Big brown bear. Brown bear

Greetings, dear readers of the site “I and the World”! Today you will learn about the largest bears in the world: their habits and habitat, which specimens are very dangerous and which are quite harmless. But, in any case, it is undesirable to meet with them; the outcome of this meeting is unlikely to be in your favor.

From Russian fairy tales we know about bears as clumsy and stupid animals. Because of their weight, they really seem slow, but this is not so, they can reach such speed that it is difficult to escape from them even on a bicycle. You should get to know them better in order to know what to expect from them if you meet them by chance while traveling around the world, as well as: what they look like, how much they weigh, where they live, etc.

And our rating opens with “Black Bear” or Baribal

His black coat glistens in the sun of the USA and Canada. Less common in northern Mexico. It is in these countries that this animal lives and weighs from 300 to 360 kg.

The largest male is 363 kg. It was killed in Canada - this is the largest Baribal ever caught by man. The animals are quite harmless. They do not attack people or domestic animals and live quietly and peacefully, eating plant foods and fish.

Very rarely, when there is not enough food, Baribal can drag off livestock. With a height of up to two meters, Baribal cubs are born so small that their weight ranges from 200 to 400 grams.

In captivity: in zoos and circuses they can live up to 30 years, but in nature only 10. Now there are about 600,000 individuals.

In 4th place - American Grizzly

Among brown bears, he is the strongest, but not so big. The grizzly bear is very resilient and if there is a fight with another large animal, the animal has an instant grip, which leads to victory. It is considered friendly, but if there is not enough food or feels aggression, the kind nature disappears. The Grizzly's rather strong sense of smell allows it to sense prey at a great distance. It feeds on plant foods, loves fish, and like any predator, does not refuse animal food.

It lives in Alaska and western Canada and reaches 450 kg.

Grizzly in translation means “terrible”, but it does not try to attack people just like that, but only when it is hungry or very angry. In such rare cases, Grizzly was said to be a cannibal. During the rest of the time when it is rich in prey, it is not dangerous.

Brown Siberian bear takes third place

The dimensions of the Russian Siberian reach: weight up to 800 kg, and height up to 2.5 meters. This is a big fish lover, living near the Anadyr, Kolyma and Yenisei rivers. Sometimes found in Chinese provinces.

Although the warm season in these places is short, there is a lot of plant and animal food and allows you to gain a lot of weight.

Siberians are loners and hibernate during the winter. They fish very interestingly: when salmon jump out of the water, the bears try to catch them in the air.

2nd place – one of the brown specimens – Kodiak

They live on the shores of Alaska on Kodiak Island. The brown beast got its name from this island. The largest bear in the world among the brown species. A muscular animal with long legs, the Kodiak easily obtains numerous foods.

They grow 2.6 meters long and gain up to 1000 kg. The height of an adult predator can be up to 2.8 meters.

There was a time when animals could completely disappear, and therefore they were prohibited from being shot. Now their number is increasing, but so far only 3000.

They do not attack people, and therefore do not pose a danger to tourists. But for the animals themselves, these encounters are quite unpleasant. Animals, frightened by strangers, stop eating normally and gain too little fat before hibernation. And an animal caught for the sake of keeping it in a zoo may simply not survive in captivity.

And finally, first place - Polar Bear

Wikipedia believes that the white bear is the world's largest bear, living in the Arctic and reaching a mass of 1 ton or even more. This predatory animal reaches 3 meters in length - how huge!

This is a real record in weight among all species. Can you imagine such a huge beast, like a white steamer, slowly moving among the snow. There is also fur on the paws, so they move easily on the ice and do not freeze in the most severe frosts.

On the island of Spitsbergen there are even more polar bears than people living there. The long neck with a flat head allows it to stretch out and see far.

It is clear that living among the snow on drifting ice, it feeds on animal food: sea hare, fish, walruses, arctic foxes. Just like brown ones, they live alone and until about 30 years old. Only females hibernate when they are pregnant, in order to gain strength to raise the next generation.

There are 28,000 polar bears all over the world, and about 6,000 in Russia alone. And although hunting them is strictly prohibited, poachers kill up to 200 bears every year.

In the photo you saw the largest bears on earth. They are all listed in the Red Book, but poachers do not think about this, destroying animals for the sake of a beautiful skin. Over the entire history of mankind, so many of these animals have been destroyed that many populations are difficult to increase again.

