Brown bear: brief description, weight, dimensions. Habits of a brown bear. Polar bears - brown bears - photo of bears Bear predator or omnivore

The bear is a predatory animal, which is the largest in the world. The length of its body reaches about three meters, and its mass is approximately 800. The bear has a huge body, strong paws with claws, a short tail, and a large head.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin is the first Russian writer of various poems, fairy tales, riddles. Pushkin's poems became the main point to which the entire Russian people listened. In the work of Pushkin there are a lot of works of various genres, but he paid great attention to lyric poetry.

Brown bears live in the taiga, in mountain forests and near fertile meadows near water. The fur of brown bears can be of various colors, ranging from brown to dark brown. By old age, the bears turn gray, and become gray. Very often there are such species as the Malay bear, white-breasted, sloth, black bear and white. All these types of bears are mostly found singly, but sometimes in a bunch. Activity is shown at night, and the polar bear is only during the day. Bears rest mainly in caves, in pits.


Almost all bears are omnivores. But, such species as the polar bear feeds only on the meat of mammals. The food of brown bears is varied, it changes due to the change of seasons. After the bear wakes up, its diet includes ants, young shoots of dead animals. Also, the diet of the bear includes various ripe berries, and even nuts. Bears eat a lot, in order to feed it you need a lot of food, which is processed into fat necessary for winter living. When the year is not fruitful, the bears eat crops of oats, corn, and also eat domestic animals.


Many bears lead a quiet life throughout the year. Brown bears and white-breasted bears hibernate for the winter. Among polar bears, only she-bears who bear cubs fall into hibernation. The bear's den is very clean and emits a pleasant smell.

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, the calluses are almost invisible under the thick hair. The head is relatively small, with a straight profile and a narrow forehead, rather high-set eyes. The ears are short, rounded, little protruding from the hairline. The fur is very thick and dense, coarse, not very long on the back and sides - there are no elongated hairs even on the withers. But on the belly back side paws have very long hair (in winter, the awn here is up to 25 cm), which is extremely necessary when you have to rest, lying on the snow. The hair on the feet is also elongated, surrounding them around 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 coloration throughout the body is white: this is primarily characteristic of animals living in ice, and serves as a means of disguise. Only after a long stay on land, the animals acquire a dirty grayish-brown color. Thus, the brownish-gray-yellow multicolor, 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 conditions of constant cold, the need for a long stay in the water, feeding on seals. Its fur is an excellent protection against very cold air, but it does not have water-repellent properties: it is striking that, unlike seals or sea otters, a polar bear's fur coat passes ice water to the skin. But he has all year round under the skin lies a thick - 3-4 cm - layer of fat: it not only protects the beast from the cold, but also reduces the specific gravity of its body, making it easier to stay on the water. The skin itself (mezdra) is dark in color, which allows you to capture more sunlight on clear days. The nature of the metabolism is such that even a temperature of -50°C does not seem very cold to this beast, but already at a temperature of +15°C the beast begins to overheat, 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 eat a whole seal at once after a long hungry journey through lifeless ice. An unusually high content of vitamin A in the liver of this animal is associated with feeding on very fatty food, which is necessary to maintain normal life in the cold.

The polar bear, without much exaggeration, can be considered a sea animal. Its range mostly extends in the floating ice of the Arctic Ocean, capturing its islands and the mainland coast. This peculiar circumpolar region has no northern border, and in the south it is outlined by the northern coast of the mainland and the southern edge of the distribution of floating ice. In the expanses of the ocean, the existence of a predator is closely related to the places of concentration of seals - leads, cracks, edges of floating ice and fast ice. In particular, there are a lot of polar bears in the area of ​​the so-called “Great Siberian polynya” - an extensive network of breeding areas, 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, abounding in 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 shelters and a water table. He also avoids young, still fragile ice 5-10 centimeters thick, which does not hold this overweight predator. On land, the bear rarely appears, mainly during migrations. However, polar bears often arrange winter dens on land, but not on the mainland, but on the Arctic islands.

The habitats of the polar bear are called the “Arctic desert” - partly because there are fewer animals and birds there than, for example, in middle lane, partly because of their low suitability for humans. Therefore, this predator spends most of its time outside the areas of active economic activity of people. In the recent past, when the uncontrolled hunt for the white giant flourished, he shunned human settlements. Now, having a protective status, the beast does not feel uncomfortable next to them. In some places, polar bears, like brown relatives in national parks, even form a kind of "semi-domestic" populations, for which landfills and garbage dumps serve as a food base. Quite freely behave in the villages and migrating animals, which, if the opportunity arises, even strive to invade dwellings for the sake of something edible.

Most of the life of a polar bear takes place in migrations and does not imply attachment to any particular 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 cover 40-80 kilometers per day. In conditions of little mobile sea ice, the range of their migrations is about 750 kilometers, while some animals are able to move 1000 kilometers from their main habitat. Migrations are mainly associated with seasonal changes in the ice regime and are due to the need to search open water, are limited mainly by the sea and the coastline. Polar bears go deep into the mainland only along the valleys of such fairly large rivers as Khatanga in Taimyr or Anadyr in 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 autumn, when ice fields begin to close and polynyas close. Wanderings of polar bears do not occur randomly, but along certain routes. Particularly noticeable are the “bear roads” along the coasts of the Arctic islands and the headlands of the continental land that are far out into the sea. So, polar bears constantly travel along the “ice bridge” between Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya. The spring melting of ice and the release of polynyas encourages bears to return to their former places.

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

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

“Maternity” dens are most often located on big islands- Greenland, Wrangel, Spitsbergen and others, usually not more than a few kilometers from the coastline, but I 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 arrange something similar to “maternity hospitals”, tearing out dens not far from each other. So, on about. Wrangel every year 180-200 she-bears gather for wintering; moreover, on one of the mountain ranges in the northwestern part of this island, with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bonly 25 km2, there are different years 40-60 dens, sometimes located at a distance of 10-20 meters from one another.

