Bears - do they belong to the canine family?? and got the best answer
Answer from Elena Kazakova[guru]
To the bear family
Family BEAR (Ursidae)
Mammals / Carnivores / Bears /
Mammalia / Carnivora / Ursidae /
BEAR FAMILY (Ursidae) Compared with other groups of the predatory order, representatives of the bear family are distinguished by the greatest uniformity in appearance, size, and many features of the internal structure. Bears are the largest of modern predatory animals. Some of them reach a length of 3 m to a mass of up to 725 and even 1000 kg. All animals of this family have a powerful body, many with high withers; paws are strong, with large claws, five-fingered, plantigrade; the tail is short, barely visible from the fur; the head is massive, with small eyes and ears (some are short, while others, on the contrary, are long). The coat is dense, uniformly colored in black, brown or white, which does not change with the seasons. Some species have light markings on the chest or around the eyes. The skull of bears is large, with large crests and zygomatic arches. The fangs are powerful, while the rest of the teeth, due to mixed nutrition, are not as large as one might expect, and the carnivorous teeth are not developed. Typical species have 42 teeth, but some do not have middle incisors or second and third premolars, and therefore the total number of teeth is reduced to 40 and even 38 and 34.
Family taxonomy:
Subfamily Ursinae
Genus Helarctos
Helarctos malayanus – biruang (Malay bear, sun bear)
Genus Melursus
Melursus ursinus - sloth bear (lazy bear)
Genus Tremarctos
Tremarctos ornatus – spectacled bear
Genus Ursus
Ursus americanus - American black bear
Ursus arctos - brown bear (brown bear, gray bear)
Ursus maritimus - polar bear
Ursus thibetanus - Himalayan bear (Asian black bear)
Subfamily Ailurinae
Genus Ailuropoda
Ailuropoda melanoleuca – panda (giant panda)
Genus Ailurus
Ailurus fulgens - small panda (the addition of this species and genus to the bear family will cause great controversy).
The paws are short, stocky, with hairy soles, each containing five curved claws unable to contract. The bear's gait is flat-footed, with the soles of the feet fully touching the ground, a shuffling gait. The claws are controlled by powerful muscles, allowing bears to climb trees as well as dig and rip prey while hunting. Hearing and vision are less developed than their keen sense of smell. Bears, in general, live alone, exceptions during courtship and females with cubs. Litters are produced at intervals of one to four years with a short gestation period, although females are able to delay the introduction of a fertilized egg, stretching the pregnancy from six to nine months. Litter size is one - four helpless cubs weighing 200 to 700 grams, usually born in a secluded den or cave. They stay with their mother for at least the first year, reaching sexual maturity at 2 to 5 years of age. Species that live in extremely cold regions spend most of the winter in a lair, in a state called hibernation (hibernation). During this period, they live off the accumulated fat reserves without eliminating waste products.
Bears are widespread in Europe, Asia, North America, and are found in North Africa. One species lives in South America, isolated from the rest of the family. Most bears live in lowland or mountain forests of temperate and tropical latitudes, less often in open highlands. One species inhabits the Arctic, up to the ice fields of the ocean. Bears have a long lifespan. A polar bear can live in captivity for more than 30 years, a brown one - over 45 years. Bears are valuable hunting animals. The decline in numbers required the introduction of restrictions on shooting and even protection. In some cases, bears can harm crops, beekeeping, and livestock. Bears are favorite objects of keeping in zoos and training.
Hello my dear students! We replenish the heading "Projects". If you are instructed to tell about what bears are, then read carefully! This article contains everything that will help to tell about the largest land predators on the planet in an interesting way - both names, descriptions, and something interesting so that the report is not boring.
Lesson plan:
What do all bears have in common?
Bears are animals with thick paws equipped with curved claws. All bears, when walking, rely on the entire foot, therefore they are called plantigrade. That is why they will never be graceful ballerinas, by nature they are clumsy and it is not without reason that the nickname "clubfoot" has stuck to them.
They reach speeds up to 50 km per hour. All breeds eat differently. Only a white bear is a notorious meat eater, others may have plants, berries, and fruits on the menu. Some of them are vegetarians.
The bear family includes 8 species.
Polar bear
The largest, can reach a length of up to 3 meters and at the same time weigh as much as a whole ton! The fur of a polar bear, like a solar panel, collects heat. In fact, his hairs are not white, but transparent. Sunlight passes through them and is absorbed by the skin.
But the ears of the largest bear are the smallest. So the beast protects the loss of heat. After all, he lives in the middle of the polar ice in the fierce Arctic.
The polar bear is a real tramp. Because of the harsh climate, he cannot stay in one place for a long time and wanders around in search of food. Sometimes he swims between the continents, since he is an excellent swimmer. Bear's menu includes fish and seals. Only when there is absolutely nothing to eat, polar bears satisfy their hunger with polar berries and plants.
White males never hibernate, only she-bears do this in anticipation of offspring. With human care, bears can live for about 30 years, but in natural conditions - a little less. Today, the polar bear is listed in the Red Book.
Did you know?! The skin of a white teddy bear is charcoal-black! If you want to be sure - look at his "palms". It is the dark color that attracts the warmth of the sun to the body of the beast.
Brown bear
The most famous breed for us: we saw them in the circus, and they are filmed in films, and in fairy tales they are the main characters. Large brown bears, called Kodiaks, live in Alaska and the Far East - they reach 750 kg. Smaller species weigh 80-120 kg each. Their size depends on where the animal lives, and his home is in all of Eurasia and North America.
Its different subspecies can be light fawn and almost black. In mountain grizzlies, the hair on the back is white at the ends, and the Himalayan bear is found all gray. Red-haired representatives live in Syria.
Brown bears more than half feed on vegetation - berries, nuts and roots, love oats and corn. But do not mind eating fish and rodents. And the fishermen and hunters of them are excellent! Sometimes larger forest dwellers become prey. So, with a blow of his paw, a brown bear is able to kill an elk. A delicacy for them is ... ants.
It's no secret that brown bears sleep in winter. For six months they sniffle in their lairs - from October to March. And those who did not eat well before going to bed begin to wander through the forests, they are called rods. Such animals are a danger to all who they meet at this time on the way.
Do you know that?! Bears have an excellent sense of smell. So, a brown bear is able to smell honey almost 10 kilometers away!
black bear baribal
This species lives in the neighborhood of the brown between Canada, Alaska and Mexico, as well as in the area from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Baribal is not very different from its brother - only in size, slimmer paws and a sharper muzzle.
A black bear grows up to a maximum of 120-150 kg. His fur, as the name already made clear, is dark, and his muzzle is white or yellowish. Long claws help baribalu deftly climb trees.
On the menu of the black bear, everything that the brown one eats is mainly plant food.
Did you know?! There is a “white crow” among the baribals - bears in British Columbia have white coat color.
Himalayan bear
Remember the cartoon about Mowgli? He has a white-breasted friend Balu - this is the Himalayan clubfoot. The animal listed in the Red Book, in addition to the southern slopes of the Himalayas, lives in Indochina, on the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Islands, in Afghanistan, the Ussuri region, in the Far East and in the north of the Amur.
Large representatives reach 170 cm and weigh about 150 kg. At the same time, such considerable bears are real merry fellows: in zoos they usually dance and wave their paws, begging for sweets. And in nature they like to spend a lot of time on trees. Smacking sweetly, they eat foliage, because their main food is vegetable.
The Himalayans are distinguished by their manish white color on the chest, and they themselves are black. They have a narrow muzzle and the largest of all species, chic ears.
Do you know that?! The Himalayan bear does not like the lair. He sleeps ... in the hollows of trees.
Gubach
A bear with a strange name is a neighbor of the Himalayan bear, lives in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Yes, and in color it looks like him, only the hair is long and thick, so the shaggy sloth looks like an unshorn hippie.
It is named so because to eat food, it folds its long lips with a tube and stretches them out, making faces.
He can blow out of the bark like a vacuum cleaner to suck up termites, and he does it so loudly that the whole neighborhood can hear. Another assistant in obtaining food is long claws, with which he breaks trees. The sloth bear also has plants, berries and honeycombs on its menu. The lipped bear is small in size, weighs up to 100 kg.
Did you know?! Gubach creeps on date palms and easily sucks juice from fruits.
Malayan bear
The sloth's neighbor in Indochina is the Malay bear. This is the smallest of all clubfoot, only a meter - forty meters tall and weighing up to 65 kg. And he is also the most "cut" - the coat of the Malayan bear is short and shiny, even skin folds are visible. Yes, and his muzzle is unusual, as if a large birthmark on it is orange. The Malay bear and shirt-front have the same shade.
They break the whole miniature view of the decent-sized claws that serve as a tool for climbing trees. Malay bears are omnivores. Due to their size, they can only hunt small animals. And they don't sleep in the winter.
Did you know?! The tongue of a Malayan bear can be up to 25 cm!
spectacled bear
A truly southern resident, who can be found in the mountains and foothill forests from Colombia to Chile. You probably guessed why he has such a name? Yes, he has glasses! These are white stripes around the eyes.
The length of the spectacled bear is about 1.5 meters, sometimes a little more. And it weighs from 70 to 140 kg. This species has been poorly studied, since the bear “with glasses” is a rare animal listed in the Red Book. To stay on the branches, he bends them under himself, forming a rough nest. As soon as it becomes suitable in size and durable, the bear settles there comfortably for three or four days, eats there, and sleeps there.
In nature, a spectacled beast can live up to 25 years, and in captivity up to 35. It usually feeds on roots, leaves, nuts and seeds, and loves corn. Only in exceptional cases, when there is not enough plant food, bears can attack small oleshek and livestock.
Did you know?! Many bears crawl through trees, and the spectacled one crawls over cacti. They are attracted to sweet cactus fruits. And they only have 13 pairs of ribs (the rest of the species of bears have 14 of them!).
Giant panda
You can’t even call her a bear, what kind of predator is this?! The question of whether to leave a panda in a bear family haunts scientists to this day. Many would gladly send a panda to the raccoon squad. But genetic tests say: it's a bear!
One of the cutest animals is a vegetarian, with whom only the “false bear” marsupial koala can compete in “cuteness”. How did his seamstress-nature cut it? Black paws, black ears and black glasses were sewn to the white bear!
You can meet a panda in China among the bamboo thickets. White and black bears grow up to one and a half meters and weigh from 100 to 150 kg. Try to get better from one bamboo!
These animals are listed in the Red Book, and the death penalty is provided for killing a panda in China.
Did you know?! In pandas, unusual front paws consist of six fingers: five are folded into a brush, and the sixth, like in humans, is located separately. They pandas skillfully cope with bamboo shoots.
That's all for today. This information will be enough for you to get an excellent mark. See you soon!
Evgenia Klimkovich.
Bear family
(Ursidae)*
* The bear family includes only 8-9 species, united in 4-6 genera. Distributed in almost all of Eurasia and North America, one species lives in South America; in Africa, this family is absent (except for a small region of the Atlas Mountains). These animals are characterized by a massive build, a wide powerful skull, tuberculate rather than cutting molars, paws with wide feet and large claws; moreover, when walking, the hind paw does not rest on the fingers, as in most predators, but on the entire foot. Teeth 40 (in one species) or 42 (not 36-40, as Brem writes).
The bear is such an original animal that anyone recognizes it at first sight.
In large bears, the body is short and thick, in small bears it is sometimes slender; the head is oval, somewhat elongated, with a pointed, but at the end, as it were, chopped off muzzle; the neck is proportionately short and thick; the ears are short and the eyes relatively small; the legs are not very long, the feet of both the front and hind legs have five fingers each and are equipped with long bent, fixed, non-retractable claws, the ends of which are therefore very blunt. The feet are almost bare. The dental system consists of 36^0 teeth; in the upper and lower jaws, there are six incisors, four canines each, from two to four false-rooted teeth or two false-rooted ones at the top and three at the bottom, and finally two molars at the top and from two to three at the bottom. The upper part of the skull is elongated and is distinguished by very strongly developed ridges; the cervical vertebrae are short and wide, as are the dorsal ones; the ribs are attached to 14 or 15 vertebrae. The sacrum consists of 3-5, and the tail of 7-34 vertebrae. Bears have a smooth tongue; the stomach is a simple bag; the large and small intestine are almost indistinguishable from one another; the caecum is absent.
Bears have been known since ancient times. They are now found throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, and in parts of northwest Africa. They live in both the coldest and hottest countries, both on high mountains and on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Almost all species live in dense, extensive forests or mountainous areas, mostly solitary. Some species prefer damp, water-rich areas: swamps, river banks, lakes, seas, while others are found in dry areas. Only one species constantly lives on the seashore and almost never goes inland. Bears of this species take long journeys on large ice floes, swim across vast expanses, even the Arctic Ocean, and move from one part of the world to another. All other species roam in less extensive spaces. Most of the bears live alone and only for the time of mating are paired, but some species live in entire societies. Some dig holes in the ground or sand, where they make lairs; others hide in hollow trees or mountain caves. Almost all species of bears are nocturnal animals: they come out for prey after sunset and sleep in their dens for most of the day.
Although bears can be called omnivorous animals in the full sense of the word, they are more than all other predators capable of feeding on plant foods alone. They eat not only fruits and berries, but also grains of cereal plants in a mature and unripe form, roots, succulent herbs, buds of trees and flowers, etc. In their youth they eat almost exclusively plant foods, but even in adulthood they prefer in most cases this food is meat. In general, the bear does not disdain anything and eats, in addition to the above-mentioned plants and animals, crayfish, snails, worms, insects and their larvae, fish, birds and their eggs, mammals and even carrion, if it is not very rotten yet. Appearing near human dwellings, bears can cause great harm, especially the largest species: tormented by hunger, they even attack cattle and cause great havoc among domestic animals. Some of them are so bold that they climb into the villages. For a person, even the largest and strongest bears are only dangerous when they are teased, frightened or injured - in a word, if they are disturbed by something *.
* This is generally true, but the strength of a bear, especially a large one, is very great; if he scares away or accidentally touches a person, he can cripple or kill him.
The movements of bears are erroneously described as clumsy and slow. Big bears do not usually move very quickly and dexterously, but they can run for a long time; small species are extremely fast and agile**.
* * At a short distance, the brown bear is capable of speeds up to 40 km/h. According to observations in nature, a large brown bear easily catches up with a smaller baribal, which usually escapes from its relative in a tree.
When walking, bears lean on the entire foot and carefully place one foot in front of the other, but as soon as they are frightened of something, they start running at a fast gallop. In such cases, even the largest bears demonstrate extraordinary speed and agility. Even the most clumsy bears can stand on their hind legs, and in this position, though not particularly deftly and swaying, they take several steps. Almost all climb quite well, although due to their weight it is rather difficult for them; at least the big species can hardly climb trees at all when they are old. Some species avoid water, others, on the contrary, are excellent swimmers, can dive very deep and stay under water for a long time. The polar bear can often be found swimming in the sea at a great distance from the shore; in such cases, one can only marvel at his endurance and skill. The great strength of the bears gives them the opportunity to overcome all obstacles and helps a lot with predatory raids: they can drag large cattle behind them.
Of the external senses, the bear has the best developed sense of smell; their hearing is good, some even fine; sight and taste are not particularly developed, touch is almost completely undeveloped; however, in some species, the tip of the snout serves as an organ of touch. Some species are quick-witted and intelligent and lend themselves to certain training. They can be tamed, but they never show much affection for their master. In addition, in old age, the bad properties of their nature come out more and more: they become insidious, irritable and evil, as a result of which it is always dangerous to keep adult bears in your house *. The bear expresses its mood with various intonations of the voice - a dull grunt, snort or purr, and sometimes with sounds similar to grunting, whistling or even barking.
