Bear is a predator or omnivore. Characteristics and examples of omnivores. Short family life

Bears or bears (lat. Ursidae) are a family that includes mammals from the order of predatory animals. The difference between all bears and other canine-like animals is their stockier and well-developed physique.

Description of the bear

All mammals from the order Carnivores originate from a group of marten-like primitive predators known as miacidae, which lived in the Paleocene and Eocene. All bears belong to the fairly numerous suborder Caniformia. It is assumed that all well-known representatives of this suborder descended from one dog-like ancestor, common to all species of such animals.

Compared to other families from the order of predatory animals, bears are animals with the greatest uniformity in appearance, size, and are also similar in many features in internal structure. All bears are among the largest representatives of modern terrestrial predatory animals. The body length of an adult polar bear reaches three meters with a weight ranging from 720-890 kg, and the Malayan bear is one of the smallest representatives of the family, and its length does not exceed one and a half meters with a body weight of 27-65 kg.

Appearance, colors

Male bears are approximately 10-20% larger than females, and in a polar bear such figures can be even 150% or more. The animal's fur has a developed and fairly coarse undercoat. The tall, sometimes shaggy type of hair in most species has a pronounced density, and the fur of the Malayan bear is low and quite sparse.

The fur color is uniform, from coal-black to whitish. The exception is, which has a characteristic contrasting black and white color. There may be light markings in the chest area or around the eyes. Some species are characterized by individual and so-called geographical variability in fur color. Bears exhibit marked seasonal dimorphism, expressed by changes in height and density of fur.

All representatives of the Bear family are distinguished by their stocky and powerful bodies, often with fairly high and pronounced withers. Also characteristic are strong and well-developed, five-fingered paws with large non-retractable claws. The claws are controlled by powerful muscles, thanks to which animals climb trees, dig the ground, and easily tear apart prey. The length of grizzly claws reaches 13-15 cm. The gait of a predatory animal is plantigrade, characteristically shuffling. The giant panda has a sixth additional “finger” on its front paws, which is an outgrowth of the sesamoid radius bone.

The tail part is very short, almost invisible under the fur covering. The exception is the giant panda, which has a fairly long and clearly visible tail. Any bear has relatively small eyes, a large head located on a thick and, as a rule, short neck. The skull is large, most often with an elongated facial part and highly developed ridges.

This is interesting! Bears have a highly developed sense of smell, and in some species it is quite comparable to a dog’s sense of smell, but the vision and hearing of such numerous and large predators are an order of magnitude weaker.

The zygomatic arches are most often slightly spaced in different directions, and the jaws are powerful, providing very high levels of bite force. All representatives of the Bear family are characterized by the presence of large fangs and incisors, and the remaining teeth may be partially reduced, but their appearance and structure most often depend on the type of nutrition. The total number of teeth can vary between 32-42 pieces. The presence of individual or age-related variability in the dental system is often observed.

Character and lifestyle

Bears are typical predators leading a solitary lifestyle, so such animals prefer to meet each other solely for the purpose of mating. Males tend to behave aggressively and are capable of killing cubs that are in for a long time near the female. Representatives of the Bear family are distinguished by their good adaptability to a variety of living conditions, therefore they are able to inhabit high mountain areas, forest zones, arctic ice and steppes, and the main differences lie in the method of nutrition and lifestyle.

A significant portion of bear species live in lowland and mountain areas. forest areas moderate or tropical latitudes. The predator is somewhat less common in high mountain areas without dense vegetation. Some species are characterized by a clear connection to aquatic environment, including mountain or forest streams, rivers and sea coasts. The Arctic, as well as vast expanses

This is interesting! Arctic Ocean– the natural habitat of polar bears, and the lifestyle of the ordinary brown bear associated with subtropical forests, taiga, steppes and tundra, desert areas.

Most bears fall into the category of terrestrial carnivores, but polar bears are semi-aquatic members of the family. Malayan bears are typical adherents of a semi-arboreal lifestyle, therefore they are able to climb trees perfectly and create a shelter for themselves or the so-called “nest”. Some species of bears choose holes near the root system of trees and crevices of sufficient size as their habitat.

As a rule, representatives of the Bear family and the Predatory order lead night image life, so they rarely go hunting in the daytime. However, polar bears may be considered an exception to such general rules. Predatory mammals leading a solitary lifestyle unite during the period of “mating games” and mating, as well as to raise their offspring. Among other things, groups of such animals are observed at common watering places and traditional feeding areas.

How long do bears live?

The average life expectancy of bears in nature can vary depending on the species characteristics of this predatory mammal:

• Spectacled bears – two decades;
• Apennine brown bears - up to twenty years;
• Tien Shan brown bears - up to twenty years or a quarter of a century;
• Polar polar bears - just over a quarter of a century;
• Gubachi - just under twenty years old.

In captivity, the average life expectancy of a predatory mammal, as a rule, is noticeably longer. For example, brown bears can live in captivity for more than 40-45 years.

Types of bears

Area, distribution

Spectacled bears are the only representatives of the Bear family that inhabit South America, where the predator prefers the mountain forests of Venezuela and Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, as well as Bolivia and Panama. - inhabitant of the Lena, Kolyma and Anadyr river basins, most of Eastern Siberia and the Stanovoy Range, Northern Mongolia, some regions of China and the border territory of Eastern Kazakhstan.

Grizzly bears are found primarily in western Canada and Alaska, not a large number of individuals survive in continental America, including Montana and northwestern Washington. Tien Shan brown bears are found on the Tien Shan ridges, as well as in the Dzungarian Alatau, which has peripheral mountain ranges, and Mazalai are found in the desert mountains of Tsagan-Bogdo and Atas-Bogdo, where sparse bushes and drainage dry riverbeds are located.

Polar bears are distributed circumpolarly, and live in the circumpolar regions in the northern hemisphere of our planet. White-breasted Himalayan bears prefer hilly and mountain forests of Iran and Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Himalayas, all the way to Japan and Korea. Representatives of the species in the Himalayas in summer rise to a height of three and even four thousand meters, and with the onset of cold weather they descend to the mountain foot.

Sponge whales live mainly in the tropics and subtropical forests India and Pakistan, in Sri Lanka and Nepal, as well as in Bangladesh and Bhutan. Biruangs are distributed from the northeastern part of India to Indonesia, including Sumatra and Kalimantan, and the subspecies Helarctos malayanus euryspilus inhabits the island of Borneo.

Bears in the planet's ecosystem

All representatives of the Bear family, due to their diet and impressive size, have a very noticeable impact on the fauna and flora in their habitats. The polar and brown bear species are involved in regulating the total number of ungulates and other animals.

All herbivorous bear species contribute to the active distribution of seeds of many plants. Polar bears are often accompanied by Arctic foxes, which eat their prey.

Bear diet

Spectacled bears are the most herbivorous in the family, and their main diet includes grassy shoots, fruits and rhizomes of plants, corn crops, and sometimes insects in the form of ants or termites. Important role The diet of the Siberian bear is devoted to fish, and Kodiaks are omnivores, feeding on both herbaceous plants, berries and roots, and meat foods, including fish and all kinds of carrion.

Pika-eating bears or Tibetan brown bears feed mainly on herbaceous plants, as well as pikas, which is how they got their name. The main prey of polar bears is ringed seals, bearded seals, walruses and many other marine animals. The predator does not disdain carrion and feeds willingly dead fish, eggs and chicks, can eat grass and all kinds of seaweed, and in inhabited areas it looks for food in numerous garbage dumps.