We say goodbye to you until our next meetings on the pages of our website. If you liked the article, share it with your friends, they will also be interested in it.

The well-known animal is distributed throughout almost the entire northern hemisphere, a symbol of power, strength, and the hero of many fairy tales and legends.

Taxonomy

Latin name– Ursus arctos

English name– Brown bear

Order – Carnivora (Carnivora)

Family – Bears (Ursidae)

Genus – bears (Ursus)

Status of the species in nature

The brown bear is not currently in danger of extinction, with the exception of some subspecies living in Western Europe and southern North America. In these places, animals are protected by law. Where the animal is numerous, limited hunting is allowed.

Species and man

The bear has occupied people's imaginations for a long time. Because of the way it often rises on its hind legs, the bear is more like a human than any other animal. “Master of the forest” is how he is usually called. The bear is a character in many fairy tales; there are many sayings and proverbs about it. In them, this beast most often appears as a good-natured bumpkin, a slightly stupid strongman, ready to protect the weak. The respectful and condescending attitude towards this animal is evident from the popular names: “Mikhailo Potapych”, “Toptygin”, “clubfooted”... Comparing a person himself with a bear can be both flattering for him (“strong, like a bear”), and derogatory ( "Clumsy as a bear")

The bear is very common as a coat of arms; it is a symbol of strength, cunning and ferocity in defending the fatherland. Therefore, he is depicted on the coats of arms of many cities: Perm, Berlin, Bern, Yekaterinburg, Novgorod, Norilsk, Syktyvkar, Khabarovsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Yaroslavl and others.

Distribution area and habitats

The distribution area of the brown bear is very vast, covering the entire forest and forest-tundra zones of Eurasia and North America, in the north it extends to the forest border, in the south along the mountainous regions it reaches Asia Minor and Western Asia, Tibet, and Korea. Currently, the range of the species, once continuous, has been significantly reduced to more or less large fragments. The beast disappeared from the Japanese Islands, the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa, most of the Iranian Plateau, and the vast Central Plain of North America. In Western and Central Europe, this species remains only in small mountainous areas. On the territory of Russia, the distribution area has changed to a lesser extent; the animal is still quite common in the forests of Siberia and the Far East, in the Russian North.

The brown bear is a typical forest dweller. Most often it is found in vast taiga tracts, replete with windbreaks, moss swamps and dissected by rivers, and in the mountains by gorges. The animal gives preference to forests with dark coniferous species - spruce, fir, cedar. In the mountains he lives among deciduous forests, or in juniper forests.

Appearance and morphology

The brown bear is a very large, massive animal, one of the largest land predators. Within the family, the brown bear is second in size only to the white one. The largest of the brown bears live in Alaska, they are called Kodiaks, the body length of Kodiaks reaches 250 cm, height at the withers 130 cm, weight up to 750 kg. The bears living in Kamchatka are only slightly inferior in size to them. In central Russia, the weight of “typical” bears is 250-300 kg.

The brown bear is generally proportionally built; its massive appearance is given by its thick fur and slow movements. The head of this animal is heavy, forehead-shaped, and not as elongated as the white one. The lips, like the nose, are black, the eyes are small and deep-set. The tail is very short, entirely hidden in fur. The claws are long, up to 10 cm, especially on the front paws, but slightly curved. The fur is very thick and long, especially in animals living in the northern part of the range. The color is usually brown, but in different animals it can vary from almost black to straw yellow.

Of the sense organs, the brown bear has the best developed sense of smell, hearing is weaker, and vision is poor, so the animal is almost not guided by it.

Lifestyle and social organization

Brown bears, unlike white ones, are mostly sedentary. EveryAn individual plot occupied by one animal can be very extensive, covering an area of up to several hundred square meters. km. The boundaries of the plots are poorly marked, and in very rough terrain they are practically absent. The home ranges of males and females overlap. Within the site there are places where the animal usually feeds, where it finds temporary shelters or lies in a den.