A female bear digs a permanent lair in a many-meter-long snow pile that has accumulated on the slope of a hill or mountain. 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 structures 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 a clearly unsuccessful structure, it happens, collapses and the female is forced to seek or dig a new shelter. As in the Eskimo “igloo” ice dwelling, the main chamber of the lair is located above the manhole, which helps to preserve the heat generated by the animal itself: it is usually 20 ° warmer in the chamber than on the snow surface. The she-bear digs a lair for two or three days. After it finally lies down, the rest of the work is completed by blizzards, which completely clog the entrance hole with a snow plug, only occasionally a small ventilation hole remains. Temporary male dens are simpler; sometimes the beast just burrows into the snow. The winter decrease in activity in the polar bear has its own specifics. In this species, an indispensable winter sleep is characteristic only of females ready for the birth of cubs: they lie in dens for 5 months, fit in November and leave 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 the climatic conditions in winter are more than severe even for such hardy animals and food is difficult to obtain, many males also save themselves in dens. They disappear in December for a month or two, but as soon as the period of bad weather ends, they leave their hiding places and continue their wanderings. In rare cases, animals lie in dens in the summer. This interesting feature is characteristic, for example, of bears on the coast of Hudson's Bay: some of them survive short periods of starvation in pits dug in sandy cliffs or on coastal spits.

Compared to the brown bear, the white bear seems less smart and less agile. He is less trainable, somewhat “straightforward” in his actions. All this is obviously related to its habitation in more homogeneous environmental conditions and greater food specialization, which does not require a variety of skills and the ability to quickly respond to unexpectedly arising difficult situations. However, in terms of the ability to assess the quality of ice, to adapt hunting tactics to the specific terrain, he has no equal among the inhabitants of the Arctic deserts.

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

These inhabitants of the Arctic seas swim well and willingly - however, mainly in summer, in winter only especially well-fed individuals go into the water. The bear rows with its front paws, and with its hind legs it mainly steers. Under water, it lasts up to 2 minutes, while the eyes are open and the nostrils are closed. In the open sea, adult animals are sometimes found 50 or even 100 kilometers from the nearest earthly firmament. The 5-6-month-old cubs go into the water themselves and swim well.

The power of this beast is truly amazing. He is able to pull a walrus carcass weighing more than half a ton onto the ice and up the slope. A bearded seal, weighing slightly less than the bear itself, can be killed by a predator, crushing the skull of the victim with a single crushing blow of the paw, and, if necessary, transferring its carcass in its teeth for a distance of up to a kilometer.

The polar bears have the most developed sense of smell and hearing. When hunting or surveying the situation, he goes against the wind, often stopping and sniffing. The smell of a dead seal carcass, even if it is powdered with snow, can be smelled hundreds of meters away. The creaking steps of a man trying to approach the animal in the snow from the leeward side, he hears two hundred meters away, and the noise of an all-terrain vehicle or aircraft engine - several kilometers away. The vision is also very sharp: a polar predator is able to distinguish a dark point of a seal lying on a snow-white ice floe at a distance of several kilometers.

The ability of polar bears to navigate in the vast expanses of seemingly homogeneous ice plains causes surprise and admiration. Being on land or on ice, the animal is able to accurately locate areas of open water, sometimes remote for tens of kilometers, and confidently go to them. During seasonal migrations, overcoming hundreds of kilometers in a once chosen direction, these wanderers deviate from the course by some 20-30 °. Even when traveling with drifting ice, the 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 whale carcass thrown ashore - or on mass migration routes, and females live side by side in places of “maternity hospitals”. In general, these animals, which do not need to protect their sites from anyone, are not aggressive. For this reason, and also due to the fact that they are not timid, at the first meeting with a person, the bear reacts to him in general quite peacefully, without fear or aggression, and sometimes simply indifferently. If a person tries to approach him, a huge predator prefers to leave: the real threat can be mainly a female with cubs or a wounded beast. True, cases of attacks on people are still noted, and several times it was necessary to shoot cannibal 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 lying posture 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, people's meetings with this unique animal have become more frequent and sometimes begin to bring obvious inconvenience. As in the case of the brown bear, in a number of places the animals gather in the vicinity of settlements, where they feed on garbage, and if there is a shortage of it, they break into storage facilities. Once in one of the fishing points in Chukotka, when people worked 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 autumn, 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 preys on large animals. Its main food is arctic seals, primarily the smallest of them, ringed seals, less often bearded seals, even more rarely hooded seals and harp seals. 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, can, if he is very lucky, drive some kind of deer into the water and crush it there. Among polar bears, cases of cannibalism are not uncommon, to which they are prompted by the harsh conditions of existence: especially often, cubs fall into the mouths of adult males. At the end of summer-autumn, bears explore the coasts in search of the corpses of marine animals thrown out by the sea: sometimes 3-5 feasting predators gather near the carcass of a whale. They rarely catch fish themselves, but they willingly pick up those thrown onto the ice by the waves. However, in those days when polar bears were common in Labrador, they gathered near spawning rivers during the course of salmon and, like brown ones, were actively engaged in fishing.

On land, bears sometimes feed on birds and their eggs, and on occasion they grab lemmings. With a lack of familiar animal food on the mainland and islands, they do not disdain vegetable food: in the tundra they eat cloudberries, in the intertidal zone - algae such as kelp (“seaweed”), fucus. Bears have been observed on Svalbard, even diving underwater in search of these algae. Females are especially fond of green vitamin food immediately after leaving the den: they dig up the snow and eat willow shoots found under it, sometimes moss and sedge leaves. Near housing, these predators willingly “graze” in landfills, where they devour everything that seems edible to them. This sometimes leads to the death of animals, because among the swallowed may be, for example, a tarpaulin soaked in engine oil.

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

The hunting tactics of this predator is quite flexible, 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, watches over the water, or approaches it through the water. In any case, the success of the hunt depends on whether or not the beast has time to grab the prey on the ice floe, because in the water, neither in speed nor in maneuverability of movements, the bear can be compared with the seal.