The diet of white-breasted or Himalayan bears is 80-85% made up of products of plant origin, but the predator is capable of eating ants and other insects, as well as highly nutritious mollusks and even frogs. Sloth bears, like , are adapted to eating primarily colonial insects, including termites and ants. All biruangs are omnivores, but primarily feed on insects, including bees and termites, as well as fruits and shoots, earthworms and plant rhizomes.

To the question: Are bears herbivores or predators asked by the author? Elena Yakshigulova the best answer is Bears are omnivores. They eat grass, berries, mushrooms, they will not refuse fish, especially meat, they put on fat - they eat everything until they are completely stupefied.
But pandas only eat bamboo, and polar bears prefer the fat of seals and seals.

Answer from Anastasia[newbie]
Predators))

Answer from CupalCA[guru]
predators, of course

Answer from Artyom Kirillov[master]
omnivores!!

Answer from Anyushka Selivanova[active]
predators, but when they are hungry they can pick raspberries and chew grass =)

Answer from Anton Schaefer[newbie]
The bear is an omnivore like humans

Answer from Nastyusha Ropcea[master]
omnivores

Answer from Natasha[guru]
Bears (lat. Ursidae) are a family of mammals from the order Carnivora. They differ from other representatives of canids in having a stockier physique. Bears are omnivores, climb and swim well, run fast, and can stand and walk short distances on their hind legs. They have a short tail, long and thick fur, and excellent sense of smell and hearing. They hunt in the evening or at dawn. They are usually afraid of humans, but can be dangerous in areas where they are accustomed to people, especially polar bears and grizzly bears. Immune to bee stings. In nature natural enemies almost none.

Answer from Marina Mirutenko[guru]

Answer from Olesya Yudintseva (Yumasheva)[newbie]
100% carnivores-predators, because they eat meat and hunt. Only carnivores can hunt and eat meat, first of all, and only then fish, mushrooms, nuts, honey, berries, grass, roots. But herbivores cannot eat meat.

Answer from Lyudmila Valentinovna[guru]
polar bear, grizzly bear, spectacled bear and many more representatives of the bear family eat - forest berries, nuts, honey, rodents, carrion, large mammals, other plants. FROM THE ORDER THEY ARE PREDATORS. but the koala, which belongs to the marsupial bear family, is a herbivorous bear.

Answer from Iodionov Sergey[guru]
the bear is omnivorous. he eats almost everything he can eat. In the summer, plant foods predominate; most of the animal protein in a bear’s diet comes from small animals. rodents. insects. The bear engages in direct hunting, especially hunting large animals, only in the absence of more accessible and less “dangerous” food

Answer from Neuvind Storm of the Fiords[guru]
Bears are omnivores. In principle, they eat plant food all the time, and animal food only when it comes into their paws

Answer from KOMOV MIKHAIL[guru]
Browns are omnivores. Whites are predators

Answer from Alesya Benitsevich[newbie]
omnivorous

Answer from Marat Timirgalin[active]
omnivorous

Answer from Jena Slučić[newbie]
Differently

Answer from Gulnara Abulkhanova[newbie]
Anatomically they are predators. Teeth, this and that. And he cannot live on plant foods all the time. But in recent years, in many regions, bears are increasingly using plant foods. In this regard, its numbers are growing; in some places there are significantly more of them than wolves. That is, he seems to be falling off the top of the food pyramid.

This is the largest not only from the bear family, but among all terrestrial predators: in males, the body length is up to 280 cm, the height at the withers is up to 150 cm, the weight can reach 800 kg (in zoos, very obese animals can reach up to a ton); females are smaller and lighter than males. The body is elongated, narrow in the front, while the back is very massive; The neck is long and mobile. The feet are wide, especially on the front paws, and the calluses are almost invisible under the thick hair. The head is relatively small, with a straightened profile and a narrow forehead, rather high-set eyes. The ears are short, rounded, and protrude slightly. hairline. The fur is very thick and dense, coarse, not very long on the back and sides - even on the withers there is no elongated hair. But on the belly and back side The hair on the paws is very long (in winter the hair is up to 25 cm), which is extremely necessary when you have to rest while lying on the snow. The hair on the feet is also lengthened, surrounding them along the entire perimeter with a kind of thick halo: this increases the supporting surface, which is necessary both when moving on snow and when swimming. The coloring throughout the body is white: this is primarily characteristic of animals living in ice and serves as a means of camouflage. Only after a long stay on land do animals acquire a dirty grayish-brown color. Thus, the brownish-gray-yellow multi-colored color in which the fur of polar bears in zoos is decorated is elementary urban dirt, completely unusual for wild animals.

Many features of the morphology and physiology of this species are associated with living in constant cold conditions, the need for a long stay in water, and feeding on seals. Its fur provides excellent protection from very cold air, but does not have water-repellent properties: it is striking that, unlike seals or sea otters, the polar bear's coat is permeable ice water to the skin. But he has all year round under the skin lies a thick - 3-4 centimeters - layer of fat: it not only protects the animal from the cold, but also reduces the specific gravity of its body, making it easier to float on the water. The skin itself (the inner layer) is dark in color, which allows it to capture more sunlight on clear days. The nature of metabolism is such that even a temperature of -50°C does not seem very cold to this animal, but already at a temperature of +15°C the animal begins to overheat and tends to go into the shade. The structure of the digestive tract is also specific: the intestines are shorter than those of other bears, but the stomach is very capacious, which allows the predator to immediately eat a whole seal after a long hungry journey across lifeless ice. Eating very fatty foods, necessary to maintain normal life in the cold, is associated with an unusually high content of vitamin A in the liver of this animal.

Without much exaggeration, the polar bear can be considered a sea animal. Its range mostly extends into the floating ice of the Arctic Ocean, covering its islands and mainland coast. This unique circumpolar region does not have a northern border, but is outlined in the south by the northern coast of the continent and the southern edge of the distribution of floating ice. In the ocean spaces, the existence of a predator is closely connected with places where seals are concentrated - breaks, cracks, edges of floating ice and coastal fast ice. In particular, there are many polar bears in the area of ​​the so-called “Great Siberian Polynya” - an extensive network of breeding grounds, the open water of which attracts many inhabitants of high latitudes. Most often, this polar inhabitant can be found on 1-2-year-old ice up to 2 meters thick, replete with ridges of hummocks and snow drifts. On older ice, the surface of which has been leveled by repeated summer melting, there are fewer polar bears due to the lack of shelter and water table. It also avoids young, still fragile ice 5-10 centimeters thick, which does not support this heavy predator. The bear rarely appears on land, mainly during migrations. However, polar bears most often make winter dens on land, but not on the mainland, but on the Arctic islands.

The habitats of the polar bear are called “ arctic desert” - partly because there are fewer animals and birds there than, for example, in the middle zone, and partly because of their low suitability for humans. Therefore, this predator spends most of its time outside areas of active human economic activity. In the recent past, when uncontrolled hunting for the white giant flourished, he avoided human settlements. Now, having a protective status, the animal does not feel uncomfortable around them. In some places, polar bears, like their brown relatives in national parks, even form a kind of “semi-domestic” populations, for which landfills and garbage dumps serve as food sources. Migrating animals also behave quite freely in the villages; when the opportunity arises, they even strive to invade homes for the sake of something edible.