In permanent habitats of bears, their regular movements around the area are marked by clearly visible paths. They are similar to human paths, only unlike them, along bear paths there are often scraps of bear fur hanging on the branches, and on the trunks of particularly noticeable trees there are bear marks - bites with teeth and bark torn off by claws at the height that the animal can reach. Such marks show other bears that the area is occupied. The trails connect places where the bear is guaranteed to find food. Bears place them in the most convenient places, choosing the shortest distance between objects that are significant to them.

A sedentary lifestyle does not prevent the bear from making seasonal migrations to places where food is currently more accessible. In lean years, a bear can travel 200-300 km in search of food. In the flat taiga, for example, animals spend the summer in clearings overgrown with tall grass, and in early autumn they flock to the swamps, where they are attracted by ripe cranberries. In the mountainous regions of Siberia, at the same time they move to the char zone, where they find an abundance of dwarf pine nuts and lingonberries. On the Pacific coast, during the mass migration of red fish, animals come from afar to the mouths of rivers.

A characteristic feature of the brown bear, common to both males and females, is winter sleep in a den. Dens are located in the most secluded places: on small islands among moss swamps, among windbreaks or dense small forests. Bears most often arrange them under inversions and logs, under the roots of large cedars and spruce trees. In mountainous areas, earthen dens predominate, which are located in rock crevices, shallow caves, and recesses under stones. The inside of the den is arranged very carefully - the animal lines the bottom with moss, branches with pine needles, and tufts of dry grass. Where there are few suitable places for wintering, dens used for many years in a row form real “bear towns”: for example, in Altai, 26 dens were found in a 10 km long section.

In different places, bears sleep in winter from 2.5 to 6 months. In warm regions, when there is an abundant harvest of nuts, bears do not lie down in a den for the entire winter, but only from time to time, under unfavorable conditions, they fall asleep for several days. Bears sleep alone, only females who have young yearlings sleep together with their cubs. During sleep, if the animal is disturbed, it easily awakens. Often the bear itself leaves the den during prolonged thaws, returning to it at the slightest cold snap.

Nutrition and feeding behavior

The brown bear is a true omnivore, eating more plant food than animal food. It is most difficult for a bear to feed itself in early spring, when plant food is completely insufficient. At this time of year, he hunts large ungulates and eats carrion. Then he digs up anthills, getting larvae and the ants themselves. From the beginning of the appearance of greenery until the mass ripening of various berries, the bear spends most of its time fattening on “bear pastures” - forest clearings and meadows, eating umbelliferous plants (hogweed, angelica), sow thistle, and wild garlic. From the second half of summer, when the berries begin to ripen, throughout the forest zone bears switch to feeding on them: first blueberries, raspberries, blueberries, honeysuckle, later lingonberries, cranberries. The autumn period, the most important for preparing for winter, is the time of eating tree fruits. In the middle zone these are acorns, hazelnuts, in the taiga - pine nuts, in the mountainous southern forests - wild apples, pears, cherries, and mulberries. The bear's favorite food in early autumn is ripening oats.

Eating grass in a meadow, the bear peacefully “grazes” for hours, like a cow or horse, or collects the stems it likes with its front paws and puts them in its mouth. Climbing fruit-bearing trees, this sweet tooth breaks off branches, eating the fruits on the spot, or throws them down, sometimes simply shaking the crown. Less agile animals graze under the trees, picking up fallen fruits.

The brown bear willingly digs into the ground, extracting succulent rhizomes and soil invertebrates, turns over stones, extracting and eating worms, beetles and other living creatures from under them.

Bears living along rivers along the Pacific coast are avid fishermen. During the course of the red fish, they gather in dozens near the rifts. While fishing, the bear goes belly-deep into the water and with a strong, quick blow of its front paw, throws a fish that has swam close to the shore.

The bear hides large ungulates - deer, elk - completely silently approaching the victim from the leeward side. Roe deer sometimes lie in wait along trails or at watering holes. His attack is swift and almost irresistible.

Reproduction and raising of offspring

The mating season for bears begins in May-June. At this time, the males chase the females, roar, and fight fiercely, sometimes with fatal results. At this time they are aggressive and dangerous. The formed pair walks together for about a month, and if a new contender appears, not only the male, but also the female drives him away.