* It is all the more dangerous that even a playing bear of a relatively small size can easily cripple a person. "Friendly", from the point of view of a hundred-kilogram bear, a playful slap with a paw is quite capable of breaking a person's ribs or forearm.
All large species of bears living in the North roam only during the summer, and with the onset of winter they retire to their lair. However, they do not fall into an unawakened sleep at all, but rather doze in a semi-conscious state. from which they immediately leave, sensing something suspicious **. However, they almost never leave the lair and hardly eat at all. It is noteworthy that only bears living on land fall into hibernation, while polar bears roam even in the most severe cold and only in the most terrible snow blizzard calmly lie down on the ground, leaving the snow to cover them with their heads.
* * Winter hibernation is in three species of bears living in areas with a temperate climate: brown, Himalayan and baribal. Before hibernation, bears grow fat, sometimes increasing their weight by more than one and a half times. During hibernation, they do not feed, their body temperature drops by 5-6A. However, they periodically wake up without even being disturbed, especially during a thaw, and stay awake for several hours before falling asleep again.
A pregnant bear retires to a lair prepared by her in advance and there she will give birth to from one to six cubs, whom she cares for, feeds and protects. When the cubs grow up, they become affectionate, cheerful and playful animals.
The harm caused by bears is almost compensated by the benefits they bring, especially since they almost always live in sparsely populated areas where they do not have the opportunity to harm people. Skins of almost all kinds are used and valued as good furs. In addition, their meat is eaten, bones, tendons and entrails are used.
In the most famous species of bears - common brown bear(Ursus arctos)* we notice a great variety not only in color and coat quality, but also in appearance and skull shape. Its usually dense coat, which is longer on the muzzle, belly, and back of the legs than on the rest of the body, may be short or long, smooth or curly. Its color passes through all shades from black-brown to dark red or yellow-brown, or from dark gray and silver gray to light red; the white collar found in young animals sometimes persists until old age, sometimes reappears in old age. The snout is more or less elongated, the forehead is sometimes flattened, sometimes not, the body is either very stocky or somewhat elongated; legs are long or short.
* The brown bear is the most widespread of the bears, inhabiting a variety of forest landscapes, forest-steppes, mountain tundra and forest-tundra and mountain steppes of Europe, the Middle East, Central, North and East Asia and North America. It is extremely variable in size and color. Its smallest races (inhabiting the south of Europe and Central Asia) do not exceed the size of a large dog, the largest (from Kamchatka and Alaska) reach a height at the shoulders of 1.5 m and a weight of 700 kg. The color varies from sandy fawn to almost black, but more often, as the name suggests, it represents shades of brown.
With 1-1.25 m in height at the withers, the bear reaches 2-2.2 m in length, with 8 cm falling on a short tail. Weight ranges between 150-250 kg; however, in large and obese, it reaches 350 kg. In full time, fat alone weighs 50-100 kg; according to Kremenets, in one case he weighed more than 140 kg.
Bears are distributed from Spain to Kamchatka and from Lapland and Siberia to Lebanon and the eastern part of the Himalayas. In Europe, bears still inhabit all the high mountains: the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Transylvanian Alps, the Balkan and Scandinavian mountains, the Caucasus and the Urals, as well as the spurs of these mountains and the countries adjacent to them; all of Russia, all of northern and central Asia, with the exception of the bare steppes, Syria, Palestine, Persia, Afghanistan, from the Himalayas east to Nepal, and finally, in Africa, the Atlas Mountains. The bear is often found in Russia, Sweden, Norway, in the Danubian countries, in Turkey, Greece; quite often - in the mountains of Spain and Italy; almost never found in Switzerland, Tyrol, France and Austria, and, finally, completely exterminated in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Great Britain. Solitary specimens appear from time to time in the mountains of Bavaria, in Carinthia, Styria, Moravia and, perhaps, in the Bohemian mountains **. An indispensable condition for the life of a bear is high, continuous and impenetrable or little visited by people forests abounding in berries and other fruits. From his worst enemy - man, he seeks salvation in lairs, under roots or in hollows of trees, mountain caves, in dark impenetrable forests and swamps with dry islands.
* * Intensified hunting and destruction of habitats has led to the fact that the brown bear has almost completely disappeared in most of Europe, remaining there in the form of small isolated populations. It completely disappeared in the Atlas Mountains in northwestern Africa, as well as in Mexico, and became extremely rare in Tibet and some other regions.
The bear is Europe's most clumsy and clumsy predator and, like most of its closest relatives, an awkward and stupid animal. However, the awkwardness of his movements is more apparent than real. He is a pacer, therefore, when walking and running, he stands simultaneously on both right and then on both left paws, so he rolls heavily from side to side all the time; when running fast, it starts at a very fast gallop, easily catches up with a person and in many cases shows agility and dexterity, which could hardly be suspected of it. It runs even faster uphill than on level ground, which is facilitated by the length of its hind legs; he can only descend from the mountain slowly, otherwise he would easily roll over his head. In addition, he is an excellent swimmer and skilful climber; however, in old age, when it becomes very fat and heavy, it avoids climbing trees, especially if their trunk is smooth and has no branches. Huge strength and strong claws make it easier for the bear to climb: it can climb even very steep slopes of rocks. Of the five senses, he has the best developed sense of smell and hearing; vision, on the other hand, is rather poor; the taste seems to be very well developed.
Kremenets presented us with many observations concerning the subtlety of the bear's feelings. According to him, in the forest, in calm weather, the bear hears the click of a trigger at a distance of 70 steps, the crackle of brushwood breaking underfoot into a finger thick at 135 steps, and a rather quiet whistle at 60 steps. The bear, lying in a winter den, looked out of its shelter when the hunters approached, already 210 paces away, although they approached it very carefully, on skis and against the wind. The tame bears of this observer recognized their master in 50-70 steps; but for 80-100 steps their vision was no longer enough; they smelled bread smeared with honey in the grass for 30 steps, and when this delicacy was hidden in a wormhole - for 20 steps.
The character of the bear has long received the most favorable reviews. “Not a single predatory animal,” Chudi says, “is as funny, so good-naturedly cheerful and amiable as our kind bear. He has an honest, open character, without deceit and falsehood. His ability to cunning and cunning is very little developed. what the fox tries to achieve with his mind, the eagle with swiftness, the bear achieves with direct, open force.He does not lie in wait for prey for a long time, does not try to get around the hunter or attack him from behind, does not immediately use his terrible teeth, with which he can easily gnaw everything, but he tries to strangle his prey with strong paws and bites only in extreme cases, without showing great bloodthirstiness, since in general, being of a rather meek disposition, he willingly eats vegetable food.His appearance is more noble, inspires confidence and more friendly than appearance wolf. He does not devour the corpses of people, does not eat his own kind, does not wander around the village at night in the hope of grabbing and dragging a child, but remains in the forest, where he hunts without harming a person. There is a very misconception about his supposed slowness: in time of danger, he becomes furious and becomes very dexterous and agile.
I cannot agree with this characterization. The bear may, of course, seem ridiculous, but he is not at all good-natured and not amiable: he shows courage only when there is no other means of salvation; he is sparingly endowed with mental faculties, rather stupid, indifferent and lazy. His good nature is rather due to his inability to get prey, and he seems ridiculous to us because of his appearance. The cat is bold, the dog is smart, the bear is stupid, rude and clumsy. His teeth are adapted not only for eating meat food, so he rarely attacks animals.
A careful observer should not lose sight of the fact that not only individual specimens, but also the majority of bears inhabiting different areas can have completely different properties, depending on what circumstances influence its temper and lifestyle. This is confirmed both by individual cases and by numerous experiments. Recently, the senior forester Kremenets published a very instructive essay in which he described the fruits of his long-term observations of bears living in swamps near the town of Rakitno in the Kyiv province, and he emphasizes that his observations cannot serve as a complete description of all bears living in different localities. “In general,” says Kremenets, “a bear cannot be called cruel or bloodthirsty. If he were bloodthirsty, he would have the opportunity to demonstrate this every day in one way or another, and then, with his extraordinary physical strength, he would probably have to take much more vigorous measures to pursue him. I have never seen a bear, during his wanderings and meetings with a man, attack him himself. On the contrary, in such cases he hastens to flee or, conscious of his strength, does not pay attention to the pitiful creature and expresses its displeasure at meeting it with a feigned advance, accompanied by abrupt grumbling sounds. By nature, the bear is rather good-natured, although he still cannot be completely trusted, he especially does not like to be teased or suddenly disturbed his peace. One of the main traits of his character - phlegm He loves peace very much, and in his attacks some frankness, directness and chivalry are visible - a property wa, having nothing to do with the bloodthirstiness of the wolf or the cunning of the lynx. It even shows signs of a sense of humor.
"Distrust never leaves the bear and always guides all his actions. The one who watched bears in the wild, who raised them, dealt with them for a long time, he could not help but notice with what suspicious looks the bears follow every movement and action of a person: in appearance indifferent, the animal, however, distrustfully guards every step of a person and, at the slightest approach, retreats to the side or back.I can also report the following: it often happens that a bear follows the trail of a forest watchman who is looking for his lair, and only then returns to it when he is convinced that the danger has passed from this side. Due to this strong distrust, it is impossible to foresee the actions and actions of the bear; it also lies in the impossibility of completely taming it; therefore, the greatest caution should be exercised in bear hunting. berries or mushrooms, lumberjacks, etc.) almost always end quite peacefully: the bear is content with grumbling or, in extreme cases, when he is teased, with a few not quite gentle pushes and paws. For the most part, he takes to flight. In general, the bear has little courage; only in difficult circumstances, when he is driven by people and dogs while hunting, he decides to bravely attack a person for his salvation, pushes him into the snow with his front paws and inflicts minor wounds with his claws. It has been noticed that those bears, which were very emaciated in winter, especially boldly attack livestock in spring. However, I noticed that this tendency is characteristic for the most part of individual families of bears, and among them, in individual specimens, it is transmitted to offspring. So, for example, almost all bears living in the Shitinsky volost are distinguished by great ferocity, while in other areas, despite the fact that they kill several heads of cattle every year, these predators are generally much more complacent and less bloodthirsty. For several years I have been able to observe the life of the bears of the aforementioned region, and I can say that single specimens of these animals were distinguished by extraordinary bloodthirstiness and diligently engaged in predation even in those times of the year when they did not suffer from a lack of food at all. So, one bear in July 1871, making his way from the south to the north of this region, slaughtered up to 23 heads of cattle during the day, and in August of the same year - 8 more heads, and did not use the meat of any of his victims.
Here is how Steller describes in the first half of the last century the way of life of a bear on the northernmost border of its distribution area: “In Kamchatka, bears are found in countless numbers; they roam the deserts in whole herds. peaceful, they would have devastated the whole of Kamchatka long ago.In the spring, bears come down in groups from the mountains from the sources of the rivers, where they moved in the fall to get food and for wintering.They appear at the mouths of the rivers, standing on the banks, catching fish, throwing it ashore they eat only the heads like dogs. If they find a net set by someone, they pull it out of the water and take out the fish. By the autumn, when the fish rises upstream, they also slowly rise with it into the mountains. If a person notices bear, then calls him from afar and persuades him to enter into friendship with him. Women and girls are not afraid of the presence of bears when they collect berries on a peat bog. If a bear attacks them, then once ve for the berries that he takes away and eats. In general, in those areas, bears attack people only in those cases when they are suddenly awakened. It rarely happens that a bear attacks a hunter even after a shot. They are so bold there that they break into houses like thieves and ransack everything that comes across.
* The bear's omnivorous nature makes it less dependent on its own physical health than other predators. Even a wounded or sick bear can successfully feed itself for a long time, waiting for the restoration of physical strength. This feature allows the bear to be less careful both during the hunt and in contact with potential danger, which in Brem's description is interpreted as "openness" and "nobility".
The bear's dental system indicates that it is an omnivore, but its diet consists mainly of plant foods. Various insects, such as beetles, slugs, he also likes to feast on occasion. For months he is satisfied with such food, gorging himself, like cattle, on shoots of rye or succulent grass, eating ripening cereals, buds, vegetables, acorns, wild berries, mushrooms; breaks anthills, feasts on both larvae and ants, the acid of which, it seems, is especially to his taste; seeks out bee hives, which provide him with tasty and especially tasty food. In Siberia and Turkestan, as well as in other areas, he is a very dangerous guest for beekeepers. Kremenets says that the bear can unmistakably find those hives in which there is more honey. The beehives that are attached to the trees, he drops to the ground and carries away for a long distance before starting to feast on honey. Very often, access to those hives that are attached to trees is very difficult for a bear, because experienced peasants do not try to expose a tree trunk to a great height and surround it with a strong palisade, which the bear must either destroy or climb over it with great art. Caught red-handed, he hastily runs away, rolls down the trunk to the ground, and if a fence interferes with him, he climbs over it without causing himself much harm. The attacks of bees are very sensitive for him: he roars in pain, rolls on the ground, tries to tear off his tormentors with his paws; if he becomes very ill, he runs without looking back. However, sooner or later he comes back to get his favorite delicacy. In the forests of the Lesser Khingan mountains, in June and July, when there are no berries yet, the trees felled by the wind look for beetles and larvae in their rotting core. By such upturned trunks and open anthills, they learn about his presence. The berries are just beginning to ripen, as he takes them, and also bends young fruit trees and shrubs to the ground in order to get their fruits. When bread, especially oats and maize, begins to pour, the bear appears in the fields, sits down on the ground and in this position crawls to and fro to bring ears of corn to his mouth with great convenience; thus in one night he devastates quite large spaces. In the autumn months, it looks for fallen acorns or beech nuts, and in Siberian forests - pine nuts; according to Rudde, the bear climbs cedar trees, breaks off their tops in order to get cones filled with nuts. He is not averse to undertaking a long journey at a time when the wild berries and fruits that he especially loves are ripening. “In addition to vegetables and nuts,” says Kremenets, bears also love acorns. In harvest years, they make up his favorite food, for which the bear embarks on long journeys to get it. It often happens that by the time the acorns ripen, entire groups of bears appear in the oak forests. In October, in Bobruisk district, during one raid in a large oak forest, up to eleven bears were tracked down, and, in addition, no less number of them broke the chain. Bears become fat from acorns and grains, while meat, berries, vegetables and oats are few they add fat to it. But the favorite delicacy of the bear is still honey, which he tirelessly looks for in the fall.
As long as the bear has plant food in abundance, he is content with it. But, once having tasted animal food, it becomes a predator in the full sense of the word. He looks out for and tracks down his prey, as they say, he tries to tire the cattle with the pursuit, especially when he grazes on high mountains, drives him into the abyss, after which he carefully descends after him and eats his fill. Success increases his courage. In the Urals, the bear is considered the worst enemy of horses. Cab drivers and postmen sometimes refuse to drive through the forest at night, although there was almost no case of a bear attacking horses harnessed to the carriage; the same horses that graze freely in the forest are never safe from his attacks. A bear hunter friend, Beckman, told me how a bear attacks its prey. One day, several horses were grazing in the swamp thicket in full view of a hunter sitting in ambush. At this time, a bear appeared and began to cautiously creep up to the horses, until they sensed him and hurriedly fled. The bear followed them with powerful leaps, in a surprisingly short time overtook one of the horses, hit her with one paw on the back of the head, grabbed her muzzle with the other, knocked her to the ground and tore her chest. When he saw that another of the running horses was lame and could not escape, he abandoned his prey and ran after the second victim, quickly overtook her and killed her in the same way. Both horses neighed loudly.