Most of a polar bear's life is spent wandering and does not involve attachment to any specific small territory. These nomadic predators do not have specific individual areas - they own the entire Arctic. During autumn and spring migrations, animals are able to travel 40-80 kilometers in a day. In conditions of little moving sea ice, the range of their migrations is about 750 kilometers, but some animals are able to move 1000 kilometers from their main habitat. Migrations are associated mainly with seasonal changes in the ice regime and are caused by the need to search for open water, are limited mainly to marine spaces and coastline. Polar bears go deep into the mainland only through valleys, there are enough of them large rivers, like Khatanga on Taimyr or Anadyr on Chukotka, and even then no more than 200-300 kilometers from the sea coast.

Mass movements of polar bears from the deep regions of the Arctic occur mainly in a southerly direction. They begin everywhere in the fall, when the ice fields begin to close and the ice holes begin to close. The wanderings of polar bears do not occur chaotically, but along certain routes. “Bear roads” are especially noticeable off the coasts of Arctic islands and continental capes protruding far into the sea. Thus, polar bears constantly travel along the “ice bridge” between Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. The spring melting of ice and the release of wormwood encourages bears to return to their original places.

Where sea ​​ice mobile, bears drift with them, performing “passive migrations.” Animals floating on large ice floes can be carried far beyond the Arctic by sea currents - to the shores of Newfoundland, Iceland, Kamchatka and even further south. It is noteworthy that such “navigators”, carried away by ice to the southern coast of Chukotka, return to their native places not by sea, but by land, directly crossing the tundra and high rocky mountains.

A wandering lifestyle frees the polar bear from the need to make permanent shelters. Many animals do without shelter at all, resting right on the snow or on the top of a cliff - where fatigue overtakes them. Unless from a particularly severe blizzard they hide among hummocks, coastal rocks, or buried in deep snow. The problem of establishing long-term shelters faces mainly females preparing for motherhood: like other species of bears, they need warm (by Arctic standards) wintering dens to give birth to offspring.

“Maternity” dens are most often located on large islands - Greenland, Wrangel, Spitsbergen and others, usually no more than a few kilometers from the coastline, but we also had to come across them in the mountains 25-27 kilometers from the sea. It is interesting that these animals, not numerous and generally unsociable, like all large predators, in some places set up something similar to “maternity hospitals”, digging dens not far from each other. So, on o. Wrangel every year 180-200 female bears gather for the winter; Moreover, on one of the mountain ranges in the northwestern part of this island, with an area of ​​only 25 km2, there are different years 40-60 dens, sometimes located at a distance of 10-20 meters from one another.

The bear digs a permanent den in a multi-meter snow blow that has accumulated on the slope of a hill or hill. This is most often a simple chamber with a diameter of 1-2 meters, which communicates with the surface with a stroke of the same length. There are more complex designs with multiple cameras. The thickness of the roof above the nesting chamber is usually half a meter to a meter, but sometimes it is only 5-10 centimeters. Such an obviously unsuccessful structure sometimes collapses and the female is forced to look for or dig a new shelter. As in the Eskimo ice dwelling “igloo,” the main chamber of the den is located above the hole, which helps preserve the heat generated by the animal itself: the chamber is usually 20° warmer than on the surface of the snow. A female bear digs a den for two or three days. After it finally lies down, the rest of the work is completed by snowstorms, which completely clog the entrance hole with a snow plug, only occasionally a small ventilation hole remains. The temporary dens of males are simpler; sometimes the animal simply buries itself in the snow. The winter decrease in activity in polar bears has its own specifics. In this species, an indispensable winter sleep is characteristic only of females who are ready to give birth to cubs: they lie in dens for 5 months, going to bed in November and emerging in March-April. Males and barren females in a significant part of the range, especially in its southern regions, can be active all year round. Only in places where climatic conditions in winter are more than harsh even for such hardy animals and obtaining food is difficult, many males also escape to dens. They disappear in December for a month or two, but as soon as the period of bad weather ends, they leave their shelters and continue their wanderings. In rare cases, animals lie down in dens in the summer. This interesting feature is characteristic, for example, of bears on the coast of Hudson Bay: some of them survive short periods of foodlessness in holes dug in sandy cliffs or on coastal spits.

Compared to a brown bear, a white bear seems less intelligent and not as dexterous. He is less amenable to training and is somewhat “straightforward” in his actions. All this is obviously due to its living in more homogeneous environmental conditions and greater food specialization, which does not require a variety of skills and the ability to quickly respond to unexpected situations. difficult situations. However, in his ability to assess the quality of ice and adapt hunting tactics to the specific terrain, he has no equal among the inhabitants of the Arctic deserts.

The animal runs very rarely; when pursued, it can gallop for a short time at a speed of 20-30 km/h, but soon gets tired and switches to a lounging trot, slowing down to 8-12 km/h. An adult heavy animal is generally not able to run more than 10 kilometers. If the chase drags on, he sits down and, barking loudly, tries to scare and put his pursuer to flight. In general, the predator does not feel too confident on land and, when pursued, tends to go onto the ice or into the water. Among the hummocks, this seemingly heavy animal is amazingly dexterous and agile: it easily overcomes ice ridges up to 2 meters high, avoiding not only humans, but also dogs. Clinging with its claws, it climbs steep, almost vertical ice walls, boldly jumps from blocks 3-4 meters high into water or onto ice, and without a splash jumps out of the water onto a flat, low ice floe.

These inhabitants of the Arctic seas swim well and willingly - however, mainly in summer, in winter only particularly well-fed individuals go into the water. The bear rows with its front paws, and mainly steers with its hind paws. It stays underwater for up to 2 minutes, with its eyes open and nostrils closed. In the open sea, adult animals are sometimes found 50 and even 100 kilometers from the nearest landmass. Already 5-6 month old cubs go into the water and swim well.

The strength of this beast is truly amazing. He is capable of pulling a walrus carcass weighing more than half a ton onto the ice and lifting it up the slope. A bearded seal, which weighs not much less than the bear itself, can be killed by a predator by crushing the victim’s skull with a single crushing blow of its paw, and, if necessary, carrying its carcass in its teeth over a distance of up to a kilometer.

The polar bear's senses of smell and hearing are most developed. When hunting or surveying the situation, he walks against the wind, often stopping and sniffing. The smell of a dead seal carcass, even if it is dusted with snow, can be smelled hundreds of meters away. He can hear the creaking steps of a person trying to approach the animal in the snow from the leeward side two hundred meters away, and the noise of the engine of an all-terrain vehicle or airplane several kilometers away. Vision is also very sharp: the polar predator can discern the dark dot of a seal lying on a snow-white ice floe at a distance of several kilometers.

The ability of polar bears to navigate the endless expanses of seemingly homogeneous ice plains is surprising and admiring. Being on land or ice, the animal is able to accurately determine the location of areas of open water, sometimes tens of kilometers away, and confidently walk towards them. During seasonal migrations, covering hundreds of kilometers in a chosen direction, these wanderers deviate from the course by some 20-30°. Even when traveling with drifting ice, animals make their way back in a straight line, and do not follow the whims of floating ice blocks.

Polar bears lead a solitary lifestyle. Only sometimes they are found in several individuals near abundant prey - for example, near a washed-up whale carcass - or on mass migration routes, and the females live side by side in places of “maternity hospitals”. In general, these animals, which do not need to protect their areas from anyone, are not aggressive. For this reason, and also because they are not fearful, when they first meet a person, the bear reacts to him in general quite peacefully, without fear or aggression, and sometimes simply with indifference. If a person tries to approach it, the huge predator prefers to move away: the real threat can mainly be a female with cubs or a wounded animal. True, cases of attacks on people are still noted, and several times it was necessary to shoot man-eating bears. It is curious that this predator usually hides a person lying on ice or snow - perhaps the bear is driven by the instinct of a seal hunter, for whom the recumbent position is most common.