The cubs (usually 2) are born in the den in January, weighing only about 500 g, covered with sparse fur, with their eyes and ears closed. The cubs' ear openings appear by the end of the second week, and after another 2 weeks the eyes open. Throughout their first 2 months of life, they lie next to their mother, moving very little. The bear's sleep is not deep, since she needs to care for her cubs. By the time they leave the den, the cubs reach the size of a small dog, weighing from 3 to 7 kg. Milk feeding lasts up to six months, but already at 3 months of age young animals begin to gradually master plant foods, imitating their mother.

For the entire first year of life, the cubs remain with their mother, spending another winter with her in the den. At 3-4 years of age, young bears become sexually mature, but reach full bloom only at the age of 8-10 years.

Lifespan

In nature they live for about 30 years, in captivity they live up to 45-50 years.

Keeping animals at the Moscow Zoo

Brown bears have been kept in the zoo since its founding - 1864. Until recently, they lived on the “Island of Animals” (New Territory) and in the Children’s Zoo. In the early 90s, the governor of the Primorsky Territory brought the bear from the children's zoo as a gift to the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin. The President wisely did not keep “this little animal” at home, but transferred it to the zoo. When the first reconstruction was underway, the bear temporarily left Moscow, stayed in another zoo, and then returned. Now the second reconstruction is underway, and the bear has again left Moscow, this time to the Veliky Ustyug Zoo, where he will live permanently.

Currently, the zoo has one brown bear, which lives on the “Island of Animals”. This is an elderly female of the Kamchatka subspecies, classic brown in color, very large. All winter she sleeps soundly in her den, despite the noisy life of the metropolis. People help set up the winter “apartment”: the bottom of the “den” is lined with pine branches, and on top is a feather bed made of hay. Before they fall asleep, bears both in nature and in the zoo eat pine needles - a bactericidal plug is formed in the intestines. It is not noise that can awaken the animals, but long-term warming, as happened in the winter of 2006-2007.

Brown bears tolerate conditions of captivity well, but, of course, they get bored, because in nature they spend most of their time searching and getting food, which is not something they have to do in a zoo. Mandatory attributes in a bear enclosure are tree trunks. The bears tear at them with their claws, leaving their marks, try to look for food under the bark and in the wood, and finally play with small logs. And out of boredom, bears begin to interact with visitors. For example, our bear sits on her hind legs and starts waving at people with her front legs. Everyone around is happy and throws a wide variety of objects into her enclosure, most often food. Some of the abandoned food is eaten, some are simply sniffed - the animal is full. Scientists believe that in this way the bear is not just begging for food or making its environment more diverse, it begins to control the behavior of visitors: waved - they gave something tasty. This relieves the stress of being kept in a small enclosure and living according to a certain routine. But still There is no need to feed the animals in the zoo - their diets are balanced, and much of what we eat is harmful to them.

Very often in the spring and first half of summer, phone calls are heard at the zoo - people want to give birth to cubs found in the forest. We urge everyone who sees a bear cub in the forest - do not take it! The mother is most likely somewhere nearby, she can come to the defense of her cub, and this is very dangerous for you! The baby could have been driven away by an adult male caring for the bear, but you never know what reasons other than the death of the bear could have brought the cub to people. A bear that comes into contact with a person is doomed to be killed or spend its life in captivity. A bear cub left alone in the forest at the age of 5-6 months (July-August) has a very good chance of surviving and living free. Don't deprive him of this chance!

A bear is one of the animals that you would hardly want to meet one on one. Its dimensions inspire genuine fear. Surprisingly, at birth some bears weigh less than 200 grams, and this inevitably raises the question of how much an adult bear weighs. It all depends on its type and individual characteristics. The most famous bears are: brown, black, white. Since the brown bear lives in our country, we will dwell on it in more detail.

Distribution area

Previously, the brown bear was found throughout almost all of Europe, including Ireland and England. The southern border of the range was the African Atlas Mountains, and in the east, bears were found even in the territory of modern Japan. It most likely entered North America approximately 40 thousand years ago. Then it settled in territories from Alaska to the northern borders of Mexico. Today, the brown bear is widespread in Finland (in this country it was even declared the national animal) and Scandinavia, and is less common in the center of Europe and the Carpathians. In addition, it also lives in Iranian and Iraqi forests, northern China, Palestine, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. In North America, the brown bear is called the “grizzly” and is more often found in western Canada and Alaska. In Russia, the brown bear lives in almost all forests of the country, except for the southern regions.