Stealing is used most often: a bear looks out for prey from afar and approaches it behind hummocks or snow puffs. Caught on smooth ice, it flattens 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. Approaching the victim at 4-5 meters, the bear jumps up and in a swift throw with one or two jumps tries to get the seal. If he did not have time to slip into the water, the predator kills or stuns the victim by hitting the front paw on the head and immediately pulls it away from the water. The whole episode of hiding can take from 2 to 5 hours, depending on how long and winding the hunter's path among the shelters was. Sometimes the direction of the attack changes to the opposite: the predator carefully swims across the water to the seal lying on the edge of the ice floe, plunging so that only the upper part of the muzzle remains on the surface, and, jumping out onto the ice floe with one jump, tries to cut off the prey'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 air in an ice floe. If the hole is small, the animal expands it with its claws and teeth before starting the sitting. 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 arrange shallow snowy shelters - "huts" where the cubs hide. The bear knows how to find them by smell and, bringing down the snow vault with its paws or with all its weight, tries to get to the victim littered with snow clods as quickly as possible. If a predator encounters a breeding ground harp seals, he can cause great havoc among the openly lying on the ice and completely helpless cubs, continuing to kill them after he has had his fill. According to eyewitnesses, the bear plays with seal pups like a cat with a mouse.

Adult walruses, even single ones, are simply afraid of the water and do not touch the polar bear. And on land, the predator tries to bypass these giants. Nevertheless, he sometimes approaches their rookeries in the hope of grabbing carrion, since the screening of walruses in the first days and weeks of their life is quite large. Sometimes the bear itself “puts its paw” on this, disturbing the rookery with its appearance and prompting heavy carcasses to move from place to place, crushing one or two pood-long adolescents.

On the sea coast, bears sometimes visit bird markets, picking up fallen local inhabitants at their feet or trying to get close to the eggs. They are also interested in the colonies of geese, extracting molting birds from them. Some "specialists" contrive to hunt in the water for resting on the surface of sea birds - eiders, guillemots, gulls, swimming up to them under water and grabbing them from below.

The availability of food for polar bears depends on the season. In spring and summer, predators living in ice do not lack food. The hungriest time for bears is winter: seals keep under the thin ice of the edges of large ice fields, and bearded seals completely migrate to areas of open water. It is this circumstance that prompts the bears that have remained awake to make long journeys: sometimes, from one hunted seal to another, the animal is forced to travel more than one hundred kilometers, remaining without food for a week or a half.

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

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

The first few days after leaving the den, the female with the cubs keeps near her, hiding in the shelter at the first danger. Then they take small walks in the vicinity of the “maternity hospital”, and the female almost does not leave the cubs. On clear days, the cubs happily ride down the steep snow-covered slopes sparkling in the sun, leaving characteristic “paths” on the surface. A few days later, the she-bear with her cubs goes to the coastal sea ice. For the duration of the hunt, she leaves the cubs in a safe place - away from adult males, which pose a serious danger to cubs. The young begin to feed on the fat of the seals caught by the 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 hunting for them is not successful, lactation lasts even longer: the female, lying in a den with second-year cubs who did not have time to gain the required amount of subcutaneous fat by winter, feeds them with milk until the next spring.

All next summer, while the family is together, the she-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 bring down the roof of the seal's “hut” and profit from the seal. Therefore, young ones themselves begin to successfully extract prey only at the age of three. The family breaks up in the fall, when the young animals are equal in size to the female, although there are cases of cubs lying together with the she-bear in one den and 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 long-standing neighbors of the polar bear in the Arctic - the Chukchi, Eskimos, Nenets - have always treated him with respect. They have an extensive folklore associated with this beast, glorifying its strength, dexterity, and endurance. For hundreds of years specially guarded cult altars - sedanga - were formed from the skulls of hunted bears. They tried to appease the “spirit” of the killed animal by arranging a holiday in honor of a successful hunt, they brought the skin with the skull left in it into the dwelling, offered it food, drink, and a pipe. Among the Russian coast-dwellers, this animal, hunted by them with great difficulty and risk, also aroused respect. It is noteworthy that they themselves called themselves “ushkuyns”, i.e. “bear cubs”: the Pomors called the polar bear with usk.

The polar bear has always been of great practical importance for the locals. Meat and fat were used as food and feed for sled dogs, shoes and clothes were sewn from skins, bile was used as medicine. It is possible that the masterly ability to hunt seals, the art of building a “needle” that retains heat in severe frosts, was borrowed by the northern peoples from this polar predator. Intensive widespread hunting for the polar bear began in the 17th-18th centuries, when St. John's wolves, whalers, fur traders, and later polar expeditions rushed to the north. Although their goals were different, polar bears were considered by all of them in exactly the same way - only from a “gastronomic” point of view, as a source of fresh meat. Another purpose of the fishery was the skins used for the manufacture of carpets. In places of fox hunting, this predator, during the winter hungry migrations “checking” the traps and warehouses of hunters, was shot as a supposedly “dangerous pest”. The beast was beaten without counting and without pity, sometimes up to 1.5-2 thousand pieces a year, even females with cubs in "maternity hospitals". The result was not long in coming: by the end of the 19th century, there were clear signs of a decline in the number of polar bears. However, even in the 30s of our century, when it became clear that the breeding of bears could no longer compensate for losses from predatory hunting, the volume of annual fishing fell only slightly.

The turning point occurred in the 1950s, when polar bear hunting was banned in most countries. A certain number of predators were allowed to be hunted only by the indigenous inhabitants of the North, and shooting for self-defense was also allowed (which is sometimes justified by poachers). The annual capture of a small number of cubs for zoos and circuses is also allowed. To protect the “maternity hospitals” of polar bears, wildlife sanctuaries and reserves have been organized - in the northeast of Greenland, off the southern shores of Hudson Bay, on our island. Wrangel. Considering that this animal breeds successfully in zoos, we can assume that the threat of direct destruction of the species has now been removed.

Nevertheless, 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

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 100,000 to 250,000 years ago. Today it is the largest predator among land mammals.

Bear claws do not retract

The soles are convex, the surface is rough, adapted for movement on slippery ice. Paws in polar bears are much larger in relation to the body than in other bears. When walking, bears step on the foot completely, like a person, and not like dogs - with 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 between its toes, which makes it easier for the animal to move on the ice and warms its paws. Very wide front legs serve as skis when moving on land and help with 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 the mass of a polar bear

is subcutaneous fat, which reliably protects the animal from hypothermia.

Vision and hearing of bears

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

Orientation and sense of smell

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

Withstand temperatures up to -80C

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) and seals 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 that absorbs it. During the summer, the bear receives up to a quarter of the energy it needs in the form of solar heat.