In recent years, due to the introduction of measures to protect the polar bear and the growth of the population in the Arctic, encounters between people and this unique animal have become more frequent and sometimes begin to cause obvious inconvenience. As in the case of the brown bear, in a number of places the animals gather in the surrounding area settlements, where they feed on garbage, and when there is a shortage of it, they break into storage areas. Once, in one of the fishing points in Chukotka, when people were working there, an adult male settled in an empty barn and lived in it until the end of the fishing season. On the coast of Hudson Bay, where a large number of migrating bears accumulate in the fall, they are so impudent that, for example, in the village of Churchill, they walk the streets in broad daylight and sometimes cause traffic jams.

Polar bear, unlike its omnivorous relatives, is a predator that actively hunts large animals. Its main food is Arctic seals, primarily the smallest of them ringed seal, less commonly the bearded seal, even more rarely the hooded seal and the harp seal. As an exception, the animal hunts larger prey - walruses, beluga whales and narwhals, attacking, however, only young individuals, so adult giants are completely indifferent to this predator. During winter wanderings on land, a bear, having stumbled upon a herd of reindeer, may, if he is very lucky, drive some deer into the water and crush her there. Among polar bears, cases of cannibalism are not uncommon, to which they are encouraged by the harsh conditions of existence: especially often, cubs fall into the mouths of adult males. At the end of summer and autumn, bears explore the coasts in search of the corpses of sea animals thrown up by the sea: sometimes 3-5 feasting predators gather at once near the carcass of a whale. They rarely catch fish themselves, but they willingly pick up fish washed up on the ice by the waves. However, in those days when polar bears were common in Labrador, during the salmon run they gathered near spawning rivers and, like brown bears, were actively engaged in fishing.

On land, bears sometimes feed on birds and their eggs, and on occasion they grab lemmings. Given the lack of usual animal food on the mainland and islands, they do not disdain plant foods: in the tundra they eat cloudberries, in the tidal zone - algae such as kelp (“seaweed”) and fucus. In Svalbard, bears were observed even diving underwater in search of these algae. Females have a special passion for green vitamin food immediately after leaving the den: they dig up snow and eat willow shoots found underneath it, sometimes moss and sedge leaves. Near habitation, these predators willingly “graze” on landfills, where they devour everything that seems edible to them. This sometimes leads to the death of animals, because among the swallowed food there may be, for example, a tarpaulin soaked in machine oil.

Arctic foxes, white gulls and glaucous gulls feed on the remains of a polar bear's meal. Some of them gather at the feast site only after the bear has already left. Other “freeloaders” accompany the predator on its migrations among the ice, especially often in winter. With each bear you can sometimes see 2-3 arctic foxes and 4-6 large gulls.

The hunting tactics of this predator are quite flexible and are determined by the season of the year, weather conditions, ice conditions, and the number of potential prey. In essence, it is based on the use of several basic techniques: the predator hides the prey on the ice, lies in wait near the water, or approaches it through the water. In any case, the success of the hunt depends on whether or not the animal has time to grab the prey on the ice floe, because in the water a bear cannot be compared with a seal either in speed or maneuverability of movements.

Stealth is used most often: the bear looks for prey from afar and approaches it behind hummocks or snow blows. Once on smooth ice, it spreads out on its belly and crawls, pushing off with its hind legs and freezing every time a seal lying on the edge of an ice floe or hole wakes up and raises its head to look around. Having approached the prey to 4-5 meters, the bear jumps up and, in a swift rush, tries to reach the seal in one or two leaps. If it does not have time to slide into the water, the predator kills or stuns the victim with a blow to the head with its front paw and immediately drags it away from the water. The entire sneaking episode can take from 2 to 5 hours, depending on how long and winding the hunter’s path was among the shelters. Sometimes the direction of the attack changes to the opposite: the predator carefully swims through the water to the seal lying on the edge of the ice floe, diving so that only the upper part of the muzzle remains on the surface, and, jumping onto the ice floe in one jump, tries to cut off the victim’s escape route.

Quite often, a bear watches for a seal at the exit from the water, lying motionless for hours at the edge of a hole or an opening in an ice floe. If the hole is small, the animal widens it with its claws and teeth before starting the ambush. As soon as the seal's head appears, the bear's paw falls on it with lightning speed, and then the predator literally pulls the motionless carcass out of the water onto the ice, sometimes breaking its ribs on the icy edges of a narrow hole.

During the breeding season, ringed seals make shallow shelters in the snow - “huts”, where the cubs hide. The bear knows how to find them by smell and, collapsing the snow arch with its paws or with its entire weight, tries to get to the victim covered with lumps of snow as quickly as possible. If a predator encounters a breeding nest harp seals, he can cause great devastation among the cubs lying openly on the ice floes and completely helpless, continuing to kill them even after he has had enough. According to eyewitnesses, the bear plays with the baby seals like a cat with a mouse.

The polar bear is simply afraid of adult walruses, even single ones, in water and does not touch them. And on land, the predator tries to avoid these giants. Nevertheless, he sometimes approaches their rookeries in the hope of profiting from carrion, since the screening of walruses in the first days and weeks of their life is quite large. Sometimes the bear himself “puts his paw” into this, disturbing the rookery with his appearance and prompting heavy carcasses to move from place to place, crushing one or two multi-pound teenagers.

On the sea coast, bears sometimes visit bird colonies, picking up fallen inhabitants at their base or trying to get close to eggs. They are also interested in geese colonies, hunting molting birds on them. Some “specialists” manage to hunt in the water seabirds resting on the surface - eiders, guillemots, gulls, by swimming up to them under water and grabbing them from below.

The food supply for polar bears depends on the season. In spring and summer, predators living in the ice do not lack food. The hungriest time for bears is winter: seals stay under the thin ice of the edges of large ice fields, and sealed seals completely migrate to areas of open water. It is this circumstance that encourages the bears remaining awake to take long journeys: sometimes from one hunted seal to another, the animal is forced to travel hundreds of kilometers, remaining without food for a week or a week and a half.

At one time, an adult bear eats up to 20 kilograms of food. Most often, the predator confines itself to the most high-calorie part of the seal carcass - the subcutaneous layer of fat, which it eats along with the skin, pulling it off with a “stocking” from the killed victim. Only a very hungry animal eats meat, leaving large bones untouched.

The mating season of polar bears begins in early Arctic spring and lasts until June. At this time, you can come across double and triple chains of tracks: this is a female and the males who found her take walks together. After a showdown between the males, which is accompanied by roaring and fights, the female remains with the winner for another month, and then the couple breaks up, the animals begin to prepare for the long winter night. Pregnant females go to the islands in search of suitable places for dens, where in November-January each bear gives birth to 1-2 cubs. They are born helpless, covered with short, sparse hair, weighing 600-800 grams. Eyes and ears open towards the end of the first month of life, and the cubs begin to crawl over their curled-up mother. By the end of the second month, their baby teeth erupt and fluffy fur grows. 3 months after the birth of the cubs, the family leaves the winter shelter.