Appearance

The animal is strong, with distinct withers on the back. The body cover is thick. The coat color is uniform. As a rule, bears shed their coats in the spring, and their coats are renewed in the fall. The ears are small, the eyes are set deep. The tail is practically invisible under the fur and is only 2 cm long. The paws are quite strong, with curved claws (their length can reach 10 cm).

Weight of a brown bear and its dimensions

The average body length of a brown bear is 1-2 meters. recorded in Kamchatka, the Far East and Alaska. These are real giants: their height in a standing position reaches three meters. In addition to height, many are interested in how much a bear weighs. Body weight depends on the sex and age of the animal. As a rule, the male is larger than the female. The weight of an adult bear (male) is 140-400 kg. But among them there are giant individuals weighing up to 600 kg. The female weighs on average 90-210 kg. A bear with a record body weight was discovered on Kodiak Island. His weight was 1134 kg and his height was about 4 meters. Many people are interested in how much someone living in Russia weighs? In our country there are smaller individuals, their body weight on average is 100 kg. How much does a grizzly bear weigh that lives in America? The grizzly bear is a subspecies of the brown bear; its body weight can reach 500 kg. Individual individuals can weigh 700 kg.

Lifespan

How much does a bear weigh and how long does it live - these are probably the most frequently asked questions. Note that the animal directly depends on its habitat. In the wild it can live 20-35 years. If an animal is kept in a zoo or nature reserve, then it lives twice as long - about 50 years, or even more. Puberty occurs at 6-11 years of age.

Behavior

The brown bear has a developed sense of smell. He can smell meat well even from a great distance. The bear has perfectly developed hearing. He often stands on his hind legs to catch the direction of the flow of smell or listen to a sound that interests him. In the forest he behaves like a real owner: he walks around his property in the early morning or after dusk. In bad weather, it can wander through the forests for hours in search of food.

Lifestyle and nutritional habits

The brown bear is considered a forest animal. In Russia, its favorite places are dense forests with bushes and deciduous trees. Can enter the territory of the tundra and alpine forests. In Europe, it most often lives in the mountains, and in North America, its favorite habitats are alpine meadows, tundra and the coast. The male usually lives alone, and the female with cubs. Each individual occupies a certain territory from 70 to 400 km, while the male requires 7 times more area than the female. Of course, this does not depend on how much the bear weighs. It’s just that a female more often lives with cubs, and it is more difficult for her to travel long distances than for a single male. Bears mark the boundaries of their territory with urine and scratches on trees.

Animals are omnivores. The diet consists of 75% plant foods - these are berries, tubers, grass stems, nuts, roots and acorns. In lean years they can feed on corn and oat fields. The clubfoot's diet may consist of ants, worms, and small rodents (mice, chipmunks, gophers). Although a bear is not a 100% predator, it can kill an elk or a roe deer. It is not uncommon for grizzlies to attack wolves, and in the Far East, bears sometimes hunt tigers. Honey is considered the favorite delicacy of this animal (that’s why it was called that). Fish is a seasonal object of hunting. At the beginning of spawning, when there are still few fish, the bear eats the entire carcass, but when there is a lot of it, it eats only the fat-rich parts (head, milt and caviar). In hungry years, a bear can hunt domestic animals and often visits apiaries, ruining them.

Brown bear activity occurs in the morning and evening hours. Lifestyle is seasonal. When it gets cold, the bear builds up a subcutaneous layer of fat and lies down in a den to hibernate. At the same time, the average weight of a bear increases by 20%. A den is a dry place under windbreaks or uprooted tree rhizomes. On average, winter sleep lasts about 70-190 days and depends on the climate (October-March, November-April). It turns out that the clubfoot hibernates for about six months. Female bears spend the longest time in hibernation, while older males spend the longest hibernation. It is also interesting to know how much a brown bear weighs after winter sleep. During this time they can lose about 80 kg of weight. If a bear has not managed to accumulate a sufficient amount of fat over the summer and autumn, in winter it awakens and begins to wander through the forest in search of food. Such bears are usually called connecting rods. The connecting rods are dangerous and hungry, so they attack everyone, even humans. Most often, they rarely survive until the end of winter: they die from frost, severe hunger, or from a hunter’s bullet.