The ears of a polar bear are smaller than those of relatives

This helps him retain body heat.

Polar bear fur

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

Polar bears turn green in the tropics

The white-and-yellow fur of the polar bears living at the Singapore Zoo turned green from the fact that algae began to actively bloom on the wool. This is a consequence of Singapore's hot and humid climate. The bear managed 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 in 1979. Three bears were cleaned with saline.

Fur indicates allergies

An unusual allergic reaction was found 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's purple. The bear himself did not react to what happened. Veterinarians say that the bear will turn white again in about a month.

42 teeth

Bears have 42 teeth

Tramp Bear

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

Migration of polar bears

The nature of seasonal migrations of polar bears is closely related to changes in ice conditions. As ice melts and breaks, polar bears move northward, to the border of the Arctic Basin. With the onset of stable ice formation, the bears begin their reverse migration to the south.

Bear swimmers

The polar bear is able to chase a deer for half a kilometer, but it swims much better than it runs on land. A bear can swim over 80 miles at a time. Polar bears also dive well - it is common for them to dive under floating ice floes. The polar bear swims at speeds up to 6.5 km per hour and can stay underwater for up to 5 minutes. This allows him to move away for long distances from the coast, there are cases of meeting with an 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 year-round open water surface in the area of ​​the Laptev Sea adjacent to the Lena Delta. It attracts all arctic animals and birds, especially in winter. The main diet of the bear is sea hares and seals, if you're lucky - seals. A polar predator can endure prolonged hunger strikes, but on occasion it immediately eats up to 20 or more kilograms of meat and fat.

Live to eat

In order to maintain the necessary supply of fat, the polar bear must eat a lot of food. At one time he eats at least 45 kg of seal meat. Half of the calories are used to keep the body warm. Polar bears eat seals reindeer, walruses, white whales. Berries, mushrooms and lichens and rare tundra vegetation serve as an addition to their diet. In general, bears are omnivorous, like foxes, badgers and mongooses. The polar bear prefers to stay among the floating ice or on fast ice at their edge, near polynyas and leads. Here, seals are the most numerous throughout the year, which serve as the main food for this predator (a bear hunts and eats up to 40-50 seals a year).

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

What do bears do

During the daytime, polar bears roam in search of prey. The bear is inseparable from the kids, the grown-up cubs play, simulating a fight.

Not particularly lucky hunters

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

Aggressive polar bear

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

Polar bear vs whale

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

Why bears have to be big

The larger the bear, the more opportunity she has to bring healthy offspring. for a male, weight also means a lot, a giant is more likely to find a girlfriend. It is known that bears are 1.2 - 2.2 times heavier than she-bears.

Lone Bears

Unlike other species, polar bears live alone.

Families and singles in the world of bears

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

short family life

Females breed once every three years, mating occurs in March-May. The couple stay together for only a few days, during which time the partners continue to mate frequently. like other predatory Carnivora, the male has a ossified penis structure "baculum". by 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. Fertilized eggs appear by September. Females give birth for the first time between 4 and 8 years of age and remain fertile until 21 years of age, with a peak between 10 and 19 years of age. There are usually 2 cubs in a litter, less often - 1, occasionally - 3.

Polar bears have delayed conception

Pregnancy lasts 190 - 260 days, such an 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. Sperm is stored in her body until favorable conditions for breeding offspring.

Only females hibernate

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

Hibernation duration

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

polar bear cubs

… weigh less than 700 grams at birth. Polar bear cubs weigh only a tenth of the usual weight of cubs in other mammals of the same mass. The reason for this is the prolonged fasting of the mother, who does not feed all the time of pregnancy. As a result, the fetus receives nutrients from the mother's body, and not from the food she ingested. deficiency compensation nutrients especially fat bear milk serves, which in polar bears exceeds in calories all other relatives in the family. Usually, a female gives birth to two cubs, however, there have been cases of five cubs in one litter, only none of them survived. The bear cub stays in the den until it gains 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, puberty - at the age of 5 years.

Not afraid of man

The polar bear is the only large land mammal that is not afraid of humans. He continues to pursue the hunters and after a severe wound, struck in the 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 their prey.

Life span of bears

Mortality among adult bears is estimated at 8-16%, in immature 3-16%, in cubs 10-30%. The maximum life expectancy is 25-30 years, rarely more. There is evidence of a polar bear that has reached the age of 37 years.

The metabolic rate of a polar bear

The metabolic rate of the polar bear is obviously higher than that of the brown one. White also showed extraordinary resistance to low temperatures not only due to its perfect thermoregulation, but also because of the low "critical temperature". Even at -50 ° C, it does not observe 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 a large expenditure of energy

Polar bear breathing rate
The respiratory rate of the polar bear noticeably increases with increasing air temperature; 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 one); no diurnal changes in temperature were noted. The temperature of the skin surface, measured in calm weather, reaches 30-36 °C, and in the wind it drops to 27 °C. The difference between the temperatures under the skin and on its surface increases to 10-14 °C when the animal is in the water. The internal body temperature of cubs aged 2 to 8 months, measured using radio pills, varied from 37.4 ° C in dormant animals to 40 and 40.5 ° C when the animals moved uphill, and in swimming animals it was about 38.5 ° WITH.

Heart rate of an adult polar bear
The heart rate of an adult bear at rest is 50-80 per minute, while in an active state it can reach 130 per minute, during sleep it is reduced to 50 and during artificially induced hibernation - up to 27 per minute (for American brown 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). In chemical composition, it approaches the milk of cetaceans and pinnipeds. Milk fat contains 13.9% bituric, 22.6% palmetic and 33.4% oleic acids.

The content of hemoglobin 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. Of the total number of leukocytes, 5% are neutrophils, 1.2 - eosinophils, 4 - basophils, 2-3 - monocytes, 34-40% - lymphocytes. In adult female bears, the leukocyte formula is different: stab neutrophils - 10 and segmented - 17%, eosinophils - 1, besophiles - 2, monocytes - 4 and lymphocytes - 60%
According to the general serological characteristics, the polar bear is very close to the brown one.