Once daring, the bear approaches the stables, tries to break the door or, as it sometimes happens in Scandinavia, dismantles the roof. Extraordinary strength allows him to even carry large animals with him. Several examples of this terrible force are given by Kremenets. One bear in a death fight broke pine stakes from eight to ten centimeters thick. The other, taking a freshly killed and still trembling cow in its front paws and walking on its hind legs, carried it across the stream into the forest. A bear, who was sitting by the fire, was attacked from behind by a bear that unexpectedly emerged from the winter lair and "crushed his skull with a strong blow of the front paws, so that death followed instantly." Finally, the fourth bear pulled out of the hole into which he fell, a still alive adult elk weighing 300 kilograms, and dragged it half a kilometer through the swamp*.
* A case is known when a grizzly bear weighing 360 kg killed and carried away a bison weighing 450 kg. The blunt teeth of a bear are a poor murder weapon, and it kills the victim mainly with its front paws, which are indeed endowed with great strength. Having crippled the prey with the help of its paws, the bear can also use its fangs, grabbing the animal by the throat, like many large predators.
Deer, roe deer and chamois, due to their caution and speed of running, quite often avoid bear paws, but in the north of Scandinavia, he chases elk quite diligently. Badger holes sometimes visit and look into their holes. It happens that wolves disturb the bear during hibernation, pursue the wounded and even dare to attack the bear, which stubbornly and unsuccessfully protects her cubs. A bear does not hate or fear a single four-legged animal like a dog. “Horses,” says Krementz, “in our area rarely become the prey of a bear, but pigs, sheep and goats almost never, although I cannot say that several cases of disappearance of domestic animals attributed to the wolf could not be the work of a bear. From game the bear kills only elk, wild boar and roe deer, also pursues black grouse and hazel grouse and does not disdain even the eggs of the latter.The bear creeps up to its prey or waits for it in a recess, in ambush, covered with a low-growing pine, young spruce or thick willow and brushwood.If one of his victims, especially those separated from the herd, approach him, he unusually quickly pounces on her and tries to knock her down and overcome with a strong blow on the back, and plunges the sharp and long claws of her forelimbs deep into the body, often tearing off pieces of meat along with the skin , and at the same time kills its prey by biting its throat. Most of the cows and bulls killed by the bear, which I examined, had wounds on the sides and on the neck " . With the approach of winter, the bear prepares a lair for himself between rocks or in caves, as well as in tree hollows, or in a forest thicket, or on dry hummocks among swamps. Prince Vasily Radziwill reports as a witness that in the Minsk province in 1887-1888 a bear made a den even on a tree. The bear rested among the woven branches of a forked trunk of a magnificent spruce, eleven meters above the ground. However, this is not the first time this animal has chosen such a bed for itself: already at the beginning of the preceding winter, it settled on another, lower tree, but, frightened by curious observers, left it. The she-bear carefully covers her lair with moss, leaves, grass and branches, and thus prepares a beautiful and comfortable bed. In the Galician Carpathians, the she-bear prefers to stay for the winter in the hollows of very thick tree trunks, if the hole is not too wide. Even before the first snow, she cleans the winter dwelling, clearing the hollow from earth, rot and other impurities.
When frost sets in, the bear climbs into the shelter and plunges into hibernation. The time when a bear lies in a den in autumn is very different and depends on the climate and weather conditions. The she-bear retires to the den already at the beginning of November, and the bear continues to roam as early as December (as I myself was convinced in Croatia by examining the tracks), not paying attention to snow and frost. According to the assurances of Russian bear hunters, this animal, before lying in a winter shelter, carefully bypasses the surroundings and, if it notices traces of human feet, immediately moves to another place. In winter, during the thaw, even in Russia, he leaves the den to get drunk or eat. “At the beginning of hibernation,” says Lewis, “it seems much easier for them to leave the lair than in the middle of winter. There is no doubt that the bears in Livonia lie buried in the snow for three to four months, without taking any food, as a result of which their stomach is completely empty.
If the winter is warm, then the hibernation of the bear does not last long, and in a warmer climate, he probably does not think about arranging a winter shelter. This can be judged by the bears kept in zoological gardens. There they do not sleep at all and behave in winter almost the same way as in summer, and in warm winters they sleep perhaps a little longer than in summer. By the time the cubs are born, the she-bear is quite cheerful; in the wild, she sleeps before and after childbirth as soundly as a bear; in captivity, as I have seen from my own observations, she does not eat anything at this time. Since the bear usually eats well in summer and autumn, by the time of hibernation it is very fat and partly feeds on this fat during the winter. By spring, he, like all animals subject to hibernation, loses weight very much. The ancients, who knew this, observed that the recumbent bear was in the habit of licking its paw, and concluded from this that it sucked fat from its paw. These tales are believed and told to this day. It is absolutely true that a bear during hibernation, when the skin sheds on his feet, sucks them, and grumbles and smacks, which is heard even at a long distance; he probably does this to speed up the molt, and maybe to alleviate the pain.
We do not have accurate information about the reproduction of bears, and this is all the more surprising since these animals are among those predators that are often kept in captivity. True, quite a lot of observations have been made regarding mating, pregnancy and childbirth of a she-bear; but these observations are almost all made on animals living in captivity. However, they are so identical that they can probably refer to bears living in the wild. Copulation occurs in May or early June, as sexual arousal lasts for a whole month. Linnaeus defines pregnancy as 112 days, as he considers October to be the time of copulation. In fact, the pregnancy lasts for at least six months, probably more*. Knaur found (in the Carpathian Mountains) on March 11 in a den, searched by him after the death of a she-bear, two cubs the size of a rabbit; he believes they were five or six weeks old. The she-bear usually throws from two to three cubs, sometimes one or four, rarely five.
* Pregnancy in a brown bear lasts 180-266 days, cubs (from 1 to 4, usually 2) are born in January-March. Cubs leave the shelter at the age of five months. The mother bear mates again only in the second or third year after the birth of the cubs.
The observations of Kremenets do not refer only to the bears that lived in the swamps of Rakitno, although with a larger area of \u200b\u200bthe distribution of these animals, deviations from the general rule may occur.
According to Kremenets, female bears go into heat in the middle of summer - from June 15 to August 15. It seems that things never come to real battles between males, although several males often converge on one female. It was once noticed that three males followed one she-bear and the youngest and weakest of them was recognized as a favorite, at least he walked directly behind the she-bear. After the cessation of sexual arousal, the males and females disperse in different directions, and the she-bear again walks with the cubs, which, even during estrus, still follow the mother at a respectful distance. It is impossible to determine with certainty whether a bear reaches puberty before the age of five or six, but Kremenets, according to some signs, believes that this happens earlier. "The bear will usually give birth between December 1 and January 10; rarely earlier, sometimes a little later. Of the 31 cases of childbirth, 16 occur from December 1 to January 1: 13 - from January 1 to January 10, 2 - from January 10 to January 20. For the first time, a she-bear bears from one to two cubs, later - up to three, and in subsequent years the number of cubs fluctuates between two and three and rarely reaches four. five cubs, but this was the second case in the area within 50 years. Judging from the teeth, the mother was about 14 years old, she was extremely angry and injured quite a few people quite seriously before she was killed. again, up to one, for several years they will not give birth at all, and at the end of life they completely stop childbearing.
From my observations of killed bears, I can determine this time between 16-18 years. Kremenets, however, does not say definitely that the she-bear will give birth annually, but this is self-evident from many of his stories. He writes, among other things: “A female bear, while not pregnant, lives with her one-year-old cubs. However, I twice observed a really rare case when a mother drove away two one-year-old cubs, probably due to a new pregnancy. In such cases, she does not tolerate about she bites and beats her older cubs until they leave the area where she lives. From that time on, the cubs become independent, no longer depend on either the family or the mother, and take care of their own food. "
The mother arranges a real nest for her cubs; they say, however, that she sometimes gives birth to them in the snow. If any danger threatens her offspring, she carries the cubs in her teeth for a long distance. It is noteworthy that in case of danger, the mother bravely protects her already almost adult and strong cubs. A she-bear with her cubs considers herself the complete ruler of the entire area that she has chosen for her residence, and she meets any infringement on her rights with an attack on the violator. Some bears terrify everyone who needs to pass through her possessions, and even block roads; a daredevil who would set off through this area without a dog would risk his life. After four months, the cubs are already so large that they can follow their mother; she teaches them to climb trees, find food, and generally teaches all bear science.
Young bear cubs abandoned by their mothers are said to roam during the summer near the old lair, where they climb in bad weather; if they are not driven away by old bears, they willingly converge with younger brothers. The observation of Russian peasants, first reported to us by Eversman, sheds a peculiar light on such mergers of bear families. These peasants had the opportunity to see that the she-bear instructed her older cubs to look after the younger ones, for this reason two-year-old bear cubs walking with their mother and brothers are called "breeders". Eversman tells the following about one bear family that crossed the Kama: “When the she-bear had already crossed to the opposite bank, she noticed that the pestun was slowly sneaking after her, not paying attention to the younger brothers who remained on the other side of the river; as soon as he approached, his mother gave him a slap in the face, after which, realizing what was the matter, he immediately turned back and returned to his mother, holding one of the younger brothers in her teeth. the pestun dropped his burden in the very middle of the river, she threw herself into the river, beat him again, after which he hurried to correct the mistake, and the family calmly continued on their way. There are rumors among Russian peasants and hunters that a mother bear assigns a keeper to each youngest cub. It is his duty to look after the little cubs hidden in the thicket while the mother lies in wait for prey or feeds on a dead animal that she cannot drag away. In winter, the nursery keeper lives in her lair and is relieved of his duty only when there is another big bear cub in his place. Therefore, it is possible, on occasion, to see a four-year-old pestun with a bear family.
Five-six-month-old cubs are extremely funny. They are very mobile, but clumsy; so it is understandable that sometimes they do amazing things. Their childish nature is manifested in every act. They are very playful, playfully climbing trees, wrestling like perky boys, jumping into the water for no reason or reason, running back and forth and causing a lot of mischief. They do not show special tenderness to their watchman, they are equally affectionate with all people and almost do not distinguish one from another. Whoever feeds them is their friend, whoever angers them is the enemy, and they treat him like an enemy. Bear cubs are irritable, like children, their love is easily acquired, but just as easily it is lost. Already after six months, they become similar in character to old bears: they become angry and grumpy, offend the weakest animals, bite and scratch even their owner, so that beatings alone can tame them. Over the years, bears become even more ferocious, voracious, bloodthirsty and dangerous. They can, of course, be brought up, taught some simple things, but it is impossible to trust them completely, like all stupid creatures in general: you should always be wary of their malice and deceit, combined with terrible power. Therefore, they can still be kept in zoological gardens or led on a chain to perform various tricks, but they can never be trained so that close cohabitation with them is safe for people. Many who tried to educate an indomitable and insidious animal experienced this for themselves: some of those who made such experiments paid with dangerous wounds and even life.
This opinion is confirmed by Kremenets. "The never dormant distrust of the bear," he says, "makes him incapable of sincere friendship and love for people; to acquire his affection by caresses is an impossible dream."
It is still not known for sure how many years the growth of a bear lasts, but it should be assumed that by the age of six a bear cub grows into a real bear. Apparently, bears reach quite advanced years. There were cases that they survived in captivity up to 50 years, and bears gave birth to 31 years of age*.
* This life expectancy figure in captivity is also confirmed in modern literature. Brown bears reach sexual maturity at the age of 4-6 years, but continue to grow even after that, until 10-11 years of age.
Bear hunting is a dangerous thing, but the terrible stories that were once told by experienced hunters are now considered fiction. Good dogs, before which all bears experience extraordinary fear, remain under all circumstances the best helpers of the hunter. In southeastern Europe, the bear is mostly hunted by a round-up during the period when he fattens up, by ambush - less often and in exceptional cases - before or during hibernation; in Russia, they prefer this last time for hunting. Since the bear runs away from the hunters, after experienced hunters have determined its location, it is possible to almost always count on complete success both in a raid and in an ambush, of course, only if its favorite paths are known. Composure and a faithful hand, a good aimed weapon are the necessary conditions for a successful bear hunt.
“A very common opinion,” writes Kremenets, “that bears always rise on their hind legs when attacked, is completely erroneous; in this case, it would be easier to repel his attacks. I personally killed 29 bears, saw how they shot 65 other animals of this kind, I was present when bears of all sorts and sizes met hunters, and I myself was more than once attacked by them, but in my presence only one bear and one she-bear rose on their hind legs during the attack and thus walked some distance towards their enemy. that this phenomenon, which has been so often described in many hunting stories and previous scientific studies, never happens, but it seems to me that these cases are extremely rare.A bear attack is always sudden and quick, and he either tries to hit the enemy, or, running up to the hunter at a fast trot, suddenly rises on his hind legs with a sharp movement and knocks him to the ground with a powerful push. or it strikes hard and bites right away, but if people and dogs are not far away, then the bear never stays near its victim for a long time and tries to run away. In the Himalayas, the bear, according to Blanford, is said to be quite harmless, for he himself never attacks people, rarely even hurts if he happens to defend himself. Kinloch, who killed many bears there, drew the same conclusion from his great experience: he had never seen a bear attack a man, and had never heard of it. According to him, only a completely driven bear can, breaking through the chain of beaters, knock down a person, on occasion even hit and bite him, but all this in order to pave his way to escape. The fact that he rises to his hind legs to hug and strangle his opponent should be considered a fable.
In addition to the usual bear hunting, it is exterminated in various other ways in those areas where it causes great harm. In Galicia and Semigradia, traps are placed in his path, a chain is attached to them, and a large deck is attached to it with a long strong rope. The bear steps on the trap, tries in vain to free himself from it or gnaw through the chain, as a result he fastens himself to the tree, is exhausted and sadly dies. The hunter who goes around the bear paths every two days will recognize the path of the bear by the trail of the dragged trap, chain and log. “Asians,” says Steller, “build a whole building out of logs that lie on top of each other and immediately fall down and kill the bear as soon as he steps into the trap. They also dig holes in which they strengthen a sharp, smooth, burnt stake protruding from the ground a few feet, while the pits are covered with grass."
Other ingenious bear traps can be cited. Boards with nails sticking up are placed on the ground and covered with grass; the bear steps on a nail with his foot, begins to stagnate, other paws also fall on the nails, and the bear lies on his back, and the boards prevent him from seeing, and he becomes an easy prey for the hunter. They also hang on a tree where there is a hollow with bees, a heavy deck; the bear fights with her, pushing her with her paw, and she hits him with a swing. Sometimes they set up traps from the palisade in the form of a narrow circular corridor, and the bear himself closes the door, passing by it a second time. All these ways, however, have yet to be verified by credible eyewitnesses. In Norway, Russia, Spain, experienced, courageous people come out against the bear, who, accompanied by several dogs, armed only with a pitchfork and a knife, fight it not for life, but for death *.
* Bear hunting with the so-called horn (like a short spear with a long blade and a crossbar) was widespread throughout Russia at the beginning of our century. This hunt was very dangerous and required great physical strength and certain skills from the hunter.