Despite the fact that the brown bear's weight is impressive and it looks somewhat clumsy, it runs quite fast, swims well and climbs trees well. The paw strike is so powerful that it can break the back of a large bison or bull.

Reproduction

The female bears offspring once every 2-4 years. Estrus occurs at the end of spring - beginning of summer, lasting only 2-4 weeks. During the breeding season, males often fight among themselves, sometimes with fatal results. occurs with several males, the pregnancy is latent, and embryo development will begin only in November. Pregnancy lasts from 6 to 8 months, the birth itself occurs at the place of hibernation - in the den. There are up to 5 cubs in one litter. I wonder how much a bear weighs at birth if it later reaches that size? Cubs weigh 340-680 grams at birth, their length is 25 cm. They are born completely blind and deaf, with almost no hair. Hearing appears only 14 days after birth, and they become sighted after a month. By 3 months they have baby teeth and can eat berries. The mother bear feeds the cubs with milk for up to 30 months. As a rule, the father does not take part in raising the offspring; on the contrary, he may eat the bear cub because he sees it as a potential rival. Cubs begin to live independently without their mother at about 3-4 years of age.

Security

The brown bear is listed in the Red Book. This animal is vulnerable due to the high mortality rate of young animals and slow reproduction. But recently the population has been growing. According to some data, there are about 200 thousand individuals in the world, 120,000 of which live in Russia, 14,000 in Europe, 32,500 in the USA (most of them in Alaska), 21,500 in Canada. Bear hunting in many countries is limited or completely prohibited.

The brown bear is a wild predatory animal that lives only in the northern hemisphere of our Planet. In Russia, bears live only in forests, in Europe - in mountain forests, and in North America - more often in the tundra, on the coast and in alpine meadows. A map of the distribution of all types of bears on our Planet can be found in the article Types of Bears.

Scientific classification

Brown bears are divided into several subspecies, among which there are extinct individuals. They all differ in color and size. Small individuals inhabit Europe, and large ones inhabit Kamchatka and Alaska. Male bears can weigh over 1000 kg. A bear was caught on Kodiak Island, weighing 1134 kg. But these are rare specimens. On average, the weight is up to 500 kg. The length of European bears is from 1.2 - 2 meters, and grizzly bears can reach from 2 - 3 meters. They all live alone. Only the female can live with the cubs until they are three years old. Brown bears are omnivores. They eat: berries, nuts, grass, oats, corn, ants, butterflies, fish, rodents, as well as deer and roe deer. They love honey very much. The word bear means “knowing honey.”

The body of bears is powerful, the withers are high. Their head is large, but their ears and eyes are small. The tail is almost invisible. Its length is from 6-20cm. Powerful paws have non-retractable claws 8-10 cm long. The evenly colored wool is thick and coarse.

All brown bears hibernate in winter in their den, which they make for themselves in a safe place. A den is a place where a bear hides in winter. In the place where a bear sleeps, you will never see traces of other animals. They avoid him. The yellow coating on the trees around the den from the bear's breath can also give away the location of its shelter. The male sleeps alone, and the female sleeps with last year's cubs. They go to bed in November and wake up in March. They sleep curled up in a ball and cross their paws over their chest.

Females bring offspring once every two or even four years. Within three months, starting in May, they are ready for fertilization. But the bear embryo begins to develop only in November, after the female lies down in the den. Pregnancy lasts up to 200 days. Cubs are usually born in quantities of 2 - 5 pieces (weighing 500 - 600 grams) at the beginning of January.

Brown bear video:

Subspecies of brown bear

Today, science recognizes that there are only two subspecies of brown bear in North America: the Grizzly and the Kodiak.

Kodiak is one of the largest predators in the world. It lives on the islands of the Kodiak archipelago near Alaska. Their length is up to 2.8 m, weight is more than 500 kg. Their lifestyle is no different from other brown bears. In winter they sleep and live alone. They mate in the summer. In winter, 1-3 cubs are born. In the capital of Providence, Rhode Island, USA, there is a life-size bronze sculpture of a Kodiak bear, created by Nick Bibby.

The grizzly bear lives mainly in Alaska and western Canada. Its name is horribilis, which in Latin means “terrible, terrible.” The size of this animal depends on where it lives and what it eats. Those bears that feed on fish on the coast are larger, and those that feed on berries and carrion in the forest are smaller.