Evolution, taxonomy and variability of the polar bear

According to modern concepts, the genealogical tree of the bear family - Ursidae begins from the Middle Miocene from large representatives of the genus Ursavus, known from finds in Europe. In the Pliocene in Eurasia and North America, there were already 14 genera, or groups, of bears. In the Pleistocene, obviously, there were representatives of both all modern genera of bears, including the genus Thalassarctos Gray, and a number of others that have now become extinct.
The paucity of paleontological materials is the reason for the divergence of opinions of researchers about the antiquity of the divergence of the polar bear from the trunk of brown bears proper (no one doubts the latter). Most authors attribute the time of polar bear isolation to the early or middle Pleistocene (1.5 million years ago), or to the transitional era between the Pleistocene and Pliocene, and 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, serwarka,
yavvy - in Nenets (north of the European part of the USSR and Western Siberia);
uryungage and khuryung-ege - in Yakut;
nebaty mamachan - in Evenk;
poinene-haha - in Yukagir;
umka and umky - in Chukchi;
nanuk, nyonnok and nanok - in Eskimo (northeast of Siberia, north of North America, Greenland).
The acquaintance of a person with a polar bear has as long a history as the human settlement of the coasts and islands of the northern seas, in the north of Europe it probably dates back to the Holocene, and in the north of Asia to the Paleolithic. The first written sources containing the mention of the polar bear also belong 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 information about these animals from Northern Europe(Scandinavia) date back to 880 AD. Later, living animals, their skins began to get to European rulers quite often.

How bears communicate

By studying polar bears, scientists have found that they prefer to stay alone. This does not apply to a family consisting of a bear with her offspring, they have a well-developed language for communication. If you hear a dull growl, it means that they warn relatives of the 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 stretches nose to nose for a greeting ritual. As a rule, a polite request does not go unanswered, and after an exchange of courtesies, the relative is allowed to eat together. Young bears are very fond of playing, it is boring to play alone, therefore, inviting to fun, they shake their heads from side to side.

polar bear day

In winter, in some countries of the world, February 27 is the Day of the White Polar Bear. 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 be reduced by two-thirds. The polar bear is the largest representative of the order of predatory mammals on earth. In length, it reaches 3 meters, weighing up to 1000 kg. As a rule, 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 the predatory

Just think of the trials Mother Nature sometimes puts on her creatures. Getting acquainted with the way of life of some animals, one involuntarily asks the question: “How do they survive?” After all, they live where, it would seem, life is impossible, they are subjected to all sorts of hardships. Well, those who were not able to gain a foothold on the "edge of life" are weeded out by natural selection. Others, the most viable, live and prosper.
One of these winners is the polar bear, the eternal wanderer among the boundless polar expanses. In proud loneliness he reigns here, he has no equal. This bear is not at all like his fellow brothers living in southern countries, - neither in appearance, nor in habits, nor in terms of living conditions. But there is one sad similarity in which the bear is innocent. This inhabitant of the polar ice, like some club-footed inhabitants of the forests, has become rare in nature through the fault of man. It is included in the Red Book of the USSR, where it has category III of protection, and the IUCN.
The polar bear is the largest representative of the order of predatory mammals, the largest land predator. His body length reaches 3 m. Can you imagine if he stands on his hind legs? Impressive spectacle! The weight of large males sometimes reaches 800 kg. The physique of the polar bear is quite massive. At the same time, the “outline” of his body in some details is not bearish at all, probably because of his neck, which is long and movable. The legs are rather high, thick and powerful. The feet of the front paws are wide, their surface is additionally enlarged by overgrown dense hair. The fur is very thick and long, especially on the belly. The color is white, with a yellowish-golden hue along the

The Bears considered the largest of the predators now living on our planet. Despite this, they are more likely than other predatory mammals to prefer plant foods over animal meat.

Bear appearance

Teeth and claws: The fangs of bears are quite powerful, as in other predatory animals. The molars have a flat, uneven, chewing surface. This is due to a mixed diet, bears eat both animal and plant foods. Each paw has five long toes with large and sharp claws that do not retract. With the help of this tool, bears dig out edible roots and fruits from the ground. In addition, with sharp claws, the predator tears the prey into small pieces.

Sense organs: Bears have small, set close to each other eyes. The fields of view of both eyes overlap, so the animal sees objects as three-dimensional. In general, bears have poor eyesight. Hearing is also not very well developed. The bear has a better sense of smell. The bear often stands up on its hind legs and turns its head around to explore its nose and get information about its surroundings.

Communication: Bears communicate with each other through sounds and body movements. For example, the position of an animal's ears conveys information about the owner's mood. Having met, the bears raise their heads to each other and growl without opening their mouths. The flat teeth of a bear will grind any food. A giant brown bear catches fish in the rivers.

Ways to travel: Bears have rather short limbs. They walk, leaning on the entire surface of the foot. The paws of bears are curved in the shape of the letter "O", so these animals are clubfoot and walk, waddling from side to side. But, when danger arises or when pursuing prey, bears are able to trot and even gallop. In case of danger, the bear stands on its hind legs. Cubs and adults of some species climb trees and swim, and the polar bear is the only mammal that swims only with the help of its forelimbs.
Body Structure: Various they differ in size, but their structure is similar: a powerful body, short strong paws, a massive head and a very short tail.

Coat: Bear hair comes in several types, ranging from the thick yellowish-white coat of the polar bear to the long, fluffy coat of the Gubach. The fur of most species of bears has a brown color, perfectly camouflages animals in the forest.

Did you know? That a giant brown bear living in North America is called "Kodiak" in other languages. This is the name of the island on which these representatives of the subspecies are found. A bear standing on its hind legs can reach up to 3 m in height.
The polar bear can be found in the open sea at a distance of 80 km from the coast.
Bears walk slowly, waddling, but if necessary, they can reach speeds of up to 50 km / h. The grizzly's menu is 80% plant based.

The ranges of the polar bear and arctic fox are located in the Far North. They are hardy mammals. Almost all bears are on the verge of extinction and are protected by law.
Once upon a time, many brown bears lived in Europe. Now their numbers have declined, but they still remain the most numerous species in the family. The polar bear in the past was an object of fishing. People ate his meat and sewed clothes from his skin.
The polar bear is better than other animals acclimatized in the permafrost area.