The benefits brought by bear hunting are very significant: meat is valued quite highly; fat, which is famous as a good remedy for hair loss, also comes true easily and is expensively paid; this fat is white, does not harden and does not go bitter in closed vessels; when fresh, it has a nasty taste that disappears when boiled with onions. The meat of young bears has a delicate pleasant taste; fried or smoked hams of adult fat bears are considered a delicacy. Paws are especially valued by gastronomes, but one must first get used to them, since, freed from fur and cooked for roasting, they make a disgusting impression with their extraordinary resemblance to a huge human leg. The bear's head is also known as an excellent dish. The fur of a bear is valued according to its size: the skin of small breeds costs almost nothing, while the fur of large bears, according to Lommer, costs from 60 to 250 marks.
In the Urals, peasant women attribute a mysterious power to the claws, and Ostyaks to the fangs of a bear. A bear hunter in the Urals must carefully guard the skin of the animal he has killed, otherwise the girls will steal his claws from him, since, according to legend, the claw of the fourth toe of the right front foot has an extraordinary miraculous power: if a girl manages to secretly scratch his beloved guy, he will passionately love her. The bear's tooth serves as a talisman for the Ostyak, saving him from illness and danger; it also tends to expose deceit and deceit. Therefore, one should not be surprised that many peoples living in very remote areas from each other, having killed a bear, arrange a festival with a feast. Inhabitants of the vast swamps of Polissya, in addition to bear fur, highly value bile, which is credited with healing power: they say that it helps with fever. Therefore, after a happy hunt, its participants are plentifully treated to vodka, to which a little bile of a dead animal is mixed. At the beginning of the last century, German princes considered it a special pleasure to poison captive bears with large dogs. For this purpose alone, they kept several bears in special fenced areas. “August the Strong,” says Flemming, “had two bears, and it happened that one of them once ran out of the garden in Augustenburg, grabbed a whole quarter of a calf in a butcher's shop and, when the butcher's wife wanted to drive him out, tore her and her children to pieces; Then people came and shot him himself." The bear intended for baiting was brought to the hunting place in a box, which could be opened from a distance by pulling the ropes from all sides and thus instantly free the bear. Then large, heavy dogs were released on him; if they managed to grab the bear, then it was not difficult for one person to cope with it. In the courtyard of the Dresden Castle in 1630, three bear-baiting events took place within a week. On the first two, seven bears had to fight with dogs, on the third - with large boars, of which five remained in place; of the dead bears, one weighed eight centners. As a rule, noble gentlemen themselves killed the beast caught by the dogs with a hunting knife, but Augustus the Strong used to cut off his head.
And at the present time, such persecution is sometimes arranged. In the arenas of Madrid, bears are forced to fight bulls, and in Paris, at the beginning of this century, bears sitting on a chain were poisoned by dogs. Cobell, who happened to be present at such a spectacle, tells that the bear fiercely fought off the attacking dogs to right and left with his mighty paws, and roared terribly; when the dogs got excited, he grabbed some under him and crushed them, while others he threw aside, badly wounded.
* Fortunately, one can hope that the practice of such inhuman "entertainment" is completely a thing of the past.
The Romans obtained bears primarily from Lebanon, although they are said to have taken them from North Africa and Libya. Their stories about the manners of bears look like a fairy tale. Aristotle describes bears, like other animals, most accurately. Pliny adds several fables from himself; Oppian gives a detailed account of the glorious bear hunts of the Armenians on the banks of the Tigris; Julius of the Capitol describes the public games in the circus at which he was present, and reports, among other things, that under Gordian the First, up to a thousand bears were delivered to the arena in one day.
The closest relative of the brown bear should be recognized as living throughout northeast America grizzly(Ursus arctos)**, whom the Americans jokingly nicknamed Old Ephraim. In body structure and appearance, it is similar to our bear, but larger, heavier, clumsier and stronger than it. The shoulders, throat and belly are covered with dark brown, lighter hair at the ends, which is generally longer, fluffier and more tangled on the whole body than that of a brown bear; on the head, the hair is shorter and lighter. The iris is reddish brown. The color of the fur often turns into glandular gray or light brown; in the first case, it is often characterized by a silvery, and in the second, a golden sheen, depending on whether the tips are silvery white or yellowish.
* * American brown bears, collectively known as "grizzlies", belong to the same species as their Eurasian cousins. Strictly speaking, the populations of Kamchatka and Primorye should also be included in this group of brown bear races. Grizzlies vary greatly in coat color and size. It is to them that the largest of the brown bears belongs - the so-called Kodiak from the island of the same name off the coast of Alaska.
American hunters therefore distinguish between gray, brown and brown bears and consider the latter not only the most beautiful, but also the most dangerous of animals of this species. American bears differ from European bears in a short skull, convex nasal bones, a wide, flat forehead and short boots. The tail is also shorter than that of our bear, but the whitish claws are of amazing length (13 cm), they are strongly curved and slightly narrowed towards the ends. The significant size of the grizzly bear is one of the hallmarks of this bear: while the common bear only in exceptional cases reaches 2.2 m in length, the size of the grizzly is always 2.3, and often 2.5 m in length, and it weighs up to 450 kg. Its distribution area captures the west of North America, the southern parts of the United States from the Rocky Mountains, and in the north (Dakota) - starting from Missouri. The closer to the west, the more common it is, especially in the mountains. To the south, it still appears in the mountainous regions of Mexico, at least as far as Jalisco, to the north it reaches the Arctic Circle, and even further north.
In terms of lifestyle, the gray bear is very similar to ours and is also prone to hibernation; only when walking does he waddle and sway more strongly, and all his movements are more clumsy. Only in early youth can climb trees; in adulthood, he is no longer able to engage in such exercises. But it easily crosses wide streams. This formidable predator is so strong that it can cope with any animal of its homeland. In the old days, they liked to describe him as the most terrible and ferocious animal, they said that he was not afraid of a person, on the contrary, he went straight at him, whether he was on a horse or on foot, armed or unarmed, whether he offended him or did not even think to touch him. It is also said that he is able to draw a tightly stretched lasso to himself with his front paws, like sailors pulling a rope, even in cases where he himself has fallen into a loop or a grazing horse is tied to a peg by this lasso. Among all Indian tribes, the wearer of a necklace of claws and teeth of a bear enjoys the greatest honor. Only that Indian has the right to wear such a necklace, who got it himself, having measured his strength with a gray bear. They also say that this bear, which, having seen a person, boldly goes to him, immediately runs if he suddenly smells his smell in the air. In the same way that the bear is afraid of human smell, other animals are afraid of his own. Domestic animals, sensing it, rush about in the paddock or in the barn, as if a lion or a tiger were approaching them. They are even afraid of the corpse of a grizzly and its skin.
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It has now been proven that all this information is partly completely wrong, partly greatly exaggerated. They were distributed and believed in at a time when people still little visited the west of America and when, in order to interest listeners, it was absolutely necessary to invent a monster for the New World, which could be opposed to the most terrible predators of the Old World. From the stories of the hunters about their adventures, a general rule was derived; thus the grizzly became the scarecrow of the Far West. Of course, there were cases when people died from a gray bear, as they died from ours; wounded animals desperately defended themselves, and females themselves attacked people when their cubs were in danger; but from this it still cannot be concluded that the American bear is more ferocious or more courageous than its European relative; he rather resembles him in disposition. Of all the gray bears that Pehuel-Lesha had to face, not one showed courage, and even a bear wounded in the hunt did not dare to attack his pursuer. Much more important than all these random observations are the results of the thirty-year stay in the American deserts of the famous hunter General Marcy.
“After all that I had heard about the gray bear, I was ready to see in him one of the most dangerous and ferocious creatures in the world; therefore, I imagined that the person who kills him is performing a heroic deed. I was so firmly convinced of this that he would never have dared to shoot at such an animal if he had met him alone and on foot.The grizzly, of course, is the owner of the American forests and in strength, perhaps, surpasses all other predatory animals, but my opinion on his courage and ferocity has changed significantly since I have gained experience in hunting.When I was one day driving through the plain between the branches of the Plata River in 1858, I unexpectedly came across a big bear with two cubs, which, at a distance of a whole mile from any forest, lay quietly in the open prairie. Since I first happened to meet alone with this terrible beast, and even with a queen with cubs, it is quite understandable that I felt some anxiety. However, I still decided to attack the beast. My horse was quite reliable. After checking once again whether the harness and weapons were in order, I approached the she-bear at a distance of a hundred paces; only then did she notice me, raised herself high on her hind legs and carefully began to examine me. I took advantage of this minute to shoot at her, but missed, after which the she-bear took off running with her cubs. I shot after her and hit the back of the body, then she ran even faster and cowardly abandoned the cubs. When I overtook the cubs, they began to howl plaintively, but the bear only looked back from time to time, making no attempt to come to their aid. I followed her on horseback for several English miles, sent four bullets after her, after which she finally fell. Although I rode very close to her several times during this pursuit, she never thought to defend herself. Concerned only about her own salvation, she left the cubs to their fate. On three other occasions I met grizzlies in the mountains, but none of them tried to defend themselves, and all tried only to escape. On a journey between New Mexico and the state of Utah, on a fine horse, I happened to chase a huge gray bear for several English miles, which I managed to drive like a wild bull towards my people, so that he was already killed in the camp. Based on my present experience, I can say of this much maligned animal that in the first moment of fright when attacking his lair, he is really able to rush at the enemy; in the same way, I think it possible that a particularly ferocious beast sometimes attacks a walker and even a rider in the middle of the prairies, but such cases are generally rare. I, at least, share with many other observers the opinion that the American gray bear is not at all as scary as it is described. I am quite convinced that every bear that smells a person or sees him from afar will try to get away from him in time. He also has a habit, when he wants to rest, to confuse his trail, making rounds back or to the side, and lie down so that he can see or smell the approach of his pursuer from afar.
* The American brown bear easily gets used to the presence of a person and, in the absence of anxiety from the latter, learns not to pay attention to him at all. However, huge predators in many national parks at the end of the 19th century. have become an attraction for tourists. Trained not to be afraid of people and knowing that food can always be found next to a person, bears become potentially dangerous. Moreover, many park visitors feed bears (in violation of the park regime) and may unwittingly provoke an attack, which has happened several times.
The gray bear feeds on plant foods, willingly eats berries, nuts, roots, but also kills animals; besides, he, they say, catches fish with special skill. In Alaska, where it is found in large numbers along the banks of rivers and along desert plains, through swamps and mountains, paths trodden by bears are constantly found; the direction and extent of these paths is so skillfully chosen that it is worth following them if you wish to find the nearest path between two points in the country. “On the steep rocky slopes of the western coastline of the Cook Strait,” writes Elliot, “you can sometimes see whole groups of 20-30 pieces of these clumsy animals looking for berries and roots there. But their fur is not highly valued because it is rough, uneven and rare Because of their ferocity, they are little hunted, except by the natives, who show them great respect and are in the habit of addressing a bear with a eulogy before killing a bear.Because the natives are afraid to go to places where volcanic forces are still active , then the surroundings of craters, hot springs, extinct volcanoes represent the safest refuges for wild animals, especially for bears, since they are quite sure that people will not disturb them there.
In his youth, the grizzly is easily tamed and, like our ordinary bear, is, at least for a short time, a meek and cheerful animal. The bear's fur, despite its length and density, is so delicate and beautiful that it gives the little animal a very elegant look. Pallizer, who brought one grizzly to Europe, couldn't boast enough of his captive. He ate, drank and played with the sailors, entertained all the passengers, so that the captain of the ship later told Pallizer that he would be very glad to have a bear cub for each voyage. The same bear cub surprisingly became attached to a small antelope, which was carried on the same ship, and on occasion defended it in the most chivalrous manner. When the antelope was lowered from the ship and led along the street, a huge bulldog pounced on it and sunk its teeth into it, ignoring the cries and blows of the people accompanying it. Fortunately, Palliser was walking along the same road with his little bear, who, seeing the danger that threatened the antelope, escaped from the hands of the owner, instantly grabbed the enemy of his friend by the throat and bit and frayed him so much that he fled from the battlefield with a plaintive howl. The lifestyle and behavior of a grizzly in captivity is not much different from the mores of our bear.
The benefits of a killed grizzly are the same as those of a brown one: according to Lomer, its fur, depending on its size and beauty, is valued up to 250 marks.
White or polar bear(Ursus martinus)*.
* The polar bear is, apparently, the largest modern land predator in size, second only to individual specimens of the Kodiak grizzly. Body length is 2-2.5 m, adult females weigh 150-300 kg, males. - up to 800 kg. Compared to the brown bear, the polar bear is relatively small and narrow-headed. Sailors mentioned by Brehm were not so far from the truth: as is now known, the polar bear is more related to the brown than any other species of the family.
The first navigators who talked about him thought that this was a kind of ordinary bears, whose fur in the cold North took on the snow-white color characteristic of these countries; this delusion did not last long, because very soon significant differences between brown and polar bears were noticed. The white differs from the species discussed above in a more elongated body, a long neck and short, thick and strong legs, the feet of which are much longer and wider than those of other bears, and the fingers are almost half their length connected by a thick swimming membrane. It is much larger than all other bears, since with a height of 1.3-1.4 m it reaches 2.5-2.8 m in length and 600 kg of weight, and with obesity and 800 kg. Ross weighed one bear, which, having lost 12 kg of blood, still weighed 513 kg, and Lyon points to one bear weighing 725 kg. Of the 17 bears killed in the Bering Strait and in the surrounding areas during the Pehuel-Leshe voyage, five reached the above-mentioned maximum weight; the fat of one big bear can weigh up to 180 kg.
The body of a polar bear is much clumsier, but at the same time more elongated, the neck is much thinner and longer than that of an ordinary bear; the head is elongated, flat and relatively narrow from above, the back of the head is very elongated, the forehead is flat, the wide muzzle is pointed in front, the ears are short and rounded at the top, the nostrils are wide open, the opening of the mouth is not as deeply cut as in a brown bear.
The toes end in medium-sized thick and crooked claws; the tail is very short, thick and blunt, barely visible from under the coat. The long, shaggy and dense fur consists of a short undercoat and smooth, glossy and rather soft hair, which is shorter on the head, neck and back and longer on the back, belly, paws and on the lower parts of the foot. There are a few bristles on the lips and above the eyes, and there are no eyelashes on the eyelids. With the exception of a dark ring around the eyes, a bare nose, the edges of the lips and spears, the polar bear is covered with snow-white clothes, which are silvery in the young, and in the old, due to the use of fatty foods, it acquires a yellow tint. The season does not affect the color of the coat.
The polar bear lives in the Far North of the globe, in a real ice belt, and is found only where the water is covered with ice most of the year, or at least often. The limit of its distribution area in the North has not yet been explored; but no matter how far a man penetrated into these inhospitable places, he found everywhere a polar bear, which perfectly settled down in these lifeless areas, while in the south, below 55 degrees north latitude, it comes across very rarely. It does not belong to any one of the three northern continents, but to all northern countries in general. The polar bear prowls there by sea and by land, not afraid of any other creatures and indifferent to the freezing cold and terrible snowstorms and storms; neither the icy surface that covers the sea nor the stormy waves of the Arctic Ocean stops him, and in case of need, the snow serves him as a cover, protection and lair. On the east coast of America, near Baffin and Hudson bays, in Greenland and Labrador, on Svalbard and other islands, one can see it on land as well as on ice floes. In Asia, Novaya Zemlya is its main seat; but also in Siberia and even on the shores of Europe and Asia, one can find him, however, only when he is brought here on an ice floe. So it appears in Lapland and Iceland. In America, he is most often found where a person does not have the opportunity to pursue him. According to the stories of the Eskimos, its main enemies, it appears on land only in rare cases on the other side of the Mackenzie River, therefore it is more common in the east than in the west. In more southern countries falls against his will if he is brought there by large ice floes. We often saw polar bears floating on an ice floe far from the shore, along the sea, which had already been cleared of ice. In general, they return in the summer to the north to the remaining ice masses, on which polar animals mainly live. They often form flocks of twelve or more heads. Scoresby claims that he once met about a hundred polar bears off the coast of Greenland, of which twenty were easily killed.