For the first few days after leaving the den, the female and her cubs stay close to it, hiding in a shelter at the first danger. Then they take short walks in the vicinity of the “maternity hospital”, and the female almost never leaves the cubs. On clear days, bear cubs happily slide down steep snow-covered slopes sparkling in the sun, leaving characteristic “paths” on the surface. A few more days later, the mother bear and her cubs set off for the coastal sea ice. During the hunt, she leaves the cubs in a safe place - away from adult males, who pose a serious danger to the cubs. The young begin to feed on the fat of seals caught by their mother at 3-4 months. Feeding with very fatty milk, like that of seals and whales, usually lasts 6-8 months, by the end of this period the cubs already weigh 50-60 kilograms. If there are not enough seals and the hunt for them is not very successful, lactation lasts longer: the female, lying in a den with second-year cubs who have not managed to gain the required amount of subcutaneous fat by winter, feeds them with milk until next spring.

All next summer, while the family is gathered, the mother bear teaches the cubs how to catch seals during joint hunts. A two-year-old bear cub is still too clumsy to steal a cautious seal lying near the hole, and its mass is simply not enough to fall through the roof of the seal’s “hut” and profit from the white. Therefore, the young begin to successfully hunt for prey themselves only at the age of three. The family breaks up in the fall, when the young animals become equal in size to the female, although there are cases of bear cubs staying together with the female bear in the same den for the second winter. Animals mature at the age of 3-4 years, life expectancy is up to 30 years, in captivity - up to 40 years.

The polar bear's ancient neighbors in the Arctic - the Chukchi, Eskimos, Nenets - have always treated him with respect. They have extensive folklore associated with this beast, praising its strength, dexterity, and endurance. Over the course of hundreds of years, specially protected cult altars - sedyanga - were formed from the skulls of hunted bears. They tried to appease the “spirit” of the killed animal by organizing a holiday in honor of a successful hunt; they brought the skin with the skull left in it into the home, offering it food, drink, and a pipe. Among the Russian Pomors, this animal, which they hunted with great difficulty and risk, also evoked respect. It is noteworthy that they themselves called themselves “ushkuiniki,” i.e. “bugbears”: the Pomors called the polar bear “ushuyem”.

The polar bear always had for local residents great practical significance. Meat and fat were used as food and to feed sled dogs, shoes and clothes were made from skins, and bile was used as a medicine. It is possible that the masterly ability to hunt seals, the art of building an “igloo” that retains heat in severe frosts, northern peoples borrowed from this polar predator. Intense widespread hunting of polar bears began in the 17th-18th centuries, when hunters, whalers, fur traders, and later polar expeditions rushed to the north. Although their goals were different, they all viewed polar bears in exactly the same way - only from a “gastronomic” point of view, as a source of fresh meat. Another purpose of the trade was skins used for making carpets. In arctic fox hunting areas, this predator, “inspecting” hunters’ traps and warehouses during winter hungry migrations, was shot as a supposed “dangerous pest.” The animals were beaten without counting and without pity, sometimes up to 1.5-2 thousand a year, even females with cubs in “maternity hospitals”. The result was immediate: by the end of the 19th century, obvious signs reduction in the number of polar bears. However, even in the 30s of our century, when it became clear that the reproduction of bears could no longer compensate for losses from predatory hunting, the volume of the annual harvest fell only slightly.

The turning point occurred in the 50s, when polar bear hunting was banned in most countries. Only the indigenous inhabitants of the North were allowed to hunt a certain number of predators, and shooting for self-defense was also allowed (which is sometimes the justification for poachers). The annual capture of a small number of bear cubs for zoos and circuses is also permitted. To protect the “maternity hospitals” of polar bears, sanctuaries and reserves have been organized - in the northeast of Greenland, off the southern shores of Hudson Bay, on our island. Wrangel. If we consider that this animal successfully breeds in zoos, we can assume that the threat of direct destruction of the species has now been averted.

However, the ban on polar bear hunting remains; populations from the European and Beringian (Chukotka, Alaska and adjacent islands) sectors of the Arctic are included in the Red Book of Russia.

Pavlinov I.Ya. (ed.) 1999. Mammals. Big encyclopedic Dictionary. M.: Astrel.

THESE AMAZING BEARS

The youngest

The youngest of the modern species of the bear family is the polar bear, or oshkuy, which evolved from the coastal Siberian brown bear 100 - 250 thousand years ago. Today it is the largest predator among terrestrial mammals.

Bears' claws do not retract

The soles are convex, the surface is rough, adapted for movement on slippery ice. The paws of polar bears are much larger in relation to the body than those of other bears. When walking, bears step on the foot completely, like a human, and not like canines - with their claws

Flat feet

All bears are flat-footed: the sole and heel of the foot touch the ground equally. On each paw they have five long curved claws, with which the bear is equally good at digging the ground (or ice) and coping with prey. The polar bear has long fur growing between its toes, which makes it easier for the animal to move on the ice and warms its paws. The very wide front paws serve as skis when moving on land and help when swimming. Polar bears are kept on the water by a thick layer of subcutaneous fat and two rows of hair, greased and waterproof.

Up to 40% of a polar bear's mass

makes up subcutaneous fat, which reliably protects the animal from hypothermia.

Bears' vision and hearing

Not well researched, available evidence suggests they can be compared to canine vision and hearing

Orientation and smell

Polar bears have a well-developed sense of orientation and a keen sense of smell: a polar bear can smell a dead seal from a distance of 200 miles. It senses prey even under the ice: it detects a live seal from a distance of 1 m, even if it is under the ice in the water, and a polar bear on land.

Bears are very smart

They are very smart when it comes to getting food. All polar bears Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimus are left-handed.

Can withstand temperatures down to -80C

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and seals can withstand temperatures down to -80°C; ducks and geese are less afraid of the cold, withstanding temperatures down to -110°C. Polar bear hair has the properties of fiber optics: colorless hairs conduct sunlight to the skin, which absorbs it. In the summer, the bear receives up to a quarter of the energy it needs in the form of solar heat.

The polar bear's ears are smaller than those of its relatives

This helps him retain body heat.

Polar bear fur

...corresponds to the name of the mammal, but in summer it sometimes turns straw-yellow, oxidizing in the sun. The individual outer hairs, called guard hairs, are transparent and hollow. Absorbing ultraviolet light, they conduct it into the black skin of the bear, like the nose and lips. Wool retains heat so well that it cannot be detected by infrared photography, only ultraviolet. When air temperatures are below zero, a bear can swim up to 80 km in icy Arctic water without resting.

In the tropics, polar bears turn green

White and yellow fur polar bears, living in the Singapore Zoo, turned green because algae began to actively bloom on his fur. This is a consequence of Singapore's hot and humid climate. The bear was able to be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide, but her son still continues to turn green and moldy: he has bright light green marks between his ears, on his back, and also on his paws. The last time a similar case of “greening” of polar bears was observed at the San Diego Zoo was in 1979. Three bears were cleaned using a saline solution.

Fur indicates an allergy

An unusual allergic reaction was discovered in a polar bear that lives in an Argentine zoo. After a doctor gave the bear an experimental drug for dermatitis, the bear changed color. It used to be white, but now it is purple. The bear itself did not react in any way to what happened. Veterinarians say the bear will turn white again in about a month.

42 teeth

Bears have 42 teeth

Hobo Bear

The polar bear is distributed throughout the Arctic. In Yakutia - in the basins of the Laptev and East Siberian seas. But it’s not for nothing that they call him a tramp. In search of food, it makes long migrations, sometimes reaching Iceland and southern Greenland on drifting ice floes. From there, along the western shores of Greenland, it goes under its own power to the islands of the Canadian Arctic.