Seven species of bears belonging to four genera live mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. Only the spectacled bear lives in the south. All bears, with the exception of the polar bear, which inhabits the snow-covered Arctic deserts, are inhabitants of dense forests. Their only enemy is man. Now only two species of bears are not threatened with extinction.

Origin of bears

The first bear, the ancestor of all modern species of bears, (Ursavus), who lived on Earth 20 million years ago. It was the size of a small dog and inhabited the territory of modern Europe, where at that time a hot subtropical climate dominated, rich in generous vegetation. Bears, along with foxes, dogs and raccoons, descend from their common ancestor - a small predator of the Miacidae family, who lived 30-40 million years ago and climbed trees. As a result of evolution, new types of bears arose, which gradually became larger, larger and stronger. Many, including the cave bear, which was larger than modern bears, died out. The youngest species in the family is the polar bear, which appeared 70,000 years ago.

1. Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus): body length 1.3-1.8 m. The only representative of the family in South America.
2. Malayan bear (Helarctos malayanus): body length 1-1.4 m. This small member of the family lives in tropical forests South-East Asia. Occurs rarely.
3. Gubach (Melursus ursinus): body length 1.4-1.8 m. Lives in the jungles of India and Sri Lanka. Herbivorous. It picks up termites and insects with its lips and tongue.
4. Polar bear (Ursus maritimus): body length 1.8-3 m. Inhabits the northern regions of the Arctic, feeds mainly on seals.
5. Brown bear (Ursus arctos): 2-3 m long, lives in North America, Europe and Asia. There are several subspecies: the grizzly bear, the giant brown bear, and the European brown bear.
6. Baribal, black bear (Ursus americanus): body length 1.3-1.8 m, found in the forests of North America. Like other members of the family, it eats a mixed diet.
7. White-breasted bear (Ursus thibetanus): body length 1.4-2 m. Lives in forests and spends most of its time in trees. It feeds on herbs, fruits and berries.

bear breeding

Bears live alone, meeting only during the breeding season. The mating season, depending on the species, falls at different times of the year. Some types of bears, in particular the Malayan, can breed throughout the year - they live in tropical rainforests, where they have enough food. In addition, the Malayan bear is monogamous. After mating, the male and female separate. Only the she-bear is engaged in the upbringing of the offspring.

The duration of pregnancy is 180-250 days and depends on the type of bears. The bear brood consists of 1-4 cubs, which are born blind, toothless, covered with sparse hair. They spend at least a year in the family nest, feeding on their mother's milk. The polar bear never lacks food and therefore does not fall into winter sleep. However, pregnant females and mothers with cubs fall into hibernation. In spring, the she-bear leaves the den, accompanied by fluffy and playful cubs. The cubs relentlessly follow her, learning to find food and recognize danger. Bears of various species reach sexual maturity at the age of 2.5-5 years.

Lifestyle of bears

Bears are territorial animals. Each individual is the owner of a fairly large area, controls where it hunts and hibernates. Females live with cubs for up to two years. Bears are avid loners, but in places rich in food, for example, in a berry meadow, several individuals can be found at once. When they are satisfied, they disperse. But the bear invaded someone else's territory, waiting for a meeting with the owner, which may end in a collision. The search for food takes a lot of time, so the bears are active both day and night. Bears sleep in disguised shelters - lairs, which are located in depressions under the roots of trees. The white-breasted bear builds a nest in a tree. Bears of the genus Ursus, living in cold climatic zones, hibernate in winter. Winter sleep lasts from 78 to 200 days. The exact time depends on the area. During hibernation, bears make a lair for themselves among the windbreak, under the roots of trees, or dig it on the slopes of mountains and hills. They line and insulate their lairs with grass, leaves and moss. Bears go into long hibernation in order to survive the hungry winter period.

We all know these powerful animals from childhood. But few people know what types of bears exist. Pictures in children's books most often introduced us to brown and polar bears. It turns out that on Earth there are several species of these animals. Let's get to know them better.

Bear appearance

If we compare bears with other predators, then they differ in the most uniform appearance, features of the internal structure, and size. Currently, these are the largest representatives of terrestrial predatory animals. For example, polar bears can reach a body length of up to three meters with a weight of 750 and even 1000 kg!

Animal fur has a well-developed undercoat, it is rather rough to the touch. The hairline is high. Only he cannot boast of such a fur coat - his cover is low and rare.

The color is varied - from black to white, it can be contrasting. The color does not change with the seasons.

Lifestyle

Different types of bears live in the most different conditions. They feel great in the steppes and highlands, in forests and in the Arctic ice. In this regard, bear species differ in their diet and lifestyle. Most representatives of these predators prefer to settle in mountain or lowland forests, much less often in treeless highlands.

Bears are active mainly at night. The only exception is the polar bear - a species of animal that leads a daytime lifestyle.

Bears are omnivores. However, some species have a preference for one food or another. For example, a polar bear almost always eats the meat of mammals, for a panda there is no better delicacy than bamboo shoots. True, they supplement it with a small amount of animal food.

Variety of species

Quite often, animal lovers ask the question: “How many species of bears live on Earth?” For those who are interested in these animals, it seems that there are a myriad of them. Unfortunately, it is not. Today, our planet is inhabited by species of bears, the list of which can be presented as follows:

There are subspecies and varieties of these animals, but we will talk about this in another article.

brown bears

These are large and seemingly clumsy animals. They belong to the bear family. Body length - from 200 to 280 cm.

This is a fairly common look. lives throughout the Eurasian and North American forests. Today, this predator has completely disappeared from the territory of Japan, although in ancient times it was common here. On the territory of Western and Central Europe, a brown bear can be found quite rarely, in some mountainous areas. There is reason to believe that in these areas it is an endangered species. The brown bear is still widespread in Siberia, Far East and northern regions of our country.

Brown bears are sedentary animals. A forest area occupied by one individual can reach several hundred square kilometers. It cannot be said that bears strictly guard the borders of their territories. Each site has permanent places where the animal feeds, builds temporary shelters and dens.

