursus arctos horribilis)
Film: Grizzly Cauldron - Yellowstone Battleground (2009)
Movie: Wild America: Grizzly vs. Polar Bear
Bears are familiar characters from fairy tales, circus performers, ruthless killers and cute prototypes of soft toys. The bear is an unspoken symbol of our country for the rest of the world. Bears are loved, worshiped, and feared. What do we really know about these animals, other than the fact that they tend to hibernate?
If you want to learn something new about bears, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with today’s rating dedicated to the life of clubfooted bears. So, amazing facts about bears:
9 Amazing Facts About Bears
It has been proven that bears do not tend to be the first to attack people; for them, we are just noisy animals who have unusual body language and smell strange.
In most cases, when a person meets a bear, he will only defend his territory and scare the person away. It is important to understand whether the bear is trying to tell us with its behavior: “Go away man, this is my area” or “I haven’t eaten for two weeks, and you look like a delicious meal.” However, as mentioned above, a bear rarely attacks purposefully.
If the bear is still aggressive, this may mean that he was either provoked or is very hungry. From time to time, in such cases, encounters with animals end in failure.
2. ABOUT THE SPEED OF RUNNING BEARS
Bears may look big and clumsy, but they actually run very fast. Brown and grizzly bears can reach speeds of up to 48.3 kilometers per hour, which they can maintain at a distance of 400 meters. Bears can run non-stop at a more leisurely pace for up to 3.2 kilometers.
For reference: The fastest runner in the world, Usain Bolt, can reach a maximum speed of 44.72 kilometers per hour.
Meetings between people and bears have occurred throughout human history. The bear gained fame and respect for its strength, size and ability to walk on two legs. In many cultures, this attitude has developed over time into cult and worship. Cases of bear worship have been known since Paleolithic times. They are most widespread in the animal’s habitats in Europe, Asia and North America.
For example, the bear is a sacred animal for the Sami people of Siberia. There is a special ceremony that the Sami perform before a hunt to calm the spirit of the bear.
Such a long-standing veneration of bears has left a deep imprint on world culture. The bear symbol is common in heraldry, books and poems have been written about bears, and some cities, such as Berlin and Bern, are named after the animal.
4.ABOUT AGE
Most bears typically live into their thirties in captivity and slightly less in the wild. However, there are cases where bears have become long-lived. The oldest bear discovered was a wild bear in Minnesota, USA, who lived to be 36 years old.
The oldest described bear is the legendary Greek bear Andreas, who died at 50 years old.
The most famous feature of bears is their ability to hibernate during the winter. For a long time, scientists could not understand how the bear’s body managed to function normally without food for five months. Many mammals (marmots and bats, for example) also hibernate, but they are much smaller than the massive bear.
In 2011, an experiment was conducted to observe five bears hibernating in their natural habitat. If before it was believed that the animal body manages to conserve energy by radically lowering body temperature, then during the experiment new facts emerged. It has been established that body temperature does not decrease too much, only by 6 degrees Celsius. To conserve energy in the bear’s body, several processes occur at once: the animal’s breathing slows down, the heart rate decreases to four beats per minute, and the metabolic rate also decreases - it is only 25 percent of the norm.
6.ABOUT BEAR SIZE
There are different points of view about which bear is the largest in the world. Most experts give primacy to the polar bear, which can weigh more than a ton and reach a height of 2.44 meters when standing. However, sometimes there are brown bears with similar weight and height. On average, however, large specimens are more common among polar bears.
The most famous of the big bears belonged to one of the subspecies of South American bears, and lived during the Pleistocene. Presumably his weight was 1588 kilograms and his height was 3.35 meters.
Sometimes bears and humans can experience similar health problems and develop the same diseases. One such disease is hydrocephalus, a disease characterized by excess fluid accumulation in the ventricular system of the brain. If hydrocephalus is not treated, the disease is guaranteed to end in death.
However, modern medicine makes it possible to successfully treat both people and bears with hydrocephalus. The first bear brain surgery was performed in Laos relatively recently. The patient was a Himalayan bear named Champa. The bear survived the operation and subsequent recovery period quite well.
In many Asian countries, it is believed that bear bile has unique healing properties, and with its help you can get rid of many diseases, ranging from hangovers to cancer. Bile can be found in many products, from food to shower gels.
Such popularity of bear bile has led to the emergence of special farms for keeping bears. These farms, sometimes in terrible conditions, house dozens of black bears, whose bile is regularly collected. Recently, officials have begun to pay attention to this problem, but bile has been popular in Asian medicine for so long that it will be very difficult to stop the process of its extraction.
It may seem that the huge size of the bear indicates its stupidity, but this is not so. Bears are very smart. According to experts, their intelligence is developed on a par with that of apes.
There are documented facts that prove that bears are smarter than we think. So in 2017, in Alaska, a brown bear was spotted with a piece of stone in its paws, with which it scratched and cleaned its skin. In this case, we can talk about the stone as a primitive tool.
Is it possible to run away from a bear? November 5th, 2014
Most likely no:-(
Here is another option and rules when meeting a bear...
If you are traveling through the lands of the owner of the taiga, let him know about you, especially in those places where the visibility zone is limited. Make noise, sing, talk loudly, whistle, or tie a bell to your backpack. Travel only with a group. Groups make more noise and are easier for bears to recognize. Avoid dense bushes. If you can’t, then try to walk so that the wind blows from your back, and the bear can smell you. Do not linger in places with a strong smell of carrion, and do not move along bear trails.
If you do encounter a bear, remember a few simple rules:
1. The first and most important thing is to NEVER RUN AWAY! If you encounter a bear, stop immediately. When people are scared, their natural instinct is usually to run. When meeting a bear, running is the worst decision. When running 100 meters, the best sprinters have a maximum speed of 12 m/s, which is 43 km/h, while bears run at a speed of about 60 km/h. That is, no matter how much you want to escape from it, you will not be able to, especially over rough terrain. If you run from a bear, its natural instinct to chase will encourage it to run after you and sometimes harm you. The logic of a predator is simple: if it runs away, it means prey. Therefore, the first and most important rule is to let the bear know that you are not prey, but a person. If you can’t remember any more rules, remember the most important thing - NEVER RUN AWAY FROM A BEAR!
2. The second thing you should remember in case you encounter a bear is to slowly GO CLOSER TO THE PEOPLE YOU ARE WITH. You should get close enough to them that you can take their hand. You will immediately be safer! The fact is that a bear, like any other animal, cannot count. He sees either one person or a group. An attack on a group of people is very unlikely.
3. Let the bear know that you are human. Talk to the bear. Hands up. Help the bear recognize you. If the bear can't recognize who you are, it may come closer or stand on its hind legs to get a better look or sniff. A standing bear usually shows curiosity and is not dangerous.
4. You can try to slowly back away diagonally, but if the bear starts to follow you, stop and stay where you are. Don't panic, don't let the bear know you're scared.
5. At the first opportunity, try to slowly increase the distance between the bear and you. This will show the bear that you mean no harm to it. In most cases, once a bear realizes that you are a person, it will run or get away from you. Remember that people have brought much more trouble and evil to bears than vice versa.