The Gobi brown bear lives in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, where it has very rare status.

The Apennine brown bear lives in Italy in the central Apennine Mountains.

The Syrian brown bear lives in the mountains of Transcaucasia and the Middle East. Among the brown ones, it is the lightest and smallest. Its length is only 1.5 meters.

The Siberian brown bear lives in most of Siberia, as well as northern Xinjiang in China and the eastern border of Kazakhstan. Their length reaches 2.5 meters, and the weight of the largest individuals is up to 800 kg. Their fur is dark brown. They live alone and sleep in winter. Siberian bears are omnivores. In autumn and spring they fish in rivers.

The Tibetan brown bear lives in the east of the Tibetan plateau. Belongs to the rarest subspecies of brown bear. It feeds on pikas and grasses.

The Tien Shan brown bear lives in the mountains of the Himalayas, Pamirs and Tien Shan. Body length is up to 1.4 m, and weight is up to 300 kg. Its main difference is the light claws on its front paws.

The common brown bear is a predatory mammal of the bear family. This large predator is considered one of the most dangerous. There are about 20 subspecies, which differ in habitat and appearance.

Appearance

All subspecies of brown bear have a well-developed, powerful body, a fairly large head with small eyes and rounded ears, and high withers. The tail is short (from 6.5 to 21 cm). Strong paws with powerful non-retractable claws up to 10 cm long, five-toed feet, quite wide. The appearance of the subspecies varies significantly. Males are approximately one and a half times larger than females.

Dimensions

The individuals inhabiting Europe are the smallest, reaching two meters in length and weighing 200 kg. Brown bears living in central Russia are larger and weigh about 300 kg. The largest are grizzlies and Far Eastern bears, their length reaches three meters and their weight reaches 500 kg or more.

Color

What a bear looks like and what color its skin is depends on its habitat. There are bears from light fawn to black and blue. Brown fur color is considered standard.

Grizzlies native to the Rocky Mountains have white fur on their backs at the tips, creating a grayish tint. Brown bears living in the Himalayas have a completely grayish color, while those living in Syria have a light, brownish-red skin.

Brown bears shed once a year, from spring to autumn. Spring molt is often separated from autumn molt. Spring molting occurs most intensely during the rut and lasts quite a long time. The autumn period proceeds almost unnoticed and ends by the time the bears’ winter hibernation begins.

Lifespan

The lifespan of a bear directly depends on the conditions in which it lives. How many years do bears live? The average life expectancy in the wild under favorable conditions is 20-30 years.

How many years does a brown bear live in captivity? With good care, brown bears reach the age of 45-50 years.

Subspecies

Population differences in the brown bear are very large, and they were previously divided into many separate species. Today, all browns have been combined into one species, with several subspecies. Let's look at the most common ones.

European (Eurasian) brown

A large, powerful animal with a strongly pronounced hump.

Main characteristics:

body length - 150-250 cm;
weight - 150-300 kg;
height at withers - 90-110 cm.

The fur is yellowish-gray to dark brown, quite long and thick.

Caucasian brown

There are two forms of this subspecies - large and small.

Greater Caucasian:

body length - 185-215 cm;
weight - 120-240 kg.

Lesser Caucasian:

body length - 130-140 cm;
weight - no more than 65 kg.

This subspecies combines the external characteristics of Syrian and European bears. Short, coarse coat ranging from light yellowish to brownish-gray. There is a dark spot in the withers area.

Siberian brown

One of the largest subspecies.

Its dimensions:

body length - 200-250 cm;
weight - 300-400 kg.

It has a large head, long and soft shiny coat from light brown to brown-brown. Some individuals have a yellowish or black tint in color.

Ussuri brown

Also known as the Asian black grizzly or Amur.

length - up to 2 m;
weight - 300-400 kg.

It stands out for its developed skull with an elongated nose and very dark, almost black skin. The long hair on the round ears will also help distinguish it from other subspecies.

Far Eastern (Kamchatka) brown

The largest subspecies found in Russia.

Its dimensions:

length - up to 2.5 m;
weight - 350-450 kg. Some males reach 500 kg or more.

This subspecies has a massive head with a rather short nose and a wide front part raised above it, and small rounded ears. Dense, long and soft wool from fawn to blackish-brown. The claws are dark up to 10 cm.