The movements of the polar bear are clumsy, but these animals are extremely hardy. This can be seen from their swimming, which the polar bear mastered to perfection. The speed with which he moves in the water for whole hours evenly and without immersion in water, according to Scoresby, is equal to 4-5 kilometers per hour. The great bulk of his fat, if he is well nourished, does him a great service, for it equalizes the weight of his body with the weight of the water. Therefore, in the course of one day, he swims through boundless expanses of water, and you can often see him in the open sea having sailed far from the ice floes and from the shore *.
* For a long time it was believed that the polar bear is a vagrant, not tied to any particular place. However, although these animals are capable of traveling great distances in search of prey, including swimming through the straits between islands and ice fields, their populations as a whole retain a more or less constant position in space.
He can dive as skillfully as he swims on the surface of the water. It is remarkable that he pulled salmon out of the sea, and even for this reason one cannot but be surprised at his abilities. Even on land, he is not as helpless and awkward as it seems at first glance. His ordinary gait is slow and prudent, but when he embarks on a clumsy-looking trot or gallop, he moves over uneven ice floes or land with amazing speed and at the same time knows how to choose the most convenient road with great care. His external senses are very subtle, especially sight and smell. When he travels over large ice floes, he climbs, according to Scoresby, high ice cliffs and from there notices his prey from afar. A dead whale or a piece of bacon fried on a fire, he smells at a very great distance.
The food of the polar bear consists of the meat of almost all those animals that are found in the sea and on the poor shores of his homeland. The terrible strength with which he surpasses all other bears, and the dexterity of movements mentioned above in the water, allow him to easily get his own food. Seals of all kinds are his main object of hunting, and he is cunning and dexterous enough to catch these clever and agile animals *.
* The polar bear is apparently the only species in the family that feeds almost exclusively on animal food.
If he sees a seal lying on land from afar, he silently plunges into the water, swims up to it against the wind, approaches with the greatest caution and suddenly swims out right in front of the animal, which becomes his prey. Seals in these cold countries try to lie close to the holes and crevices of the ice floes, which give them the opportunity to escape into the sea. The bear swimming under the ice floes finds these holes with extraordinary skill, and then suddenly the terrible head of a dangerous enemy appears before the helpless seal, so to speak, in his own house or in the only shelter that could save him. The polar bear also knows how to profit from fish, and he catches them either diving or driving them into the crevices between the ice floes. It attacks land animals only when it lacks food. Reindeer, arctic foxes and birds are also not guaranteed from his attacks. Osborn saw a female bear turning over blocks of stone to get her cubs hiding in their burrows, and Brown, as well as Kukental, noticed that the bear eats large quantities of loon eggs. He goes even to the inaccessible nests of seabirds, in order to collect tribute at high tide with eggs and chicks, and he shows great skill in climbing. He eats carrion as willingly as fresh meat, but he will never touch the corpse of another polar bear. In the seas frequented by sealers and whalers, the polar bear delights in eating the skinless and blubber bodies of seals and whales. But he does not feed exclusively meat food and, wherever possible, also eats plants, especially berries and moss, as is well known to those who have often met with a polar bear. Many old bears in the summer or in those areas where there is a lot of plant food prefer to eat plant foods, which is fully evidenced by the contents of their stomach.
It is likely that most polar bears do not hibernate. These predators are not even afraid of severe frosts, the main thing for them is that the sea near which they live is not covered with ice. Some observers say that old males and young non-pregnant females do not sleep at all in winter, but are constantly moving from place to place. It is also true that they, with the exception of pregnant females, hunt all winter. In general, in winter, these animals live on the sea, mostly on the edges of ice floes. Pregnant female bears come out on land in winter, and their cubs will be born in the coldest time of the year. Shortly after mating, which takes place, they say, in July, the she-bear makes a lair for herself under rocks or under overhanging blocks of ice, or she digs a hole for herself in the snow and burrows completely into it. With the abundance of snow falling there, she does not have to wait long until her dwelling is covered with a thick and warm cover. Long before she goes to her lair, she manages to work up enough fat for herself, which she spends all winter, because she leaves her lair only when the spring sun is already rising quite high in the sky. By this time, the cubs had already been born. It is known that pregnancy lasts from six to seven months, and the number of cubs fluctuates between one and three, most often there are two; more accurate observations, however, have not yet been made*.
* Pregnancy in a polar bear lasts 195-265 days. Cubs are born in November-January, in March-arrows leave the maternity den. The cubs stay with their mother for about two years. Each female participates in breeding every 2-4 years.
According to the stories of the northern peoples, newborn cubs are no more, if not less, than rabbits, but by the end of March or the beginning of April they already reach the size of a small poodle. Much earlier than brown bear cubs, they begin to accompany their mother. She takes care of them in the most gentle way, feeds and protects. The mother shares all the dangers with them even when they are quite grown up; at a very early age they learn all the arts: swimming and chasing fish. These cute little creatures very quickly get used to swimming and diving, but do not forget about their comforts and rest - for example, even when they become quite large - on the back of their mother.
Seafarers and whalers told touching stories about the selfless motherly love of bears. “A bear,” says Scoresby, “who had two cubs, was chased by several armed sailors. At first, she seemed to want to encourage the children to run quickly by looking ahead, constantly looking around and trying with all her movements and a special alarmed tone of voice announce the danger; and when she saw that her enemies were near, she drove the children before her, pushing them with all her might, until she escaped with them. Another she-bear, raised by Kan's people and dogs, was dragging her cub, pressing her head to her chest and holding it with her teeth. From time to time she turned and drove away the dogs chasing her. When she was killed, the bear cub climbed on her corpse and fought off the dogs until a shot to the head killed him in place, and only then he fell down. Recent research confirms these observations; but as regards the wild disposition and ferocity of the polar bear, which were formerly considered its distinguishing features, opinions have somewhat changed.
Many examples are given of accidents with people and the fact that many whalers pay with their lives for insane courage while hunting polar bears. “If a bear is met on the water,” says Scoresby, “then you can successfully attack him; when he is on the shore or on snow or smooth ice, on which he can run as fast on his broad paws as a man, the outcome is rarely happy. However, most of the accidents are the result of the carelessness of the attackers. A sad fact happened to the sailor of one ship, iced over in the Davis Strait. Probably attracted by the smell of food, the brave bear came quite close to the ship. The crew was busy with dinner, and even the sailors of the watch left the deck. One brave sailor accidentally noticed a bear, armed himself with a club and jumped onto the ice, thinking of becoming famous for his victory over an uninvited guest. But the bear paid little attention to his miserable weapon and, prompted by hunger, grabbed his enemy behind the back with his terrible teeth and carried him with such speed that he managed to run far away with a sailor, before the comrades of the unfortunate man rushed to his aid. Another time, a sailor who wanted to attack a bear with a pike, but in the end got scared, escaped from the advancing animal by throwing him a pike, a glove and a hat in turn, examining which so occupied the bear that in the meantime the sailor managed to catch up with his comrades .
Such stories of real misfortunes or more or less serious adventures are often found in descriptions of old travels and very rarely in new ones. To explain at least some measure of this striking contradiction, it can be assumed that the danger of encounters with a polar bear has been greatly exaggerated, or that the ferocious temper of the bears has changed significantly due to closer acquaintance with people. In any case, the idea of his ferocity, compiled from too hasty generalizations of individual, often not quite clearly described accidents, is incorrect, while, as a rule, other aspects of his character are not taken into account. According to all those who have observed and hunted him in recent decades, the polar bear is not at all so dangerous. Lamon, who took part in hunting expeditions to the Far North on a yacht, writes the following about this: “I consider the polar bear the most powerful predator on Earth; but, like all other wild animals, it, with rare exceptions, does not attack humans if he can get away from him, and it seems to me that the stories of his ferocity and courage, told to us by former sailors, are based on gross exaggeration, if not on fiction "*.
* Despite the validity of this remark, the polar bear poses no less danger to people near it than the brown one. It has become especially dangerous where it is fed intentionally or simply leaving food waste within reach, as a result of which the beast is used to associating the image of a person with food.
This beast behaves in the same way in the far northwest, south and north of the Bering Strait. Elliot, one of the few who reached the island of St. Matthew and met hundreds of bears, notes on this occasion: “In the course of the nine-day exploration of the island, there was not a single moment that we did not see polar bears around us. Was it because they were full, or because the summer weather set them up so meekly, but we could not arouse any of these animals to a hostile attack. directions over the hills and as far as possible. Having killed half a dozen of them, we left them alone, because they were in the period of molting and their skin was of no value. " Pehuel-Leshe thus expressed his final opinion on the morals of polar bears in the North Pacific: “Where seals and walruses live, there inevitably are polar bears. It always gave us great pleasure to follow the movements of these predators, as they show themselves among the irregularities of the ice surface here and there, now they swim across the water, now they rise to a height to look around, always counting on the simple-hearted seal to let them sneak up on them. ice floes. They indefatigably go around their boundless kingdom, eating everything they can get and master, and not only meat, but also berries and grass on the ground. Having had their fill, they amuse themselves with various games and fight with each other on the ice. In places where they play, the snow is trampled and crumpled, and the slopes of the mountains seem to serve as skating rinks: wide footprints and tufts of wool indicate who was busy here.
The polar bear, due to its enormous strength, size and versatility of predatory abilities, can rightly be called the king of the Arctic Ocean. He has an unusual acuteness of feelings and shows amazing cunning when attacking, but upon close acquaintance, like all wild animals, it turns out not to be so scary at all. The same thing happened to him as to his relative - the brown bear: stories of isolated terrible cases cast a shadow over the whole species. It protects its skin when it is really necessary, but if possible, runs away from a person and, even irritated and wounded, rarely attacks him. But if he is forced to attack, he really becomes a serious opponent, in the fight against which only composure and reliable weapons will help to avoid danger. Hunting on the water, when in a boat they drive up to a fast-swimming and excellent diving bear, is a simple massacre. A shot down bear must be supported immediately, because lean bears sink amazingly quickly into the water. I would not like to call the polar bear cowardly, he is rather cautious and shy; at the same time, he is curious to the point of stupidity. A ferocious specimen may sometimes appear among them, a real bully or a bear tormented by dogs, which can sometimes overcome its fear of a person and rush at him; but most horror stories are based on a misunderstanding of some cases. Bears are curious and big gourmets; something edible prompts them to explore. Then they approach the person, sometimes even hurriedly run up to him. Who was not a hunter and does not know the nature of the bear, may think that he is attacking; the one who rushes to run can induce the bear to pursue; but there is hardly one serious danger in a hundred cases.
Animals with such strange, amusing dispositions cannot be called monsters of the Arctic Ocean and predators dangerous to humans; but I by no means dare to assert that meetings and hunting with a sad outcome have never happened and never happen. However, one can always say that bears behave relatively good-naturedly - in a word, bearishly. So, the astronomer of the Second German Polar Expedition Bergen twenty years ago was convinced, to his horror, that a hungry bear could rush at a person. As he was walking towards his tools, the bear suddenly grabbed him and dragged him. “At a quarter to nine,” Bergen describes his adventure in this way, “I went out to observe the occultation of the star by the planet, which was supposed to begin at almost 9 o’clock, and at the same time to make meteorological observations. Just as I was about to go back, Captain Koldovey came to the ice floe. We talked for several minutes, after which I went to the ground, and he went to the cabin. When on the way back from the observatory I reached the thermometer, then fifty paces from the ship I heard some noise and saw a bear coming towards me; there was no time to let we never went out without the gun. scar on my left ear) suggests that he hit me. The first thing I felt was the touch of teeth on the skin of my head, covered with a thin cap, and the bear tried, as he usually does with seals, to crack my skull, on which his teeth only creaked. The cries for help raised by me frightened the bear only for a minute, he ran away, but immediately returned and began to bite my head again. My cries were, however, heard by the captain, who had not yet had time to fulfill his intention to go to bed; he went up on deck, made sure that these were really cries for help, raised the entire crew to their feet and hurried to the ice floe to help a comrade in trouble. The bear was frightened by the rising noise, and he was about to run to carry his victim to a safe place, which he still held by the head and which, with helpless pushes in the bear's side, tried to force it to be released. After a shot fired with the intention of frightening the bear, the beast let me go, jumped back two steps, but then again grabbed first by the arm, then by the right hand, on which the fur glove was put on. Fortunately, this hitch gave the pursuers the opportunity to close the distance between us and get closer to the bear. The beast made for dry land, and would have succeeded in escaping with his prey if he had managed to climb ashore; but, approaching the edge of the ice floe, the bear moved parallel to the shore along sharp, uneven, broken ice floes; at the same time, he had to take a step, and the pursuers at that time were approaching him along a smooth field. After dragging me about three hundred paces and almost suffocating me with a shawl, the ends of which he held tightly, the bear let me go, and at the same moment Koldovei leaned over me with the words: "Thank God, he is still alive." A bear stood a few steps away, apparently considering what to do, until a bullet showed him that it was high time to leave. Nobody thought about pursuit, since first of all it was necessary to deliver the victim to the shore; most of the wounds were on the head, where, in addition to countless small bites, long, ten to fifteen centimeters, scars cut through the skin, and at the same time quite deep. The rest of the wounds, which were mostly the result of hitting the sharp edges of the ice floes while the bear was dragging me over uneven ground, were minor. It should be mentioned that I felt no pain either during the contraction, or after, or during the treatment of my wounds, which, thanks to good care and constant application of ice, went very well.
The polar bear is hunted for its meat, fat and fur wherever it is found. Firearms, spears and traps are used against him; some hunters, according to Zeman, resort to the following trick. They bend a whalebone 10 centimeters wide and 60 long, cover it with seal oil and fry; then they look for a bear, tease him with arrows, throw him a piece of fat and run away. The bear sniffs the bait, decides that it is edible, swallows it, but then death overtakes him, because the fat in his warm stomach melts, the baleen straightens and tears his intestines. But it is doubtful that incredulous animals swallowed whole such suspicious lumps of fat. It is true that they eat, when they are not disturbed, the most varied and wonderful things, and have a very unpleasant habit of seeking out and appropriating supplies which northern travelers hide in certain places in these icy deserts, in order to use them later. The best protection from their attacks, sand turns out: first, storerooms are covered with it, then it is poured over with water; it freezes, and the reserves are thus covered with a thick layer of ice. Bears destroy wooden huts, scatter stone heaps, barrels, chests break open and destroy everything that lies badly and that only they can swallow. Kan says that these robbers, in addition to meat and sea biscuits, gobbled up coffee, sails and the American flag, and could not cope only with an iron chest. According to Tobizen, the bears emptied two barrels of salted fish left in the winter quarters. One polar bear, which was killed by McClure's hunters on his expedition to rescue Franklin, had a stomach full of raisins, ham, tobacco, and band-aids; he could get this treat only by plundering some barn of travelers in the far North. Polar bears stole astronomical instruments and iron hooks from German polar travelers, ate sugar, stearin candles from them when they traveled on a sleigh, chewed rubber flasks, packets of tobacco and pulled the cork out of a vodka bottle; fortunately, they only had time to grab the important diary with their teeth at the moment when the noise was heard and they were driven away.
