Brown bear: a brief description, mass, dimensions. Brown bear habits

Brown bear, a brief description of which we will consider in this article, is a typical inhabitant of taiga-type forests. It can be found almost throughout Russia, especially in Siberia and the Far East. It is found in coniferous, deciduous, and even mixed forests of mountainous areas of different countries, including Central Asia and the Caucasus. So, get acquainted: the owner of the Russian taiga is a brown bear!

Brief description of the species

A brown or ordinary bear is a predatory mammal, representing a bear family. Currently, the brown bear is the largest terrestrial predator in the world. The duration of his life in nature is 30 years. In captivity, a predator can live up to 50 years. Linguists believe that the name of this beast is composed of two words - "knowing" and "honey". And this is understandable: despite its belonging to predators, the bear is a big fan of sweet honey and generally an omnivore.

Food

The food for the toed to 3/4 consists of plant food. These are various berries, nuts, acorns, rhizomes and tubers of plants. Sometimes these predators eat even the grass. In lean years, brown bears, like foxes, encroach on the sowing of oats in the stage of their milk ripeness and on the sowing of corn. Animal feed consists of various insects, reptiles, amphibians, small rodents, fish and, of course, large ungulates. For example, a clumsy giant does not cost anything by striking a powerful clawed paw to nail an adult large moose!

Brown bear. Brief description of subspecies

The numerical difference between brown bears is so great that once these animals were classified into separate species. Currently, all brown bears are combined into one single species, combining several subspecies or geographical races. So, the brown bears are:

• Ordinary (Eurasian or European);
• Californian;
• Siberian;
• satin;
• Gobi;
• Grizzly or Mexican;
• Tianshan;
• Ussuriysky or Japanese;
• Kodiak;
• Tibetan.

Giant Heavyweights

As you have already understood, the brown bear, the description of which we cite in this article, is the most common type of clubfoot around the world. Although it is called brown, it is not always painted in this color. In nature, you can find black, and beige, and yellow, and even fiery red bears. But we'll talk about the color of their wool a little later. Now we are interested in their size.

The sizes of these animals differ depending on their sex, age and habitat. But males in any case are larger than females and weigh 30% more. Most brown bears have a height at the withers ranging from 75 to 160 centimeters. The length of the body varies mainly from 1.6 to 2.9 meters.

The weight of a brown bear directly depends on the range of its habitat. One of the largest beasts is the bears that live on the Scandinavian Peninsula and, of course, on the territory of our country. Their weight is 350 kilograms. Their American counterparts living on the west coast of the United States, as well as those inhabiting Canada, can sometimes weigh more than 400 kilograms of net weight. The name is grizzly, or gray.

Brown bear, the size of which throughout the world are considered impressive, is also found in the territory of Kamchatka and Alaska. There these predators weigh more than 500 kilograms. Cases of hunting for brown bears, presumably reaching a weight of 1 ton, are described! However, for the most part, these shaggy heavyweights do not exceed 350 kilograms of net weight. The maximum recorded weight, for example, of a Kamchatka bear was 600 kilograms. Animals that have survived in Europe are small. Their weight does not exceed 90 kilograms.

Appearance

Brown bear, the size of which we examined above, has a pronounced barrel-shaped and powerful trunk with a high withers (height in the shoulders). Keep this body massive and high paws with a flat clawed sole. The length of the claws of this hairy giant ranges from 8 to 12 centimeters. These animals have virtually no tail, since its length does not exceed and 21 centimeters.

The shape of a brown bear's head is round. It has small, blind eyes and small ears. Muzzle - elongated, and forehead - high. The owner of the Russian taiga is covered with thick and evenly dyed wool. The coloring of brown bears, like their size, is variable. Everything depends on those or other habitats of these animals. For example, well-known grizzly bears can have a brown with a silver shade of wool. For this, by the way, they nicknamed him gray.

Spread

As has been said before, bears are forest dwellers. Let us repeat that typical areas of their habitat, for example, in Russia are solid forest tracts with dense thickets of grasses, bushes and hardwoods. Brown bear, a brief description of which we are considering in this article, is found in both tundra and high mountain forests. In Europe, it prefers mountain forests, and, for example, in North America, it can be found in alpine meadows, in coastal forest areas.

Once upon a time these animals inhabited the whole of Europe, including Ireland and Great Britain, and in the south of the globe its habitat reached the African satin mountains. In the east, this kind of shaggy heavyweights was spread across Siberia and China to Japan. Scientists believe that in North America brown bears came from Asia about 40 thousand years ago. They are sure that these animals were able to independently cross the Bering Isthmus, settling in the west of America from Alaska to Mexico.

