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Russian Brown Bears
Russian Brown Bears
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Russian Brown Bears
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One interesting article of it how people create problems, when they kind of forget that wild animals should be respected as wild animals. Article in Russian language from June 2018. Things happened in the area of Komi Republic, Russia.'
Quotes: "Who is the boss in the taiga? Why do bears go to people?" "For a month now, clubfoots have been walking along the central streets of Pechora, and in the Udora district, the owner of the taiga attacked a man." "The first videos about how drivers feed the toptygins on forest roads near Pechora appeared on social networks at the end of May. The predators calmly walked around the cars, sniffed and stopped - who would treat them with something. It got to the point that one of the traffic police inspectors fed the bear from his hands." "Panic gripped the city when the owners of the taiga began to visit people: bears were seen in the parking lot, and then on the playground. Last week, a car enthusiast's video recorder captured a bear walking along the central street of the city, next to the mayor's office at 22 o'clock. Fortunately, we have white nights now. The police had to get rid of the uninvited guest, who drove the clubfoot across the Pechora in a car with sound and light signals turned on. At first, the toptygin was targeted only by photographers - the animals willingly pose. But now that the situation was out of control, the bears were allowed to shoot." "According to the specialist, people themselves provoke animals - they feed them sweets, and this should never be done. Such communication with bears has a bad effect on the further life of the animal and is dangerous for people. Until now, the meetings of the Pechora people with the owner of the taiga ended without an emergency. But in the Udora district this spring, the beast attacked a man who was collecting firewood in the forest. Toptygin scratched the man's face. For several weeks the victim has been undergoing treatment at the republican hospital." Whole article: https://perm.aif.ru/komi/kto_v_tayge_hoz..._k_lyudyam One other bear attack from April 2018, it´s no joke if for some reason bear is surprised etc. and it makes an attack.  *This image is copyright of its original author The bear broke the man's arm and, according to the victim's fellow villagers, almost removed his scalp. © / Pavel Panfilov / AiF "As reported by Parma-novosti , on April 18, a 58-year-old resident of the village of Verkh-Inva went to the forest for chaga. There he was attacked by a bear, broke his arm and, according to the victim's fellow villagers, almost scalped him. The man himself was able to get out of the forest, after which he was hospitalized with serious injuries in the district hospital. " Article here: https://perm.aif.ru/incidents/v_kudymkar..._cheloveka
King has changed in the forests of Buryatia (east of lake Baikal) sometime spring-summer 2020.
Quote: The "owner" of the taiga has changed in Buryatia  *This image is copyright of its original author Society, 10/05/2020 09:47 Photo: FGBU "Reserved Podlemorie" Employees of the "Reserved Podlemorye" told about the "change of power" At the northernmost part of the taiga of the "Reserved Podlemorye" in Buryatia, the "owner" has changed. - We previously talked about the "owner" of the northernmost part of the taiga of the "Reserved Podlemorye", a very large and over-aged bear. Camera traps registered his presence in the lands within a radius of about 10 km, but in the summer season of this year he no longer appeared on the set, - said senior researcher Gennadiy Yankus. At the same time, more often than others "posed" a handsome bear in a fur coat of almost black color. Based on his physique, he is middle-aged. This bear has diligently marked the trees along the many paths. - And on a twilight September morning, we managed to observe how he, with a formidable roar, chased along the shore of Lake Baikal after another bear, who risked a profit from a seal thrown onto the sand by a storm. Other inhabitants of the taiga, it seems, humbly did not notice the "change of power". Well, this is just a moment of a natural process, - concluded Gennady Yankus. Source: https://www.baikal-daily.ru/news/16/400035/
Looks like it would be a good idea to have some kind of locking system if sleeping night in a hut... :)
Article is from March 2019, but video footage seems to be from August 2018, Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Quote: The owner of the taiga "was the boss" in the hut of the Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve The automatic photo recorders of the Sayano-Shushensky nature reserve were caught by a bear, which is ravaging a hut along the Sinyaya River. The incident happened back in August last year. The animal behaves in a businesslike, bold and confident manner. The footage shows that the bear approaches the hut from around the corner, looks around and heads for the door. Having risen on its hind legs, the clubfoot opens the door and goes inside. Then he comes out with a newspaper in his teeth, tears it up and goes back to the hut. Then he leaves without finding anything. “A couple of weeks later, another bear came to the same hut. First, the beast licked the camera lens, and when he saw the open door, he decided to look inside. But, unfortunately, his friend had already been there, and there was nothing much to smash. Then the bear decided to stand on a bench near the hut and look on the roof in search of something needed. But even there nothing suitable seemed, and the animal went away, ”said the staff of the reserve on their Vkontakte page. According to them, bears have always visited huts and, apparently, will continue to do so. After all, clubfoots are attracted primarily by unfamiliar pungent smells and smells of food, against which the animals cannot resist, such is the bearish disposition. "Putting things in order" in forest huts is a common bearish habit. The beast climbs into the hut through a door or window, and practically turns everything upside down. Bears easily find food supplies, which are usually suspended from the ceiling, bite cans of canned food with their teeth, sprinkle cereals, and spill vegetable oil. This beast is able to break the simple taiga furniture present in the huts - bunks, tables, shelves on the walls, - say the workers of the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve. Video footage and article here: https://krsk.aif.ru/society/hozyain_tayg...apovednika Video was also in youtube:
This is a nice video (June 2019), Russia) with two bears. I´m not sure if this is female bear and cub or are here two cubs, one older and one younger, if so then this older one will be soon kicked out by mother bear. Description of video tells about cubs, not about mother and cub.