The meat and fat of the polar bear are readily eaten by the inhabitants of the Far North. Even the whalers of Europe eat its meat, having cleaned it of fat, and find it tasty; but they also claim that people often get sick from eating this meat. Polar bear liver is said to be very harmful and considered by many to be poisonous*.
* The liver and the meat of the bear are so fatty that their consumption in large quantities cannot but adversely affect the functioning of the liver. Even when eating brown bear meat, severe intestinal disorders occur. It must be assumed that to the polar bear. which is characterized by the constant presence of a large amount of fat, this applies to an even greater extent.
“If sailors,” says Scoresby, “inadvertently eat the liver of a polar bear, they almost always immediately fall ill and sometimes even die; on some, it has such an effect that their skin cracks all over their bodies.” Kahn also confirms this. He ordered the liver of a freshly killed polar bear to be cooked for himself, although he had heard that it was poisonous; as soon as he tried it, he fell seriously ill. According to Pehuel-Leshe, shortly after eating this poisonous liver, a person begins to have severe colic, vomiting and diarrhea; but not every liver and not every person leads to disease. From the same piece one person can simply get enough without experiencing any bad consequences, while another, having barely tasted it, can become seriously ill. Therefore, Europeans should be advised not to eat polar bear liver. There is a belief among sailors that from eating polar bear meat, although it is not harmful, people turn gray early. The Eskimos are of the same opinion and also know that the liver is harmful, so they feed it only to their dogs. Salo is also used by them as fuel.
The fur of this animal surpasses the fur of other bears in its price. According to Lomer, 200-500 marks are paid for the skin, depending on its size and beauty. From 1,000 to 1,200 skins go on sale every year, which are used for cavities and carpets, and not for fur coats *.
* In the 70s. 20th century the price for a polar bear pelt ranged from US$600 to US$3,000. As a result, hunting has significantly reduced the populations of this animal, which is now protected and included in various Red Books.
Bear hunting, which can hardly be called dangerous and especially interesting, nevertheless presents some difficulties for inexperienced hunters, since a cautious beast constantly retreats in front of a person, if not directly runs from him. Nordenskiöld's companions initially hunted in vain for the polar bear, whose meat and fat were essential to their survival. They approached the bears without fear, but the result of this was only that the prudent animals quickly ran away. Taught by bitter experience, they came up with a different way of hunting. “As soon as the bear showed up and we had free time,” says Nordenskiöld, “all people received an order to hide behind a tent or behind a sleigh. Here comes a bear, he burns with curiosity and wants to know what kind of creatures appeared in his hunting area, not do seals move there? He runs up and, when he gets close enough that he can see unfamiliar objects, he receives a deftly fired bullet. "
The polar bear knows how to cleverly and successfully avoid the set traps. “The captain of a whaling ship,” says Scoresby, “who really wanted to get a bear without damaging his skin, tried to catch him in a loop, covering it with snow, and put a piece of whale oil as bait. The bear soon smelled the fried fat, saw the bait , approached, grabbed it with his teeth, but noticed that his foot fell into a lying loop. Then he threw the meat, carefully freed himself from the loop with his other paw and slowly left with his prey. Having calmly eaten the first piece, he just as carefully pushed the suspicious rope aside and the second time pulled off the bait. Then the noose was put deeper, and the bait - in the recess in the very middle of the loop. The bear again approached, sniffed the whole place around, raked the snow with its paws, pushed the noose a third time and, without hesitation, once again took possession of the offered treat ".
Even young bears show similar caution and by all possible means try not to fall into the traps used by man.
Caught in early youth, polar bear cubs are tame and trained to a certain extent. They allow their master to visit them in a cage, even play with him, but they do not like captivity. As for food, there are no problems here. Young people are given milk and bread, adults are given meat, fish, and also bread, which they eat about three kilograms a day. By old age, bears become irritable and quick-tempered. With good care, a polar bear can be kept in captivity for several years; An example is known when a polar bear caught in his youth and raised in Central Europe lived in captivity for 22 years. In a cage, he breeds less often than a brown bear, and only when he is provided with the necessary amenities. In the course of twenty years, the polar bears of the London Zoological Gardens brought cubs three times *.
* There are several cases where polar bears have lived in captivity for more than 30 years. In the Detroit Zoo, one female lived for more than 38 years, and the last bear cub gave birth at almost 37 years of age.
sloth bear(Melursiis ursimis) ** differs markedly both in appearance and way of life from all real bears, therefore it is distinguished into a special genus.
* * The sloth bear inhabits the forests of western Hindustan. This is a medium-sized bear with a body length of 140-180 cm and a weight of up to 150 kg. It is distinguished into a special genus due to the modified lips and dental system, which is associated with feeding mainly on termites.
Its distinctive features are: a short, thick body, low paws, rather large feet armed with huge crescent-shaped claws, a blunt muzzle extended forward with large lips that can be strongly extended, and long shaggy hair that forms a mane at the back of the head and goes down low on the sides. All these features give him such a peculiar appearance that he is rightfully considered a representative of an independent genus. How peculiar this animal is can be seen from the fact that at first it was described under the name "bear-shaped sloth", and in one essay it was even called "a nameless animal." In Europe, sloth has been known since the end of the last century; at the beginning of this century he was brought here alive. Here, of course, they saw that it was a real big bear, and thus he received his proper place in the taxonomy of animals.
The body length of the sloth reaches 1.8 m, and the tail accounts for only 10 or 12 cm; height at the withers 85 cm; it weighs about 145 kg. This animal is hard to miss. The head is low, broad, with a flat forehead and muzzle is long, narrow and proboscis-shaped, which has an unusually peculiar appearance. The nasal cartilage expands into a flat movable patch, at the end of which there are two nostrils located across and separated narrow partition. The outer shell of the nostrils is very mobile, and the long lips stretching forward can make a variety of movements. Even at rest, they stretch much further than the jaws, but on occasion they can lengthen, move, fold together, bend so that they form a tube, which, if necessary, plays the role of a trunk. A long, narrow, flat tongue helps to manipulate this tube, and thus the animal can not only grasp various items, but even directly suck them up. The ears of this bear are bluntly cut, erect and small, like pigs, small eyes are set obliquely. But in general, the muzzle is almost invisible, because although it is covered with short hair, it is covered by long, disheveled hair descending from the top of the head. This hairline hides the tail and passes on some parts of the body, especially on the neck and on the back of the head, into a thick, curly, disheveled mane. In the middle of the back, as a rule, two very large protruding whirlwinds of matted hair are formed, so that it seems as if the sloth has a hump. As a result, the entire front of the bear's body looks very unattractive, especially if you add to this the clumsy, heavy body and short thick legs. Even his feet are very special; and unusually long, sharp, hooked claws make this animal really look like a sloth.
The color of coarse hair is glossy black; the muzzle appears gray or off-white; the horseshoe-shaped spot on the chest is also white. In addition, the fingers are also very light in color. The claws are usually the color of a white horn, but the underside of the foot is black.
Young sloths differ from older ones in having a shorter mane on the head and shoulders and, as a result, more protruding, relatively large ears; in addition, in young ones, the muzzle is usually yellow-brown above the eyes, and the horseshoe on the chest is yellowish-white.
Homeland sloth - the whole of Hindustan, almost from the spurs of the Himalayas to the southern tip of the peninsula, and Ceylon; in the west, its distribution area is limited to the Indus; whether it occurs as far east as Bengal has not yet been clarified. It loves hill country and jungle, and although it is regularly hunted there, it is still one of the most frequent large animals of India, which, however, has already been completely exterminated in some places *.
* The number of sloth bears in India and Sri Lanka is approximately 10,000 individuals.
* * Although slothfish are most active at night, they can be active at any time of the day.
Most often they live alone or in pairs, and sometimes the male walks with a she-bear who has cubs. His external senses, except for smell, are poorly developed; he sees and hears so badly that it is not difficult to sneak up on him quite close. It makes an indelible impression on the observer. "By his long, shaggy, wiry coat," writes Blanford, "and his short front legs, he is the most amazing creature of all bears, and his movements are as comical as his appearance. on the run, then he embarks on such an awkward, helpless gallop that if, saving his life, he runs from the hunter in a straight direction, then it seems as if he was being driven from behind, and he tumbles. Moreover, he climbs rocks very well and often, when frightened or shot, rolls off them curled up into a ball, as other bears do.
Gubach feeds mainly on plants and small invertebrates, but, according to Tikkel, destroys the eggs of birds and chicks on occasion. Observers agree that he does not attack large animals to satisfy his hunger, and only Sanderson and McMaster noticed once that the bear gutted a small deer that was shot, and another time a bull killed by a tiger. Bear cubs, brought up in captivity, willingly eat raw and boiled meat. Various roots and all kinds of fruits, as well as their favorite fleshy flowers of the Mua tree (Bassia lotifolia), nests of wild bees, honeycombs and honey, which they also love very much, caterpillars, snails, ants - all this constitutes the main food of sloth. Long, curved claws do him good service in finding and tearing hidden roots or ruining anthills *.
* The main food of the gubach is social insects, primarily termites, to which its limbs and mouth are adapted. However, it also eats other insects, honey, bird eggs, does not disdain carrion, and eats a variety of plant foods.
It destroys even the strong constructions of termites and produces terrible havoc among the young generation of these insects. Here he is greatly helped by the ability to draw in and blow out air with great force. “When he stands on a termite mound,” Tikkel says, “he scratches with his front paws until he opens the middle. At the same time, he strongly blows out dust and earth and draws the inhabitants of the building into his mouth with such a powerful and loud breath that he can be heard on two hundred meters around. In the same way, he sucks up fat larvae, sitting quite deep in the ground. " To get fruits and insects, he climbs trees and deftly knows how to move between branches, but in general he is a rather ponderous acrobat. Sanderson also relates that the sloth in some areas gladly climbs on date palms and strains palm juice from vessels hanging on them. Bears climb up the tree trunk, rising to a height of 8-9 meters, where vessels with juice hang, bend them with their paws and drink the contents. They would be happy to donate a few liters of this drink, if only they, with their clumsiness, did not break many vessels. Lost people unanimously assert that these juice thieves never bother to climb down, but simply fall to the ground, and at the same time they are often very tipsy.
The following reports by Tennent about the way of life of sloth in modern times are confirmed. “One of my friends,” says Tennent, “was walking in the forest near Jaffa and, hearing a discontented grumbling, noticed a bear, who, sitting on a branch, with one paw put honeycombs of wild bees into his mouth, with the other at the same time drove away from his lips and eyes Inhabitants of Bintena, whose main wealth is beehives, live in constant fear of sloth bears, because they are not afraid of anything and ruthlessly overturn the dilapidated dwellings of beekeepers.They also bring significant harm to sown fields; on sugar plantations, especially unwanted guests In some cases, sloth is dangerous for large mammals and birds, even attacks herds and people. "
The stories of Gerdon, Sterndahl, Sanderson, Blanford, Forsyth and others are not so terrible, and their opinions seem more reliable, since they checked them more carefully. Official news about people killed by animals in India reports that from 1878 to 1886 a total of 95 7 people were torn to pieces by bears, and 13,049 of these animals were killed, and, of course, the types of bears are not indicated. Sanderson writes: "Longers are not safe for unarmed people. Lumberjacks and those who, by necessity, often happen to be in the forest and jungle, sometimes fall prey to these animals. Like all wild animals, they are most dangerous when the encounter occurs unexpectedly, because then they attack out of fear. At such encounters, in all likelihood, fewer accidents occur when a person meets tigers and panthers than with bears, because the former show more presence of mind and do not lose their temper so quickly. Attack of a frightened bear is far from always testifies to his aggressive intentions, because the bears, if left untouched, are peacefully disposed and, even wounded and driven, do not often show a desire to join the battle. Blanford also calls the sloth cowardly, but capable of defending himself, and adds that females who think that a person threatens the lives of their cubs are most often attacked. According to him, an unsuccessfully shot bear hastily runs away, not thinking about protection or revenge. A very common belief that an attacking bear stands on its hind legs is considered unfounded, as well as another that it hugs the enemy and tries to strangle him. A frightened bear sometimes rises on its hind legs, but just to get a better look at the enemy, then it goes down again. Whoever blocks his way, of necessity he overturns and strikes with his paw; in the fight, he tries to crush the enemy under him and can bite him hard several times. *
* According to modern information, sloths are not aggressive and calmly endure the presence of a person. However, the sloth has poor eyesight and hearing, and as a result, it sometimes lets a person get too close, and then gets scared. In this situation, he may attack to open his way to escape, or just accidentally hit a person with his paw. Most likely, the cases described as a sloth attack on a person occurred precisely in such situations.
In winter, sloths do not hibernate. The mating time usually falls on June, sometimes it seems to stretch for several months; The duration of the pregnancy is not certain, but it is believed to be about seven months. Cubs are born between October and February, mostly in December and January; usually there are two, occasionally, according to Sanderson, three. McMaster says they only open their eyes after 18 days. After two or three months, they already follow the mother, and the latest research undoubtedly confirms that she wears them on her back. This kind of movement is preserved even when the cubs have already grown enough and do not fit together on the mother's back: they alternately sit on their backs or run side by side. Elliot tells how a hunted bear carried her cubs three miles before she was killed. According to Sanderson, it is highly interesting to watch how the cubs, comfortably sitting on their mother's back, jump off where the food is, and at the first danger they hastily try to climb back onto their seat.
They hunt the gubach in various ways: they track him down when he, walking in the morning on dewy grass and low bushes, leaves a clear trail behind him; sometimes they hide near the lair and wait for his return from night wanderings; finally, they surround that space of the jungle where they assume or probably know that there is a bear here, arrange a real round-up and shoot him when he runs out of his shelter. Some hunters, in order to make the hunt more attractive, keep special packs of dogs that rush at the bear and hold it while the hunter kills him with a dagger. Elephants almost never take part in such hunting, because they mostly show a striking fear of the bear; even those who boldly expect a tiger attack are ready to run headlong at the sight of this black beast. Sloths have often been observed in captivity both in India and in Europe. In his homeland, buffoons and guides exploit scientific bears, who, like our bears, perform various tricks. People drive it in the same way as our guide bears, and earn their meager living from this. In Europe, especially in England, sloths live for quite a long time, sometimes even up to 19 years; in India it can live up to 40 years in captivity. He is fed milk, bread, vegetables and meat, and it has been noticed that he prefers vegetables and bread to any other food.
I often saw sloths in menageries and zoological gardens. Prisoners usually lie like dogs, on their belly, and spend hours licking their paws. To everything that happens outside their cage, they seem deeply indifferent. For the most part, I came across good-natured animals, but very stupid. When they are given food, they stick out their lips with a pipe and grab food in much the same way as ruminants do.
A killed sloth has no special price. From all the stories about him it is not clear what is done with the booty; Forsyth believes that its skin is not worth the candle, and its meat is inedible. Neval only reports that in his time lard was used by English ladies for hair growth. Hindus use lard as a cure for rheumatism.
Large or giant panda(Aihtropoda melanoleuca)*. The panda is smaller than our brown bear and is 1.5 m long from muzzle to end of tail. Its wide, rounded, hairy feet at the bottom are short and do not fully rest on the ground when walking, like large bears. The head with a short muzzle is slightly wider than that of other predators; the tail is very short and barely visible. Out of 40 teeth, there are four false-rooted and two real molars at the top, and three false-rooted and three real molars at the bottom. The panda is covered with thick white fur, and only in some places near the eye sockets, near the ears, on the forelimbs up to the scruff of the neck, on the hind legs and at the tip of the tail - does it turn black.