Habitats

The brown bear inhabits almost the entire forest zone from western Russia and the forests of the Caucasus to the Pacific Ocean. It can also be found in Japan on the island of Hokkaido, in some Asian countries, in Europe, Canada and in the northwestern states of America.

For life it chooses forested areas, with windbreaks and shrubs, prefers coniferous forests. It can wander into the tundra or settle in high mountain forests, with an undergrowth of edible plants.

The habitat is not tied to a specific place; often the feeding places and the bear’s home are located far from each other and the bear has to make long journeys during the day.

Habits and lifestyle

The brown bear is a loner. Males live separately, and females raise cubs. Each adult has its own territory, the size of which can reach several hundred square kilometers. Males “own” a much larger territory than females. The boundaries of the territory are marked by scratches on the trees and the scent of the owner.

The habits of bears are typical of a predator. During the day, as a rule, animals rest, choosing secluded areas among grass or bushes. They go out in search of food in the morning or evening. Despite poor eyesight, bears are excellent at navigating using their sense of smell and hearing.

Despite its impressive dimensions and apparent clumsiness, it is a fairly agile and fast animal, capable of climbing trees, swimming and running at speeds of up to 60 km/h.

Nutrition

The diet of a brown bear is very diverse, because bears eat almost everything. Its main diet consists of plant foods: berries, nuts, acorns, stems, tubers and roots of plants. If possible, he will not miss the opportunity to wander into the fields to feast on oats and corn. It also eats various insects, frogs, lizards and rodents.

Adults hunt young moose, fallow deer, deer, roe deer and wild boar. A large predator is capable of breaking the backbone of its prey with one blow of its paw, then hides the carcass, covering it with brushwood, and guards it until it is completely eaten. For the Far Eastern brown, the main diet in the summer-autumn period is salmon going to spawn.

When the food supply is insufficient, bears often destroy apiaries and attack livestock.

These animals have amazing memory. Having found mushrooms or berries that bears eat in the forest, they remember the places and then easily find their way to them. The lifespan of a brown bear in the wild largely depends on adequate nutrition.

Reproduction

How do bears reproduce? The mating season begins in May and lasts a couple of months. The rut is active, accompanied by fights between males and roaring. After 6-8 months, cubs are born. Bear cubs are born in the middle of winter, when the bear is hibernating.

Cubs are born weighing only 400-500 grams, blind, with sparse hair. As a rule, there are 2-4 cubs in a litter. For more than a year after birth, they feed on their mother’s milk, but immediately after leaving the den, the mother begins to accustom them to various foods.

The cubs and their mother live for three to four years, then they separate and begin to live independently. Females reach sexual maturity in the third or fourth year, males develop 1-2 years longer.

Hibernation

From mid-summer and throughout autumn, bears actively prepare for hibernation, feeding heavily and accumulating fat. The hibernation of a bear differs from the hibernation of other mammals; it is not suspended animation, but simply a sound sleep, during which neither the breathing nor the pulse of the animal changes practically. A bear in hibernation does not fall into complete stupor.

Preparation

Shelters for the winter are arranged in remote and dry places, under tree roots or under windbreaks. The clubfoot can dig a den on its own, or it can occupy a crevice in the mountains or a small cave. Pregnant females build a spacious and deep den, insulating it from the inside with moss, leaves and spruce branches.

One-year-old cubs always spend the winter in their mother's den, often joined by two-year-old cubs. Adults lie in the den one at a time.

Duration of hibernation

How long does a bear sleep? It all depends on weather conditions and other factors; the brown one can hibernate for up to six months.

A bear's hibernation in winter and its duration depend on the weather, age, gender, state of health and the amount of fat gained during the summer-autumn period. So, for example, an old individual that has gained enough fat will go into hibernation long before the snow cover falls, and young individuals go to the den only in November or December. Pregnant females settle in for the winter first.

Bear rod

A shatun is an animal that has not had time to accumulate the required amount of fat, which is why it cannot hibernate and is forced to look for food for itself all winter.

Why is a connecting rod bear dangerous? In severe frosts and when there is an acute shortage of food, shatuns often approach populated areas in search of food. There are more than one known cases of a connecting rod attacking domestic animals and even humans.