Winter dream

As is known, the physiological criterion of the brown bear is such that these animals lie dormant for the winter. They do it in October-December. They go from hibernation in the spring - in March. In general, the winter sleep of these furry heavyweights can last from 2 to 6 months. Everything depends on the subspecies of the bear and on external factors. It is curious that in the warmest regions of our planet, provided that there is an abundant harvest of fruits, berries and nuts, bears do not lie in the den at all.

Preparation for sleep

By the winter, the club-footed begin to prepare since the middle of summer. It's a brown bear! The description of his preparation for bed, probably, is known to many people, because there is nothing secret and surprising in this. Six months before the onset of cold weather, they need to find a suitable place for their winter shelter, equip it and, of course, increase their own stores of subcutaneous fat. Most often, bear lairs are located under the logs and vyvorotnyami, under the roots of huge and massive trees - cedars or firs.

Sometimes these predators pull themselves out "dugouts" directly in the coastal cliffs of rivers. If during this time the bear never found a secluded place for his winter shelter, he digs out a large pit, then strengthens its walls with vertically sticking branches. By the same brown bears fill up the entrance hole, simultaneously masking and isolating themselves from the outside world for several months. Immediately before going to bed, the beast, who has collected a sufficient amount of subcutaneous fat, thoroughly confuses his traces of stay near the den.

It should be noted that the most thorough and practical bear dwellings are ground lairs. If the predator is lucky, then he will lay down for the whole winter in the ground. Such lairs are located deep beneath the ground and keep the toe-witted in the heat. Near the entrance to the ground lair, you can find various trees and shrubs covered with hoarfrost of a yellowish hue. Experienced hunters know that this color of frost is attached to the hot breath of a clubfoot.

Hibernation

Adult animals in most cases go through cold winter days in their lairs one by one. Only a bear can lie dormant with bear cubs, last year. Scientists who observed the life of these predators (see a photo of a brown bear and a description of his lifestyle) noticed that in some parts of the globe where bears are not suitable for wintering, bears use the same shelter several times.

In some places, dens at all can be located in close proximity to each other, it turns out something like a bearish "multi-apartment" house. If the choice of "winter apartments" is very tight, some particularly impudent bears encroach on other people's homes. For example, an adult male of a brown bear can, without any pity, expel a weaker kinsman from the venerable lair.

Brown bears are sleeping, curled up. Their hind legs they are pressed to the belly, and the front are covered with muzzle. Incidentally, it was this fact that gave rise to a lot of tales and sayings, as if the bears suck paw in winter. This is not quite true. The clumsy, of course, can lick their front paws from time to time, while in this or that phase of sleep, but this has absolutely nothing to do with sucking.

Carefully, the connecting rod!

Scientists say that the bear's dream can not be called strong. During short-term thaws, these predators can wake up and even leave their winter shelters temporarily. At this time the clumsy walk through the winter forest, knead their bones. As soon as it gets colder again, shaggy heavyweights return to their hideout again, sweeping the traces of their stay outside the den. However, such brown bear habits are still flowers!

It also happens that some bears because of malnutrition during the autumn-winter period can not gain the necessary weight, find and equip their home. In this case, they do not lie in the den. Without having time to accumulate the necessary for comfortable wintering reserves of subcutaneous fat, the beast simply staggers along the snow-covered forest, as if it were unsettled. In the people of such a poor fellow called "rods". Bear-rods are a very dangerous and extremely aggressive beast! At this time it is better not to mess with him at all, because the beast is very hungry, incredibly angry and attacks almost everything that moves.

Reproduction

Female brown bears bring offspring 2 to 4 times a year. The period of mating is usually in May, June and July. At this time, males behave aggressively: they begin to roar loudly, between them there are serious fights, sometimes ending with the death of one of the bears. Pregnancy in females runs from 190 to 200 days. At one time they can bring up to 5 cubs with a body weight of up to 600 grams and a length of up to 23 centimeters.

Offspring

The young are born blind, with overgrown acoustical passages and are covered with short rare hair. Two weeks later the cubs begin to hear, and in a month - to see. Only 90 days after birth, they grow all the milk teeth, and they begin to eat berries, plants and insects. As a rule, males of brown bears do not engage in offspring, raising young animals is the prerogative of females. Sexually mature cubs become 3 years old, but grow up to 10 years.

Brown bear. Red Book

Unfortunately, this species of bears is listed in the Red Book as an endangered animal. Currently, in many regions and regions of the globe hunting for brown bears is limited or completely banned. Nevertheless, nobody canceled poaching. Bear's hide is mainly used for carpets, and meat is used for cooking. Such an important commercial beast - this brown bear! The red book, in which this species of large predators was once included, has not been republished at the present time. It is possible that the data on the number of bears as of this year will dramatically change for the worse.