Polar bear migration

The nature of seasonal migrations of polar bears is also closely related to changes in ice conditions. As the ice melts and collapses, polar bears move north, to the border of the Arctic basin. With the beginning of stable ice formation, bears begin their reverse migration to the south.

Bear swimmers

A polar bear is capable of chasing a deer for half a kilometer, but it swims much better than runs on land. At one time, a bear can swim over 80 miles. Polar bears are also good dives - it is common for them to dive under floating ice floes. The polar bear swims at speeds of up to 6.5 km per hour and can remain underwater for up to 5 minutes. This allows it to move long distances from the coast; there are known cases of meeting the animal 100 km from the ice edge.

Hunts near the Great Siberian Polynya

Most often, our polar bear hunts near the Great Siberian Polynya. This is a water surface that is open all year round in the area of ​​the Laptev Sea adjacent to the Lena delta. It attracts all arctic animals and birds, especially in winter. The bear's main diet consists of sea hares and seals, and if you're lucky, seals. The polar predator can endure long hunger strikes, but on occasion it immediately eats up to 20 or more kilograms of meat and fat.

They live to eat

In order to maintain the necessary fat reserves, a polar bear must eat a lot of food. At one time he eats at least 45 kg of seal meat. Half of the calories go towards maintaining body heat. Polar bears feed on seals, reindeer, walruses, and white whales. They supplement their diet with berries, mushrooms, lichens and rare tundra vegetation. In general, bears are omnivores, like foxes, badgers and mongooses. The polar bear prefers to stay among floating ice or on fast ice at its edge, near polynyas and clearings. Here, seals are the most numerous all year round, which serve as the main food of this predator (in a year the bear catches and eats up to 40 - 50 seals).

But polar bears do not drink water - they get the necessary moisture from their prey.

What do bears do?

IN daytime Polar bears roam in search of prey. The she-bear is always with the babies, and the older cubs play, simulating a fight.

Not particularly lucky hunters

Although polar bears hunt almost all of their time. Their hunt is successful only in 2% of all cases.

Aggressive polar bear

Aggression peaks during the breeding season, when males fight over females. Female bears, although half the size of males, attack them when protecting their offspring. More often it happens that fights are avoided, and the fight is limited only by the demonstration of aggressive poses. One of these poses can be observed when the bear rises on its hind legs and opens its mouth wide, exposing its fangs. The fight continues until the first blood is drawn, after which, as a rule, it stops.

Polar bear vs whale

On rare occasions, beluga whales get caught in traps and become trapped by drifting ice. They are forced to swim to the holes that the seals create for themselves in order to breathe air. In these cases, polar bears have a chance to attack whales exhausted from fighting the ice. When the whale swims up to the hole, the bear attacks it, tears it with its claws and teeth - and wins.

Why do bears have to be big?

The larger the bear, the more likely she is to bear healthy offspring. For a male, weight also means a lot; a giant has a better chance of finding a mate. It is known that bears are 1.2 - 2.2 times heavier than female bears.

Lone bears

Unlike other species, polar bears live alone.

Families and singles in the world of bears

Bears are family animals; a family group consists of a mother bear and her cubs, between whom the warmest relationships have been maintained for a long time. The cubs are born very small, weighing no more than a kilogram, they remain blind for 40 days, and the mother bear feeds them many times a day. She holds them close to her, warming them with her warmth. With the exception of the breeding season, males stay solitary and wander over vast areas in search of food. The mating season is short - from May to June. At this time, males fight fiercely over females. Pairs are fragile; the male and female can mate with several partners.

Short family life

Females breed once every three years, mating occurs in March-May. The pair stays together for only a few days, and during this time the partners continue to mate frequently. Like other carnivorous Carnivora, the male has an ossified penis structure, the "baculum". through which the female is stimulated to ovulate. Mating can last 10 - 30 minutes, and during this time the partners cannot move away from each other. The fertilized egg appears by September. Females first bear offspring between 4 and 8 years of age and maintain reproductive capacity until age 21, with a peak between 10 and 19 years. There are usually 2 cubs in a litter, less often - 1, occasionally - 3.

Polar bears have delayed conception

Pregnancy lasts 190 - 260 days, this interval is explained by the possibility of “delayed conception,” that is, the embryo begins to develop in the mother’s body not from the moment of her fertilization. The sperm is stored in her body until conditions are favorable for breeding.

Only females hibernate

Unlike other bears that live in cold climates, polar bears do not usually hibernate for long periods of time. They rarely overwinter, with the exception of pregnant females, who overwinter every 2-5 years. A she-bear makes a den in the snow. Typically, this is a long tunnel leading to an oval-shaped chamber. In some cases, bears have additional tunnels and chambers.

Duration of hibernation

Black, brown and polar bears hibernate and spend 3-5 winter months without food. In northern Alaska, bears spend the winter for 7 months. At this time, their metabolic process is slowed down, waste products are not excreted from the body. If you compare hibernating bears with hibernating rodents, you get a similar picture. The body temperature of bears is higher than that of rodents. but the heart beats at a speed of 10 times per minute (at normal times 45). In the warm winter months, hibernating bears leave the den for a while, then return to sleep.

Polar bear cubs

... at birth weigh less than 700 grams. Polar bear cubs weigh only a tenth of the normal cub weight of other mammals of the same mass. The reason for this is the prolonged fasting of the mother, who does not feed during pregnancy. As a result, the fetus receives nutrients from the mother's body, rather than from the food she absorbs. Compensating for the lack nutrients Especially fatty bear milk is used, which in polar bears exceeds in calorie content all other relatives in the family. Typically, a female gives birth to two cubs, but there have been cases of five cubs in one litter, but none of them survived. The cub stays in the den until it gains a weight of 8-9 kg. The cubs stay with their mother for two and a half years. Physical maturity occurs at the age of 5-6 years for females and 10-11 years for males, sexual maturity - at the age of 5 years.

Not afraid of man

The polar bear is the only large land mammal, which is not afraid of man. He continues to pursue the hunters even after being severely wounded, struck in vital organs. Polar bears often do not pay attention to people - but this is only if they are not hungry and do not hope to profit from prey.

Lifespan of bears

Mortality among adult bears is estimated at 8-16%, among immature bears 3-16%, and among cubs 10-30%. Maximum lifespan is 25-30 years, rarely more. There is evidence of a polar bear reaching the age of 37 years.

Polar bear metabolic rate

The metabolic rate of a polar bear is obviously higher than that of a brown bear. White has also been found to have extraordinary resistance to low temperatures, not only due to its perfect thermoregulation, but also due to its low “critical temperature”. Even at - 50 °C, he does not experience a noticeable increase in the level of gas exchange, i.e., there is still no need to use the physiological mechanism of thermoregulation (“chemical”), associated with high energy consumption

Polar bear breathing rate
The polar bear's breathing rate increases noticeably as the air temperature rises; at - 10...- 20 °C it is 5.3, and at 20...25 °C - 30 per minute.

Body temperature of an adult polar bear
The body temperature of an adult polar bear, measured rectally, is 36.8-38.8 °C (lower than that of a brown bear); no daily temperature changes were noted. The surface temperature of the skin, measured in calm weather, reaches 30-36 °C, and in the wind drops to 27 °C. The difference between temperatures under the skin and on its surface increases to 10-14 ° C when the animal is in water. The internal body temperature of bear cubs aged from 2 to 8 months, measured using radio pills, varied from 37.4 °C in dormant animals to 40 and 40.5 °C when animals moved uphill, and in swimming animals it was about 38.5 °C WITH.