Despite being sedentary, this predator can roam in search of more abundant food over a distance of more than 300 kilometers in famine years.

hibernation

Everyone knows that brown bears hibernate in winter. Previously, he carefully prepares his lair, which he equips in hard-to-reach places - on islands in the middle of swamps, in a windbreak. The bear lines the bottom of its winter dwelling with dry grass or moss.

To safely survive the winter, the bear must accumulate at least fifty kilograms of fat. To do this, he eats about 700 kilograms of berries and about 500 kilograms of pine nuts, not counting other feeds. When there is a lean year for berries, bears in the northern regions make raids on fields sown with oats, and in the south - on corn crops. Some bears attack apiaries and ruin them.

Many believe that during hibernation, animals fall into suspended animation. This is not entirely true. They sleep pretty well. During hibernation, when the animal lies motionless, its cardiac and pulmonary system slow down their activities. The body temperature of a bear ranges from 29 to 34 degrees. Every 5-10 breaths there is a long pause, sometimes lasting up to four minutes. In this state, the fat supply is used sparingly. If during this period the bear is raised from the den, it begins to quickly lose weight and is in dire need of food. Such a bear turns into a "tramp", or, as the people call it, a connecting rod. In this state, he is very dangerous.

Depending on climatic conditions, the predator can hibernate for three to six months. In the presence of food in the southern regions, bears generally may not fall into continuous hibernation, but fall asleep only for a short time. Females with one-year-old cubs sleep in the same den.

Nutrition

Different types of bears prefer to eat different foods. Animals of this species most often feed on fruits, berries and other plant foods, but sometimes they can eat ants, insect larvae, rodents, along with winter supplies. Quite rarely, males hunt forest ungulates. Despite the outward clumsiness, the brown bear can be very fast and agile. He stealthily sneaks up on his prey and grabs it in a quick throw. At the same time, its speed reaches 50 km / h.

White bears

IUCN- international union Conservation of Nature for the first time in several years has expanded the list of animals that are on the verge of extinction. It has new species. Polar bears were included not only in this international list, but also in the Red Book of Russia. To date, their number is only 25 thousand individuals. According to scientists, this population will decrease by almost 70% in the next 50 years.

Rare species of bears (you can see the photo in our article), which recently include white individuals, suffer from industrial pollution of their habitats, global warming and, of course, poaching.

Appearance

Many believe that white, polar, northern, sea or oshkuy are polar bear species. In fact, this is the name of one species of a predatory mammal from the bear family, the closest relative of the brown bear.

Its length is three meters, weight - about a ton. The largest animals are found off the coast, the smallest - on Svalbard.

Polar bears are distinguished from other species by their long hair and flat head. The color can be completely white or with a yellowish tinge. In the summer, the fur turns yellow under the influence of sunlight. The skin of these animals is black.

The soles of the paws are reliably protected by wool so as not to slip on the ice and not to freeze.

Lifestyle and nutrition

According to scientists, the polar bear is the most predatory of the whole family. After all, he practically does not consume plant foods. Various types of bears (whose photos and names are posted in our article) almost never attack a person first. Unlike their counterparts, the polar bear often preys on people.

The main "menu" of these predators are seals, mainly ringed seals. In addition, he feeds on any animals that he manages to kill. It can be rodents, birds, walruses, whales washed ashore. For the predator itself, killer whales are dangerous, which can sometimes attack in the water.

reproduction

In October, females begin to dig a den in the snow. In mid-November, they settle there. Pregnancy lasts 230-240 days. Cubs are born at the end of the Arctic winter. For the first time, the female brings offspring when she is 4-6 years old. Cubs appear once every two or three years. There are from one to three cubs in a litter. Newborns are completely helpless, weighing about 750 grams. The babies begin to see in a month, after two months their teeth erupt, the babies begin to gradually leave the den. They do not part with a bear until a year and a half. Polar bears are infertile, so their numbers are recovering too slowly.

black bear

It is also called baribal. Its body length is 1.8 m, weight is about 150 kg. The bear has a sharp muzzle, high paws with long and sharp claws, short and smooth black hair. Sometimes the color is black-brown, except for the light yellow muzzle.

The black bear feeds exclusively on plant foods - larvae, insects, and small vertebrates.

Pregnancy of the female lasts up to 210 days, cubs are born in January-February, weighing 400 grams, stay with their mother until April.

Himalayan bear

This animal is inferior in size to the brown one. In addition, these types of bears differ in appearance. The Himalayan bear has a more slender physique, a thin muzzle. Thick and lush hair usually has a black color with a white, sometimes yellowish spot on the chest (it resembles the letter V in shape).

Large adults can reach a length of 170 cm with a weight of 140-150 kg. Habitat - East Asia. In the west, it can be found in Afghanistan, Indochina, on the southern slopes of the Himalayas. On the territory of our country, it is found only in the Ussuri Territory, north of the Amur.

In spring it feeds on last year's acorns and pine nuts. In summer, it enjoys eating juicy grass, berries, and insects. There is evidence that in South Asia it often attacks domestic animals and can be dangerous to humans.

There are usually two cubs in a litter. Their weight does not exceed 400 grams. They develop very slowly, even at the age of a month and a half, they are completely helpless.

Spectacle bear

We continue to study the types of bears, getting acquainted with the indigenous inhabitants of South America. He settles in the mountains - from Colombia to Northern Chile. This is a spectacled bear - an animal of not very large size. Its body, no more than 1.7 m long, weighs about 140 kg.

The bear is covered with thick, shaggy hair of black or black-brown color, with white spots around the eyes (hence its name). Preferring mountains, the animal also often appears on meadow slopes. Its biology is still poorly understood, but at the same time, scientists consider it the most herbivorous in the entire family. He is a lover of leaves and roots, fruits and branches of young shrubs. Sometimes, for a favorite delicacy, he climbs high palm trees, breaks young branches, and then eats them on the ground.

sloth bear

For our compatriots, the last animals on our list are exotic species of bears. You can see their photos and names in numerous domestic and foreign publications about animals.

Sloth bear - inhabitant tropical countries. He lives in the forests of Hindustan and Ceylon. In length it can be up to 1.8 m, weight is about 140 kg. This is a rather slender animal, on high legs, with huge claws. The muzzle is somewhat pointed. There is a light V-shaped mark on the chest. The bear is active at night. During the day, he sleeps soundly, while (which is typical only for this species), he snores surprisingly loudly.