* In Brem's time, this beast was known as the Tibetan mountain bear. With an outward resemblance to a bear, the anatomy of a giant panda is so unusual that the panda was placed either in the raccoon family, or in the bear family, or in its own special family. And this issue has not yet been resolved. Perhaps the giant panda is a living fossil, a relative of the extinct relatives of bears - agriotheres.
Almost nothing is known about the life of a giant panda in the wild. It lives in the inaccessible mountain forests of eastern Tibet, from where it occasionally makes devastating raids into the valleys to obtain food consisting of bamboo roots and other plants *.
* The main food of the giant panda is bamboo shoots. One panda eats up to 12.5 kg of bamboo per day, including shoots up to 1.3 cm thick. In addition to bamboo, this animal eats other plants, mainly various bulbs, and occasionally catches fish and pikas.
One of the representatives of bears in Asia can be considered Himalayan or white-breasted bear(Ursus tibetanus)**
* * The Himalayan bear inhabits the mountainous regions of Asia from Iran and Afghanistan to Indochina. Japan and Primorye.
Its body is relatively thin, the head ends in a pointed muzzle, the forehead forms an almost straight line with the nose; ears are round and big, legs middle length, feet are short, toes are equipped with short but strong claws. The color and quality of the fur are subject to significant changes. Cuvier, who first described the animal discovered by Duvocell, reports that the fur of this bear is smooth, except for a shaggy mane around the neck, and uniformly black, except for a white stripe on the lip, a white collar on the chest, and reddish stripes on both sides of the muzzle. The white stripe on the chest has a Y-like outline; it forms on both sides of the clavicles along an oblique strip, in the middle it goes down, onto the chest, in the form of a cape or strip. Wagner once saw a live bear in a menagerie, whose muzzle was brown. This beast, with a height at the withers of 80 cm, reaches a length of 1.7-1.8 m, its weight is up to 120 kg.
It is quite possible that the bear, called by the Japanese "kuma" - crescent-spotted, should be separated from those living on the mainland into a separate species; but so far we do not yet have enough observations to be able to solve this question without error. The bears caught in Japan that I saw were quite different from their relatives brought from the mainland. But this difference is no more noticeable than between certain varieties of our common bear, on the heterogeneity or homogeneity of which opinions are also divided. This species is very common. Soon after Duvosel's discovery, Wallich found a similar bear in Nepal; Siebold also reports in his essay on the fauna of Japan that kuma is often found not only in China and Japan, but also in the mountainous countries of the Asian mainland and on the South Asian islands; Radde met him in southeastern Siberia. The southern region of its distribution covers, according to Blanford, not only Tibet, but also the forest spaces of the entire Himalayan range and mountains up to 4000 meters in height, the mountainous country of Assam and, to the west, part of Afghanistan and Balochistan to the border with Persia; it may also be found in Bengal, and spread southeast to Pegu, where, according to Theobald, it is rather rare.
The godfathers tell us about the life and customs of Adam, Kinloch, Radda and others. In the north of India and in the Kashmir Valley, Kuma lives mainly on the edges of forests and near fields and vineyards, in southeastern Siberia, on the contrary, in the densest forests. She climbs well and climbs to the tops of the tallest trees with great ease. The Tungus even assured Radda that she almost never descends to the ground at all, and that in summer, with the help of bent and woven branches, she arranges something like arbors for herself on the trees, while in winter she sleeps sitting in the hollows of trees. Rudde had seen these pavilions several times, but some natives assured him that the bears were building them for fun and not for dwelling*.
* The bear climbs trees well and often, but most of the time it spends on the ground. Often, sitting on a fork in a thick branch, a bear eats leaves. And so that the branches do not interfere and it was not necessary to reach for them, the beast rakes them with its paws and crushes them under itself, pressing down with its butt. And so there are "arbors". In the Far East, they arrange wintering dens in the hollows of large trees. This arrangement of the den protects the sleeping bear from the attack of the tiger.
In the Himalayas such love for buildings seems to be unknown at all, but Adame agrees with Rudde that the kuma is the best climber of all animals of this family, because it climbs the highest trees when nuts or mulberries ripen. Moreover, she is a very undesirable visitor to maize fields and vineyards, and often makes such devastation in them that landowners are forced to build gatehouses, sitting in which they try to frighten the approaching bears with loud cries. The Tungus told Radda that the Kuma is cowardly and harmless, because her mouth is shallow and she can only bite, but not tear her prey, like a brown bear. Adams, however, has heard quite the opposite and assures that the inhabitants of the mountainous countries of India, not without reason, are very afraid of the Kuma. Kinloch confirms this information with his own observations in the Himalayas and sees in this animal a dangerous enemy who has already killed many Europeans and even more natives. However, it must be admitted that only wounded or embarrassed animals of this species decide to attack; the same can happen if you accidentally disturb their peace. Blanford, on the contrary, considers Kuma the most bloodthirsty of the Indian bears, which not only attacks small game and deer, but also kills bulls, horses, and even eats carrion; but still, Kuma mainly feeds on plants, especially roots and fruits, of which, it seems, prefers acorns; it is also said that she is very fond of honey**. Regarding hibernation, information is rather contradictory; however, it can be assumed that the kuma does not hibernate as regularly as our common bear does.
* * In the south of the range, bears also attack large ungulates and are able to kill an adult domestic buffalo. There are reports of attacks on people.
During his nightly campaigns for prey, the godfather always runs from a person. As soon as she smells it (and in this respect the godfather is very sensitive), she stops, sniffs the air, detects strong excitement, takes several steps against the wind, rises on her hind legs and, convinced of the danger threatening her, turns back, running away at a speed that seemed would be incredible to someone who saw Kuma only in a cage. If, during the descent from the steepness, she suddenly gets scared of something, she instantly curls up and rolls down the cliff, sometimes covering a distance of up to three hundred meters, which, as Adams assures, he himself was a witness. Kuma cubs, of which there are always two, are born in the spring and remain throughout the summer (and in India even longer) with their mother. Its meat, both among the Japanese and among the Tungus, is considered more tasty than the meat of a brown bear.
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According to Scheibe, among the Ainos, in northern Japan, this animal is highly respected, if, however, we assume that the bear living there belongs to this species. “The Ainu,” says Sheibe, “quite rightly appreciate this bear. He is the most precious animal for them: he supplies them with food for a long time, delivers them clothes, and finally, his bile is highly valued thanks to her healing properties. On the other hand, no animal can do them as much harm as this bear, when it breaks into their dwellings, destroying everything along the way and killing livestock. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Ainu try to appease the bear, call it a deity and, having killed it, consider it their duty to make an atoning sacrifice. It consists in the fact that they plant the skull of a dead bear on the so-called "fence of idols", which is located in front of each hut on the east side. At this "fence" all idols are worshiped, except for the god of fire and brownie, to which sacrifices are made in the hut itself at a certain place; from that moment on, the bear's skull becomes a sacred object. On the same occasion, a festival called "Iomante" was established among the Ain. This is the redemption that the Ainu, along with feeding a young bear, bring to the entire bear family for a killed relative. "Sheibe describes in detail how this chosen bear cub is cared for, how it is killed in compliance with certain solemn rites, and they sing and dance a lot, even more they drink and even cry, as they flay the skin, drink his warm blood and eat the liver and brain raw.The festival ends with the planting of the skull on the "fence of idols".
In all the great zoological gardens of Europe, one can find a kuma, which, in its disposition, properties and habits, is most similar to a baribal.
Significantly different from other species of this family Malayan bear, or biruang(Helarctos malayamts)*. This is an animal with a rather long but awkward body, a thick head, a broad muzzle, small ears, very small blind eyes, disproportionately large paws, long strong claws and short fur. Its length reaches 1.4 m, the height at the nape is 70 cm. Short, but thick, shiny black fur, with the exception of the roan-yellow sides of the muzzle and one horseshoe-shaped or round spot on the chest, also yellow or red.
* The Malayan bear is the smallest of the bears proper: body length less than 1.5 m, weight 25-65 kg. Distributed in the forests of Southeast Asia from southern China to the Sunda Islands.
Biruang is found in Borneo, Java, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula and spreads north through Tenasserim to Burma and through Arakan to Chittagong. His life at large is little studied. In any case, he climbs, perhaps more skillfully than all his relatives, and seems to spend as much time in trees as on the ground; it feeds chiefly on plant matter and insects, although it is said to also eat mammals and birds**.
* * The main food of the Malayan bear is various fruits, as well as bee larvae and honey. He extracts honeycombs by cracking open hollows with huge claws of his front paws. In addition, the biruang eats small mammals and chicken-sized birds.
According to Marseden, it sometimes causes great harm to coconut plantations in Sumatra, climbs coconut palms and eats tender shoots, but Rosenberg does not mention such tricks of the biruang in his description of this animal. He writes the following about him: "Biruang spends the day in the crevices of rocks and hollows of trees, sometimes he makes a flat nest of cross-shaped rods on low trees. There were times when he, if forced, attacked people and killed them." In general, he is not considered dangerous on the mainland, although he is said to sometimes attack people. Sterndahl believes that only mothers taken by surprise, who think that their cubs are in danger, dare such attacks. A number of cases that Mazon cites as evidence that the Malayan bear is dangerous, according to Blanford, were not confirmed: these atrocities were committed not by the Malay bear, but by the godfather.
It is said that in the homeland of the Biruanga they are often kept in captivity as a funny and kind animal, they even allow children to play with it and allow the beast to run freely around the yard without supervision.
The heart, and especially the bile of this bear, is highly valued as a medicine; according to Bock, Chinese merchants pay dearly for them. On the island of Borneo, Dayaks sew hats from its fur.
The most famous American bear should be considered baribal or black bear(Ursus americanus). This is a very common and relatively good-natured animal; at least he is much more harmless than a brown bear. Its greatest length is 2 m with a height at the shoulders of 1 m. It differs from an ordinary bear mainly in that its head is narrower, its muzzle is sharper and gradually narrows from forehead to nose; feet are very short; but its main difference lies in the quality and color of the fur, consisting of long, hard, smooth hair, which only becomes shorter on the forehead and muzzle. The shiny black color of the fur only on the sides of the muzzle turns into a dull yellow; spots of the same color are often found under the eyes. Baribals with white edges of the lips and white stripes on the chest and crown are less common. The cubs are light gray in color and only by the second year they put on the dark clothes of their parents, but the fur remains short for a long time and grows rather slowly. Baribal is found throughout North America. Found in wooded areas from the east coast to the borders of California and from the far north to Mexico. In the forests he finds everything necessary for life; however, he changes his residence according to the conveniences that certain places provide him with at different times of the year. So, in the spring he looks for food in the valleys of large rivers and lakes rich in vegetation, and in the summer he retires to the depths of the forests, where he finds all kinds of forest fruits in abundance; in winter, he digs for himself in places hidden from view as much as possible, a comfortable lair, in which he lies down for a while or plunges into a real winter hibernation. There are different opinions regarding hibernation. Some naturalists say that only some bears retire for a few weeks in a hibernation den, while the rest roam in the winter, moving from one place to another, and even migrate from northern countries to southern ones; others think that this happens only in warmer winters, while in severe winters all black bears hibernate *.
* Apparently, all baribals go into hibernation for the winter, which lasts from October. 74-126 days. Hibernation, however, is regularly interrupted; during these sleep breaks, the animals come out. This occurs, as a rule, in the thaw and in the southern regions it happens more often than in the northern ones.
It is authentically known that the baribal is hunted most often in winter and raised from the den. Richardson says that the bear usually chooses a place next to a fallen tree, digs a depression right next to it, into which it lies down as soon as a snowstorm begins; the fallen snow then covers both the tree and the bear; but the place of the lair is not difficult to detect by the small hole formed by the breath of the animal, and by the large amount of hoarfrost surrounding this hole. Baribal even in summer covers its bed with dry leaves and grass. But this bed is very difficult to find, as it is arranged in most cases in the most remote forest thickets, in rock crevices, low caves, or under trees whose branches descend to the ground.
Despite its stupid, heavy and clumsy appearance, the baribal is a sensitive, agile, strong, agile and hardy animal. His running is so fast that no man can overtake him. He swims well and climbs masterfully. In any case, in his movements he shows more dexterity than the brown bear, with which he is completely similar in all other properties. He very rarely attacks a person, for the most part hastily flees at the sight of his worst enemy and, even wounded, almost never defends himself; however, taken to extremes, it can be very dangerous.
Its food is predominantly vegetable: herbs, leaves, mature and unripe cereals, berries and various fruits. However, he pursues the livestock of the settlers and dares to attack even the strongest bulls. It brings twofold harm to farmers, destroying crops and attacking livestock, therefore it is treated in the same way as a brown one - they are tirelessly pursued and exterminated by all sorts of means as soon as it dares to appear near human habitation.
American naturalists do not yet seem to have accurate information about the reproduction of the baribal. Richardson believes that the pregnancy of the female baribal lasts about 15-16 weeks, and Audubon, apparently, copied this information from him, both consider January to be the time for the birth of cubs. The number of cubs varies, according to Richardson, between one and five, while Audubon limits it to two*.
* Baribals mate in the first half of summer. However, fertilized eggs are, as it were, preserved and begin to develop only in the fall. As a result, the apparent pregnancy lasts about 220 days, while the actual development of the embryos lasts only 10 weeks. Cubs are born in January-February, in number from 1 to 5 (usually 2-3). The female baribal takes part in reproduction every 3-4 years.
Black bear hunting is done in a variety of ways. Many are caught with large traps, but most are killed by firearms. Good dogs do great service in these cases: they frighten the bear with a strong bark or drive it up a tree and give the hunter the opportunity to calmly aim at him and lay him down on the spot. Audubon vividly describes such a hunt, during which several bears were killed, but several dogs also died, and even some hunters were injured. Dogs alone cannot cope with a bear: even the strongest of them often die from the blows of his terrible paws **.
* * The main enemy of the baribal in nature is the grizzly, which quite often kills and even eats black bears. When escaping from a grizzly, the baribal usually gathers up a tree - this is its usual defensive reaction.
In many places self-propelled guns are successfully used, which shoot as soon as the bear touches the bait. Bears are sometimes chased along rivers and lakes when they voluntarily swim across them or are driven there by dogs.
Some of the hunting methods of the Indians are very original, but even more original are the solemn ceremonies by which they try to propitiate the spirit of the dead bear, which are very reminiscent of religious worship. Alexander Henry, who traveled through North America in areas where fur hunting plays an important role, tells how his owners behaved towards a bear they had just killed: “Immediately after his death, all the Indians approached him, and at the head their "old mother," as we called her, she took the beast's head in her hands, stroked and kissed it, and asked the bear a thousand times for forgiveness for having taken his life, and assured him that the crime was committed not by an Indian, but by an Englishman "This story, however, did not last long. Soon they began to skin and divide the meat. Each member of the family loaded himself with some part of the killed animal: skin, meat, fat, and then the whole society went to the dwelling. Entering the house, they they adorned the head of the bear with silver bracelets and all the brilliant ornaments that were found in the family. Then they laid the head on the platform and poured a large amount of tobacco under the nose. The next day all preparations for the feast were made. The hut was cleaned and swept and, the bear's head was raised and covered with a handkerchief that was not yet in use. The pipes were stuffed, and the Indian began diligently blowing tobacco smoke into the bear's nostrils. He begged me, as the cause of his death, to do the same, in order to surely tame his anger. I tried to convince my kind and affectionate master that there was no life in the bear, but my words were in vain. At the end, my master delivered a eulogy addressed to the slain beast, after which everyone began to eat bear meat.