Heart rate of an adult polar bear
The heart rate of an adult bear at rest is 50-80 per minute, and in an active state it can reach 130 per minute; during sleep it decreases to 50 and during artificially induced hibernation - to 27 per minute (in American brown bears). and black bears in the latter case was reduced to eight)

Polar bear milk

Bear milk is very thick, fatty, with the smell of fish oil, contains 44.1% dry matter (including 1.17% ash, 31% fat, 0.49% lactose and 10.2% protein). By chemical composition it approaches the milk of cetaceans and pinnipeds. Milk fat contains 13.9% bituric acid, 22.6% palmetic acid and 33.4% oleic acid.

The hemoglobin content in the blood of polar bear cubs ranges from 66 to 84%, erythrocytes - from 3.5 to 4.9 million, and leukocytes - from 5800 to 8300 per 1 mm3. From total number Of leukocytes, 5% are neutrophils, 1.2% are eosinophils, 4% are basophils, 2-3% are monocytes, 34-40% are lymphocytes. In adult female bears, the leukocyte formula is different: band neutrophils - 10 and segmented - 17%, eosinophils - 1, besophils - 2, monocytes - 4 and lymphocytes - 60%
In terms of general serological characteristics, the polar bear is very close to the brown bear.

Evolution, systematics and variability of the polar bear

According to modern ideas, the family tree of the bear family - Ursidae - begins in the Middle Miocene from large representatives of the genus Ursavus, known from finds in Europe. In the Pliocene, 14 genera, or groups, of bears emerged in Eurasia and North America. In the Pleistocene, obviously, there were representatives of all modern genera of bears, including the genus Thalassarctos Gray, and a number of others that are now extinct.
The scarcity of paleontological materials is the reason for the divergence of opinions among researchers about the antiquity of the divergence of the polar bear from the trunk of brown bears themselves (no one doubts the latter). Most authors attribute the time of isolation of the polar bear to the early or middle Pleistocene (1.5 million years ago), or to the transitional era between the Pleistocene and Pliocene, and the species Ursus etruscus Fale is considered the direct ancestor of the brown and polar bears. generalized bear type. However, I.G. Pidoplichko admits its isolation already in the Pliocene (more than 2 million years ago).
In the languages ​​of the local indigenous population of the Arctic regions, the polar bear is called:
sira bogto, uloddade boggo, seruorka,
Yavvy - in Nenets (north of the European part of the USSR and Western Siberia);
Uryungege and Khuryung-ege - in Yakut;
nebaty mamachan - in Evenki;
poinene-hakha - in Yukaghir;
umka and umki - in Chukchi;
Nanuk, Nyonnok and Nanok - in Eskimo (northeast Siberia, north North America, Greenland).
Man's acquaintance with the polar bear has as long a history as the settlement of the coasts and islands of the northern seas by humans; in northern Europe it may go back to the Holocene, and in northern Asia to the Paleolithic. The first written sources containing mention of a polar bear also date back to very distant times. It became known to the Romans, apparently, in the 50s. ad. In Japanese manuscripts, living polar bears and their skins were first mentioned in 650, and the first records of these animals from Northern Europe (Scandinavia) date back to 880 AD. Later, live animals and their skins began to quite often end up in the hands of European rulers.

How bears communicate

Studying polar bears, scientists have found that they prefer to stay alone. This does not apply to a family consisting of a female bear and her offspring; they have a well-developed language for communication. If you hear a dull growl, this means that they are warning their relatives of approaching danger. With the same sound, the bear drives others away from its prey. Begging for food from a more fortunate fellow, the bear approaches slowly, sways, then reaches nose to nose for a greeting ritual. As a rule, a polite request does not go unanswered, and after an exchange of pleasantries, the relative is allowed to eat together. Young bears love to play, it’s boring to play alone, so when inviting you to have fun, they swing their heads from side to side.

Polar Bear Day

In winter, in some countries of the world, February 27 is celebrated as Polar Bear Day. Based on data from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), this moment There are 20-25 thousand polar bears in the world. But due to many factors, by 2050 the population of this species may decrease by two-thirds. The polar bear is the largest representative of the order of predatory mammals on earth. It reaches a length of 3 meters and weighs up to 1000 kg. Typically, males weigh 400-600 kg; body length 200-250 cm, height at the withers up to 160 cm. Females are noticeably smaller (200-300 kg). The smallest bears are found in Spitsbergen, the largest in the Bering Sea.

The polar bear is the largest representative of predatory animals

Just think about the tests Mother Nature sometimes subjects her creatures to. Getting acquainted with the way of life of some animals, you involuntarily ask yourself the question: “How do they survive?” After all, they live where, it would seem, life is impossible, and are subjected to all kinds of hardships. Well, those who turned out to be unable to gain a foothold on the “edge of life” are eliminated by natural selection. Others, the most incapable of life, live and prosper.
One of these winners is the polar bear, an eternal wanderer among the vast polar expanses. He reigns here in splendid isolation; he has no equal. This bear is not at all similar to his brothers living in southern countries, - neither in appearance, nor in habits, nor in living conditions. But there is one sad similarity for which the bear is not to blame. This inhabitant of the polar ice, like some clubfooted forest dwellers, has become rare in nature due to human fault. It is included in the Red Book of the USSR, where it has category III protection, and by the IUCN.
The polar bear is the largest representative of the order of carnivorous mammals, the largest land predator. Its body length reaches 3 m. Can you imagine if it stands on its hind legs? An impressive sight! The weight of large males sometimes reaches 800 kg. The polar bear's physique is quite massive. At the same time, the “outline” of his body in some details is not at all bearish, probably because of his neck, which is long and flexible. The legs are quite high, thick, and powerful. The feet of the front paws are wide, their surface is additionally enlarged by overgrown thick hair. The fur is very thick and long, especially on the belly. The color is white, with a yellowish-golden tint along

• Class: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 = Mammals
• Infraclass: Eutheria, Placentalia Gill, 1872 = Placental, higher animals
• Squad:
• Family: Carnivora Bowdich, 1821 = Carnivores
• Family: Ursidae Gray, 1825 = Ursidae, bears
• Genus: Ursus Linnaeus, 1758 = Bears

Is the bear a predator?

Basically, bears are content with plant food, but if there is a shortage of it and once they have tasted animal meat, they become a predator in the full sense of the word, especially terrible for domestic animals. He is quite considered worst enemy horses, cows, etc.

Having tasted the meat, the bear loses its good-natured disposition and becomes very bloodthirsty. Many hunters say that the bear also feeds on carrion. At least in Siberia, it often happens that during livestock deaths, peasants bury their dead animals, and bears dig them up to satisfy their hunger. Having fattened up their body and fat throughout the summer and autumn, with the approach of winter the bears prepare a den for themselves in some cave, or in the hollows of trees, or in the thicket of the forest.

Before lying down in the den, the bear confuses its tracks like a hare, meanders through the brown, mossy swamps, through the water, jumps sideways from the track through fallen trees, in a word, it goes back and forth more than once. Only then will he lie down, reassured that the trail is well entangled.

If the summer was poor in food, then some, especially thin, bears do not lie in the den at all; they wander around hungry all winter. These connecting rods, as they are called, are “suicide bombers”; they will die before spring. Connecting rods are dangerous to humans, cattle and any animal - even to a bear sleeping in a den. There was a case: a small connecting rod bear dug up the den of a bear that was healthier than him, bitten and ate the sleepy Toptygin. Some bears, in places where it is not very cold, lie down for the winter right among young spruce trees, just bending their tops above them - it turns out something like a hut, and they sleep in it. But where the winter is cold, they dig a hole for a den somewhere near the water, in a swamp, under the root of a fallen tree. Others cover the pit with brushwood, branches, and moss. Such a den is said to have a “sky,” that is, a roof. A den’s “brow” is a hole in a den—an outlet.