Gubach feeds mainly on fruits and insects. With the help of huge claws, he easily breaks rotten, dilapidated tree trunks, and then he uses an amazing device that can resemble a pump. The long muzzle of the animal has very mobile lips, which are extended, forming a kind of tube.

The sloth has no upper pair of incisors, as a result of which there is a gap in the oral cavity. This feature allows the animal to extract termites. First, he blows out all the dust and dirt from the “house” of insects, and then draws the prey through his lips extended into a tube.

Mating sloths occurs in June, after seven months 2-3 babies appear. They spend 3 months in the shelter with their mother. At first, the father of the family takes care of his cubs, which is not typical of other bear species.

Panda

This animal, 1.2 m long and weighing up to 160 kg, lives in the mountain forests of the western provinces of China. Prefers loneliness, except during mating. It's usually spring.

Offspring appears in January. Mostly 2 cubs are born, weighing about two kilograms each. Unlike other bears, it does not hibernate. It feeds on various plants, bamboo roots, sometimes small rodents and fish.

Biruang

This is the name of the Malayan bear. This is the smallest representative of the bear family. The length of his body does not exceed 1.4 m, height is no more than 0.7 m, weight is about 65 kg. Despite its modest size, compared to its brethren, the animal is strong. Biruang has a short muzzle, wide paws with powerful curved claws. The body of the animal is covered with smooth, short, straight black hair. On the chest there is a mark of white or orange color, in the shape of a horseshoe. The muzzle is orange or grey. Sometimes the legs are also light.

Biruang is a nocturnal animal, so during the day it sleeps and basks in the sun's rays, in the branches of trees. By the way, he perfectly climbs trees and feels completely comfortable on them.

It feeds on young shoots. The female brings two cubs. The animal does not hibernate.

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

Description of the bear

All mammals from the order Carnivores originate from a group of marten-like primitive predators, which are known as miacids (Miacidae), who 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 canine ancestor, common to all species of such animals.

Relative 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 terrestrial modern predatory animals.. The body length of an adult polar bear reaches three meters with a weight in the range of 720-890 kg, and the Malay bear is one of the smallest members 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 about 10-20% larger than females, and in a polar bear, such figures can even be 150% or more. The fur of the animal has a developed and rather coarse undercoat. The high, sometimes shaggy type of hair in most species has a pronounced density, and the fur of the Malay bear is low and quite rare.

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

All representatives of the Bear family are distinguished by a stocky and powerful body, often with a 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 the animals climb trees, dig the ground, and also easily tear their prey. The length of the claws of the grizzly reaches 13-15 cm. The gait of a carnivorous animal of a plantigrade type, characteristically shuffling. The giant panda has an additional sixth “finger” on its front paws, which is an outgrowth of the sesame-shaped radius.

The tail is very short, almost invisible under the fur. The exception is big panda, which has a fairly long and well-marked tail. Any bear has relatively small eyes, a large head, located on a thick and, as a rule, short neck. The cranium is large, most often with an elongated facial part and strongly 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 sight and hearing of such numerous and large predators is an order of magnitude weaker.

The zygomatic arches are most often slightly spaced in different directions, and the jaws are powerful, providing very high bite force indicators. All representatives of the Bear family are characterized by the presence of large canines and incisors, and the remaining teeth may be partially reduced, but their appearance and structure most often depend on the type of food. 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 behave, as a rule, aggressively and are capable of killing cubs that are near the female for a long time. Representatives of the Bear family are well adapted to a variety of living conditions, therefore they are able to inhabit high-mountain regions, forest zones, arctic ice and steppes, and the main differences are in the way of feeding and lifestyle.

A significant part of the species of bears lives in the plain and mountain forest zones of temperate or tropical latitudes. The predator is somewhat less common in high-mountain zones without dense vegetation. Some species are characterized by a clear attachment to the aquatic environment, including mountain or forest streams, rivers and sea coasts. The Arctic, as well as vast expanses

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

Most bears are classified as 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 perfectly climb trees and equip themselves with a shelter or a so-called “nest”. Some species of bears choose pits 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 during the daytime. However, polar bears may be classified as 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 noted at common watering places and traditional feeding areas.

How long do bears live

The average lifespan 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 - a little less than twenty years.

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

Types of bears

Range, 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. - an inhabitant of the basin of the Lena, Kolyma and Anadyr rivers, most of Eastern Siberia and the Stanovoy Range, Northern Mongolia, some regions of China and the border area of ​​East Kazakhstan.

Grizzlies are found primarily in western Canada and Alaska, with a small number remaining in continental America, including Montana and northwestern Washington. Tien Shan brown bears are found on the Tien Shan ranges, as well as in the Dzungarian Alatau, which has peripheral mountain ranges, and the Mazalays are found in the desert mountains of Tsagan-Bogdo and Atas-Bogdo, where there are rare shrubs and drainage dry channels.

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

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

Bears in the ecosystem of the planet

All representatives of the Bear family, due to the peculiarities of the diet and impressive size, have a very noticeable effect on the fauna and flora in their habitats. Species White and brown bears are involved in the regulation of 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 finishing their prey.

Bear diet

Spectacled bears are the most herbivorous of the family, and their main diet includes herbaceous shoots, fruits and rhizomes of plants, crops of corn, and sometimes insects in the form of ants or termites. An important role in the diet of the Siberian bear is assigned to fish, and Kodiaks are omnivorous animals that eat both herbaceous plants, berries and roots, and meat food, 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 represented by ringed seal, sea hare, walruses and many other marine animals. The predator does not disdain carrion, willingly eats dead fish, eggs and chicks, can eat grass and all kinds of seaweed, and in inhabited areas looks for food in numerous garbage dumps.

The diet of white-breasted or Himalayan bears is 80-85% represented by products of plant origin, but the predator is able to eat ants and other insects, as well as highly nutritious mollusks and even frogs. Sloth bears, similarly, are adapted to eating predominantly colonial insects, including termites and ants. All biruangs are omnivorous, but primarily feed on insects, including bees and termites, as well as fruits and shoots, earthworms, and plant roots.