Baribals, which I observed, differed from all relatives in gentleness and good nature. They never abuse their power against watchmen; on the contrary, they fully recognize the superiority of man over themselves and easily obey his will. In any case, they are not only much more afraid of the watchman than he is of them, but they also have an incomprehensible fear of all other animals: when a small elephant was once led past the cage of a baribal that lived with me, the bear was so frightened that he hurriedly climbed up his tree, as if hoping to find protection there.
Baribals climb trees with extraordinary ease and agility. Frightened by something, they jump on the first bough of a smooth oak trunk with one jump two meters high and then with the greatest speed and confidence reach its top. One old bear even jumped over the head of the watchman, who wanted to drive her into another cage, and in an instant found herself on a tree. Entire families are sometimes placed along the branches of trees in various, apparently very uncomfortable positions. Some even sleep in the forks of trees. The voice of the baribal resembles the voice of a brown bear, but weaker and more plaintive. I have never heard a roar in the true sense of the word from a black bear. The excited state is expressed in him, as in his European relative, by sniffing and snapping of the jaws. In anger, he bends his head to the ground, pushes his lips forward, snorts and looks around hesitantly.
Baribal fur, according to Nomer, is valued from 60 to 250 German marks. It is from this that fur coats are sewn, known to furriers as bear fur coats. This fur also goes to expensive sleigh cavities. Biological Encyclopedia
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An animal that almost everyone recognizes at first sight, familiar from childhood from fairy tales and cartoons, is a bear.
Description of the bear
It has a short and thick body, the same neck, and a muzzle stretched forward. The predator has small eyes and ears. Despite this, he has excellent eyesight and excellent hearing.
Paws have 5 fingers with long, very powerful claws. It is not for nothing that they call it clubfoot, because the beast walks, stepping completely on the entire foot. This makes his walk seem awkward. In fact, without being particularly graceful, bears can move quite quickly. They are very hardy, therefore they are able to overcome long distances without rest.
All bears have a tail. It is usually very short and inconspicuous. Only the giant panda has a big tail.
Animals are good swimmers. The polar bear has webbed feet on its paws. Thanks to this, he can stay in the water for a long time, overcoming distances of 30 km or more without rest.
Where does a bear live in the wild?
The habitat of the animal is wide. It includes the Arctic and Antarctic, Canada and Alaska. In nature, a bear can be found in Europe, Asia, and the American continent. Some representatives of predators live in Australia, on the islands of Japan, Sumatra, Java. They live on plains and mountains, on the shores of the oceans, hot and very cold areas.
Some dig dens, others live in tree hollows, others live in caves. All bears, except for the white one, are sedentary. They love loneliness, although sometimes they can live in families (bear and cubs).
How long does a bear live?
Life expectancy is from 18 to 30 years, in captivity - up to 50.
How much does a bear weigh?
The weight of the smallest representative of the species - koalas - is from 4 kg to 18 kg, and the largest - polar bear - from 250 kg to 450 kg.
What does a bear eat?
The diet of animals consists of berries, nuts, roots. They love fish, insects, frogs and shellfish. The brown bear is not averse to eating the meat of roe deer, deer, and elk. Likes honey. The Malayan bear eats bananas, and the panda eats sugarcane shoots. The smallest marsupial bear, the koala, is a vegetarian: it feasts on eucalyptus, and makes up for the lack of protein by eating the earth. This is the only representative whose menu contains neither insects nor the meat of other animals.
bear breeding
The bear is a monogamous animal. But, despite this, bear families are short-lived. Predators come together when mating season arrives. After fertilization of the female, the family breaks up. Pregnancy lasts differently for each species. The duration of bearing cubs is up to 200 days. Almost all female bears give birth to 1 to 3 cubs. Cubs are born blind, toothless, without hair. For 2 years, they feed on mother's milk. Sexual maturity is reached by 3-4 years. Only then do they leave their mother.
Types of bears
Zoologists distinguish several types of bears. Each species has subspecies.
Baribal - the so-called American bear - the most friendly of the representatives of the family. Although, in case of danger, it can strike with its paw, but immediately run back to a safe distance. The same clubfoot, like his relatives.
He lives in 30 US states, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It can be found in Mexico, Alaska.
The fur of the baribal is black, sometimes gray or blue-black. The growth of an adult male is about 2 m, weight reaches 350 kg. The black bear is the most common species in America.
The American bear feeds on berries, bees and termites, and catches fish. With pleasure, eat the meat of pigs or sheep.
A bear in captivity, under human protection, can live up to 30 years. Under natural conditions, lives 12 years.
The black bear is afraid of people, although it can go to the track, climb the farm in search of food.
The black bear has several names: white-breasted, Himalayan, Ussuri. The most romantic of them all: the moon bear. The name was given to him because of the crescent-shaped spot on his chest: white, sometimes with a yellowish tint.
The Himalayan bear lives in the forests and hills of Iran and Afghanistan. A large predator population lives in the Himalayas, Korea, and Japan. On the territory of Russia - in the Khabarovsk Territory (the image can be seen on the coat of arms), Yakutia. The Himalayan bear is found in Vietnam.
Males are quite large in size: the length reaches 1m 80 cm, at the withers - up to 80 cm. Weight - up to 80 kg. Females are much smaller and lighter.
The Himalayan bear often becomes the subject of hunting. At the same time, not only animal fur is valuable. In some countries (Laos, Vietnam, China) it is bred on special farms to collect bile, which is widely used in Chinese medicine. Here, the paws of a predator are eaten.
The Himalayan bear spends most of its time in the trees. Here he is looking for food, fleeing from the midge. The diet consists of nuts, berries, plant shoots, acorns. Since the body of a predator needs protein, the bear eats ants, other insects, and also frogs.
The Himalayan bear mates from June to August. Females give birth to 1 or 2 babies, weighing 400 g.
Sleeps in winter. The main enemies are the Amur tiger, brown bear.
Life expectancy is no more than 25 years.
One of the largest family of bears, its average size reaches 3 m. It weighs from 350 kg to 450 kg. The heaviest bear lived in the Berlin Zoo, weighed 760 kg. It lives in the Caucasus, in the northern part of Russia. It is found in Scandinavia, the Carpathians. A small number lives in Palestine, Iran, northern Iraq. It is difficult to name the exact place where the brown bear lives. The fact is that if somewhere there is enough food, then he will not go further than 500 hectares from there. If there is not enough food, then the brown bear begins to roam in search of food. The animal is a forest dweller. He prefers to arrange a lair where there are many swamps, in coniferous or mixed forests. It is quite difficult to meet a brown bear, because he is awake at night.
The appearance of the animal is deceiving. He looks, like the whole family, awkward: a huge head, short paws, big withers. But it can easily catch up with its prey, it swims perfectly (it can swim up to 6 km without stopping). At a young age, it climbs trees very well.
The Predator is endowed with great power. It will not be difficult for him to tear out the ribs or break the skull of any large animal. With a paw strike, he can break a person's spine. Dangerous animal after hibernation, when hunger drives him for prey. During this period, he is not averse to feasting on human flesh.
Sleeps in winter. The longest duration of sleep is about 200 days. This is how long the brown bear sleeps on the Kola Peninsula, where winter lasts from November to April, and longer. The animal prepares the den in advance: it finds a dry place, covers it with dry foliage, hay, branches. Very rarely can arrange a rookery right on the ground.
Pregnant female bears equip dens in such a way that there is a lot of space, as well as ventilation. In winter, the lair is covered with snow, which becomes a kind of blanket for the mother and cubs.
The animal sleeps very sensitively. This dream is like a torpor. Wakes up when he runs out of fat stores.
Animals that for some reason have not gained fat do not hibernate at all, but roam the forest looking for food. They are called "rods". These predators are the most dangerous.
Life expectancy is about 30 years, in a seine - up to 50 years.
The local population nicknamed the animal a bear-dog. The maximum length of the body barely reaches 1 m 50 cm, weighs from 25 kg to 65 kg. The yellow spot on the chest looks like the rising sun, so another name is the sun bear. It is assumed that the black bear uses the light spot to intimidate enemies. During the fight, he assumes a threatening posture, standing upright on his hind legs. A distinctive feature is loose skin around the neck. This allows the animal to turn its head and deliver unexpected blows with its fangs. Leopards, as well as tigers, are dangerous for the biruang.
The black bear lives on the island of Java, Sumatra, on the Malay Peninsula, Borneo. The habitat is tropical, subtropical forest, sometimes found in the mountains.
The sun bear is the most aggressive of the family. With sharp fangs, he gnaws wood to get insects out of it. In addition, it feeds on berries and earthworms. It is not carnivorous, but can eat lizards and birds. He enjoys eating bananas, coconut palm sprouts. Zookeepers know what the animal eats, but they give them peanut butter and crickets.
How long a black bear lives in natural conditions is not known exactly. In captivity, its age reaches 24 years.
The sun bear is monogamous. There is no specific period for mating, it can occur at any time of the year. Mating games last from 2 to 7 days. The gestation time of a female can last from 95 to 210 days. Brings from 1 to 3 cubs that are born blind, the weight of newborn puppies is about 300g. Grow very fast. 2-3 months after birth, they run, play, eat with their mother, although they suckle milk for up to 4 months.
The animal is listed in the Red Book as an endangered species.
Grizzly
The gray bear lives in Alaska, in northern Canada. A small number survived in Montana, near Washington and Yellowstone. The growth of a bear is about 4 m, its claws are a dangerous weapon 15 cm long. There is no exact answer how much a grizzly bear weighs. The maximum weight is about 210 kg, the weight of the smallest female is just over 130 kg. Like the brown bear, it can live up to 30 years. The grizzly is considered a bloodthirsty predator, although the food that the animal eats is no different from the diet of its relatives. The gray bear prefers algae, shoots of young plants, berries. He loves fish, honey, does not neglect frogs, lizards. The smell of carrion hears for 30 km, and eats it with pleasure. It hunts mainly for weak or young animals. Able to reach speeds of up to 60 km / h, easily cross the river, while demonstrating his great power. Grizzly fishing during salmon spawning. He lowers his head into the water and catches prey with his teeth or paw. Particularly dexterous animals are able to catch fish when it jumps out of the water.
Grizzly winters in a den. During the thaw, he wakes up and wanders through the forest, looking for food. Goes back to sleep when frost intensifies.
Being loners, animals communicate only during the mating season. From the moment of mating to the birth of cubs, about 250 days pass. The mother takes care of them for 2 years.
Grizzlies do not pose a threat to humans. He can show aggression towards him only when he senses danger.
The king of the Far North and the Arctic Ocean is a polar bear. The largest representative of the family. Height 1.5 m, length 3 m. The male is much heavier than the female. It weighs 450 kg, the maximum weight of the female is 250 kg. Habitat - Far North. It occurs on the island of Svalbard, on Novaya Zemlya, in the Hudson Bay area. Sometimes, drifting on an ice floe, he ends up in Iceland.
The bear's body is elongated, thick, with a large layer of subcutaneous fat. The predator's feet are longer than those of its relatives, since it needs to walk in the snow. Paws are endowed with membranes for swimming. The coat is white, or with a yellowish tint, regardless of the season.
Clumsy in appearance, the northern bear is an excellent swimmer. The speed that he develops is 45 km / h. Even in the waters of the Arctic, it can swim 80 km without a break. The undercoat serves as an air cushion for him. Has no equal in catching fish.
The polar bear has sharp eyesight, perfectly orients itself in the endless snowy expanses. He determines the road he needs with ease, while choosing the shortest distance to get to the goal he needs.
The polar bear is the largest animal in its range, so it is not afraid of anyone. Excellent hunter. It eats everything that lives around, but a special delicacy is the eggs and chicks of arctic birds.
For an animal, frost of 80 ° C is not a problem. The main thing is that there is water nearby, not covered with ice.
The female hunts all year round, leaving this occupation only during pregnancy. During this period, she hides in a hole made of snow, bearing cubs, supporting her body with accumulated subcutaneous fat. Usually she gives birth to 2 babies, whom she quickly teaches all the wisdom of northern life.
To date, hunting for the animal is prohibited. Killing them is allowed only for the purpose of self-defense.
The life expectancy of an animal reaches 25 - 30 years.
The polar bear never attacks a person. This can happen if the animal feels aggression on his part. A predator can approach a person only out of curiosity. But if a person began to feed a bear, then he will perceive it as a source of food.
Gubach
The length of the predator reaches 2 m, the height at the withers is from 60 cm to 90 cm. Females are about a third smaller than males. The animal has a massive body with a large head, an elongated muzzle. His lips are always protruding forward, completely devoid of wool. Wool is often black, sometimes with a dirty brown tint.
You can meet a bear in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh.
Bamboo bear, which previously had other names: cat bear, spotted bear, lives in the northern regions of China. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became the emblem of the country. Males are 10% larger than females and 20% heavier. The length reaches 1.8 m, weight - up to 160 kg. Panda is a bear with a special coat color: the main color is white, paws, ears, round spots around the eyes are black. The panda has a tail 10-15 cm long. There are five fingers on the front paws and the sixth, designed to tear apart the thinnest bamboo stalks. This plant is the main food of the animal, daily rate- about 30 kg. Pandas, like all bears, need protein. To replenish it, they eat eggs, insects, and sometimes small animals.
The habitat of the spotted bear is wide, in summer it climbs to a height of up to 4000 m to hide from the heat.
Sexual maturity of the animal occurs from 4 to 8 years. Pregnancy lasts from 3 to 5.5 months. Usually 1 or 2 cubs are born, weighing up to 130 g. At the same time, the mother takes care of the first baby, leaving the second. Births occur once every 2 years. Therefore, the population is growing slowly. Life expectancy 20 years.
The panda is considered an endangered species. According to the latest data, the number of animals is just over 2 thousand.
The Chinese authorities took the beast under state protection. For its destruction, the death penalty is provided.
The birthplace of the animal is Australia. The answer to the question to which family it belongs is debatable. The koala is both a marsupial mammal and a marsupial bear. Perhaps the only similarity with the view is external. Soft gray fur, small eyes, bent down nose, round ears do not leave anyone indifferent.
The growth of the animal is only 60 cm, weighs from 4 kg to 13 kg. The limbs and claws of the beast are designed in such a way that it can climb trees.
The papillary pattern of the pads on the fingers is so similar to the human that it is difficult to distinguish them even with a microscope.
The koala's diet consists of eucalyptus leaves and bark. A plant that is poisonous to others does not pose a danger to the koala. Every day they eat from 500 g to 1 kg of the plant. To replenish trace elements, they eat the earth.
The marsupial bear is a slow animal, motionless for almost 20 hours a day. At this time, he chews the leaves collected and stored behind his cheeks, or sleeps, or slowly moves along the trunk of a tree. The animal is an excellent swimmer. He knows how to jump, but he does it to escape from danger, or in search of food.
Koalas breed from October to February. Several females gather near one male. Pregnancy lasts a little over a month. The newborn is in the mother's pouch for six months, where he feeds on her milk. For the next six months, he lives on his mother's fur, tenaciously holding on to her.
Animals are like children: they are easily tamed by humans. They love to be stroked. Left alone, they begin to yearn and cry.
The koala has no enemies, because the bear cub smells like eucalyptus. Drought, lack of food and poachers exterminate it.
Koalas do not live long, only 18 years old.
Nature took care of the preservation of the species, endowing males with two penises, and females with two vaginas.
- They differ from other animals in that they distinguish colors.
- The polar bear's only enemy is the shark, which lives up to 200 years. Its habitat is Greenland.