They say about a bear that it sucks its paw in winter. Maybe some people suck because they think that the soles of their soles shed and itch. But, says A. Cherkasov, he has never heard of bears being caught in dens with sucked paws: they are all dry, dirty since the fall, covered in dust and with dried mud.

The further east the bears live, the larger they are. In the Old World, the largest bears are Kamchatka bears. In Alaska and some islands close to it, even larger specimens are found. This is the brown bear Kadlyak - the heavyweight champion among all predators on Earth (weighing up to 751 kg). When this animal stands, leaning on all four legs, its height at the withers is up to 130 cm (for a European bear, on average, 1 m).

The she-bear retires to her den already in early November, while bears roam as early as December, despite the snow and frost. And some old animals lead a wandering life all winter. Even bears that retire to a den do not always fall into continuous hibernation, only those that are heavily overfed and fat sleep motionless, while the rest lie very sensitively and stick their heads out of the den, or “greet” - as the hunters say - at every approach of a person; and she-bears sometimes directly rush at the violator of their peace. Feeling the smell of spring, they get out of the den and into the light.

Having become hungry during the winter, it goes out to get food. But first he takes a laxative - in the form of cranberries and moss, of which he eats enormous quantities. Having cleared his stomach, he hurries to strengthen his body, weakened by hibernation. During this rather hungry time, it can attack livestock.

Jackals. In contrast, clubfooted animals are stockier and more powerful. Like other canids, bears are predators, but sometimes they feast on berries, mushrooms and honey.

There are also pseudo-clubfooted animals that do not belong to canines or even predatory animals. The name bear is given only because of its external resemblance to the true representatives of the genus.

Real bears

The second name for bears is plantigrade. Having wide legs, clubfoots step completely on them. Other canids, as a rule, touch the ground with only part of their paws, as if walking on their toes. This is how animals speed up. Bears cannot reach a speed of more than 50 kilometers per hour.

Brown bear

Included in types of bears in Russia, the most numerous and popular in the country. However, the largest clubfoot was caught outside the Federation, on the American island of Kodiak. From there they took the animal for the Berlin Zoo. I came across a bear weighing 1134 kilograms when the norm is 150-500 kilograms.

It is assumed that brown came to America about 40 million years ago through the Bering Isthmus. The animals came from Asia, where representatives of the species are also found.

The largest clubfoot in Russia are found on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Giants live there for 20-30 years. In captivity, with good maintenance, bears live up to half a century.

Polar bear

Based on its habitat, it is called polar. The scientific name of the species is translated in Latin as “sea bear.” Predators are associated with snow and the vastness of the ocean. Polars hunt in the water, catching fish and seals.

The ocean does not prevent the migration of polar clubfoot. They travel hundreds of kilometers on water, using their wide front feet like oars. The hind legs act as a steering wheel. When going out on ice floes, bears do not slide because they have rough feet.

The animal is the largest among terrestrial predators. The predator reaches 3 meters in length. The standard weight is 700 kilograms. So polar bear species awesome. In nature, animals have no enemies except humans.

Studying types of bears, only the polar one will find hollow wool. The hairs are empty from the inside. Firstly, it provides an additional layer of air in the fur coat. Gas is a poor conductor of heat and does not release it from the skin of a predator.

Secondly, the cavities in the white hairs are needed to reflect light. In fact, the fur of clubfoot is colorless. The hair only looks white, allowing the predator to blend in with the surrounding snow.

Himalayan bear

Otherwise called the Asian black bear. It is distinguished by large ears, an elegant physique by the standards of clubfoot, and an elongated muzzle.

The Himalayan habitat extends from Iran to Japan. The predator chooses mountainous areas. Hence the name of the species. In Russia, its representatives live beyond the Amur, as a rule, in the Ussuri region.

The black bear is named for its dark fur color. On the head and neck it is longer, forming something like a mane. There is a predator on the chest White spot. However, there are subspecies of the animal without it.

The maximum weight of the Himalayan bear is 140 kilograms. The animal reaches one and a half meters in length. But the claws of a predator are thicker and larger than those of brown and polar individuals. The reason is the black bear's lifestyle. He spends most of his time in trees. The claws help to climb them.

The Asian clubfoot cannot be called a formidable predator. Of animal food, the bear usually eats only insects. The basis of the diet is herbs, roots, berries, and acorns.

Baribal

An alternative name is black bear. It lives in Northern, especially in the east of the continent. The appearance of the predator is close to the appearance of the brown clubfoot. However, the baribal has more prominent shoulders, lower ears and, as the name implies, black fur. However, on the face it is lighter.

The name of the animal is similar to the name of the family to which it is assigned. There are no other members of the family. This, by the way, also applies to the red panda. She is also one of a kind.

The closest relative of the koala is not a bear or even a small panda.

About 30 million years ago, 18 species of marsupial “bears” lived on the planet. There were also true club-footed people, unseen by modern man. Among them, 5-6 species became extinct.

Extinct bears

The number of extinct bears is vague because the existence of one species is in question. There is a glimmer of hope that the Tibetan clubfoot still exists, although for a long time it has not been seen by people or captured by video cameras. If you see one, let the scientists know. The bear looks like a brown one, but the front part of the body is reddish. The animal's withers are almost black. In the groin area the fur is red. The rest of the fur on the back of the predator is dark brown. The bear lived in the east of the Tibetan plateau.

California grizzly

It appears on the California flag, but has not been found in the state or beyond since 1922. Then they killed the last representative type of animal.

Bear was distinguished by its golden coat color. The beast was a totemic animal among the Indians. The Redskins believed that they were descended from grizzly bears, so they did not hunt the ancestor. The white settlers exterminated the clubfoot.

Mexican grizzly

Officially declared extinct in the 60s of the last century. The animal was large, weighing approximately 360 kilograms.

The Mexican grizzly bear was distinguished by whitish claws on its front paws, small ears and a high forehead.

Etruscan bear

Fossil species, lived back in the Pliocene. This geological period ended 2.5 million years ago. Second title predator - short-faced bear. This is the one with 13 pairs of ribs.

Skeletons of Etruscan bears are found only in southern latitudes. Therefore, scientists assume that the animal was heat-loving. It is also known that the extinct animal was large, weighing approximately 600 kilograms.

Atlas bear

Inhabited lands from Morocco to Libya. The last individual was killed by hunters in the 1870s. Externally, the animal was distinguished by reddish fur on the underside of the body and dark brown hair on top. There was a white spot on the bear's face.

Unlike most bears, the Atlas bear preferred desert and arid areas. The name of the species is associated with the chain of mountains where the clubfoot lived. Zoologists classified them as a subspecies of brown bear.

Giant polar bear

Appearance of a polar bear was similar to the appearance of the modern one. Only the beast reached 4 meters in length and weighed 1200 kilograms. Such giants lived on the planet 100 thousand years ago.

So far, scientists have found the only ulna bone giant bear. The bone was discovered in Pleistocene sediments in Great Britain.

The survival of modern polar bears is also in question. The number of the species is sharply declining. This is due to climate change. Glaciers are melting. Animals have to make increasingly longer swims. Many predators reach the shore exhausted. Meanwhile, it is not easy for bears that are full of energy to get food in the snowy expanses.