It would be interesting to know what this man is telling from 2:20 forward. There are some obvious bear tracks and some trees look to be broken by a bear. maybe some Russian member could tell a what this man is telling, one broken tree looked to be quite thick. Also if checking what that headline of the video really said, translator was in obvious trouble with it. Here video and below translated headline and description, headline seemed to be problematic for translator in the middle part and also in the end. In the taiga, we managed to film bears. Usually, a bear smelling a human smell behaves cautiously. But the rains passed, the human footprint was washed away. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction and the cubs, suspecting nothing, behaved at ease. I had to warn with a voice that there was a man. The cubs became alert and snorted into the taiga. Their color hid them well. A bear was nearby. The meeting could have been dramatic, but nothing happened. Thanks to the taiga and the bears. Brown bear, or common bear (lat. Ursus arctos) - predatory mammal of the bear family; one of the largest land predators. The brown bear is a forest animal. Its usual habitats in Russia are continuous forest tracts with windbreaks and burned-out areas with dense growth of deciduous trees, bushes and grasses; can enter both the tundra and high-mountain forests. In Europe, he prefers mountain forests; in North America, it is more common in open areas - in the tundra, in alpine meadows and on the coast. The bear sometimes keeps solitary, the female - with cubs of different ages. Males and females are territorial, an individual plot occupies on average from 73 to 414 km², and in males it is about 7 times larger than in females. The boundaries of the site are marked with scent marks and “scuffs” - scratches on noticeable trees. Sometimes makes seasonal migrations; So in the mountains, the brown bear, starting in spring, feeds in the valleys, where the snow used to melt, then goes to the loaches (alpine meadows), then gradually descends into the forest belt, where berries and nuts ripen. The brown bear is omnivorous, but its diet is 3/4 vegetable: berries, acorns, nuts, roots, tubers and stems of herbs. In lean years for berries, bears visit oat crops in the northern regions, and corn crops in the southern regions; in the Far East in autumn they feed in cedar forests. His diet also includes insects (ants, butterflies), worms, lizards, frogs, rodents (mice, marmots, ground squirrels, chipmunks) and fish. In summer, insects and their larvae sometimes make up 1/3 of a bear's diet. Although predation is not an exemplary strategy for brown bears, they also prey on ungulates - roe deer, fallow deer, elk, deer, caribou (most often this happens in early spring, after the bear comes out of hibernation, when there is still very little plant food). American brown bears, Grizzly bears sometimes attack wolves and black bears, and in the Far East brown bears in some cases can hunt Himalayan bears and tigers.The brown bear loves honey (hence the name), eats carrion, and also, taking advantage of the size advantage, takes prey from other predators - wolves, cougars and tigers. Fish during spawning (anadromous salmon) serve as a seasonal food object, in early spring - rhizomes, in grizzlies living in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, in the summer - butterflies that hide in the mountains among the stones from the summer heat. When the fish just begins to arrive for spawning, the bears eat the whole caught fish, then they begin to eat only the fattest parts - the skin, head, caviar and milk. The brown bear is active throughout the day, but more often in the mornings and evenings The seasonal cycle of life is pronounced. By winter, the bear fattens up subcutaneous fat (up to 180 kg) and from autumn it lays in its den. The dens are located in a dry place, in most cases in pits under the protection of a windbreak or under upturned tree roots. Less commonly, bears dig shelter in the ground or occupy caves and rock crevices. Bears have favorite wintering places, where they gather from year to year from the whole neighborhood. In different regions, winter sleep lasts from 75 to 195 days. Depending on climatic and other conditions, bears stay in dens from October - November to March - April, that is, for 5-6 months. Bears with cubs live in dens for the longest time, least of all -. During the wintering period, the bear loses up to 80 kg of fat. Contrary to popular belief, brown bear's winter sleep is shallow; his body temperature during sleep fluctuates between 29 and 34 degrees. In case of danger, the animal wakes up and leaves the den, going in search of a new one. Sometimes it happens that the bear does not have time to fatten up properly in autumn, therefore, in the middle of winter, it also wakes up (and sometimes does not lie in its den at all) and begins to wander in search of food; such bears are called cranks. Cranks are very dangerous, hunger makes them merciless predators - they even attack humans. These bears have very little chance of surviving until spring. Despite its awkward appearance, the brown bear can sometimes run fast - at a speed of up to 50 km / h, swims excellently and climbs trees well when young (when old it does it reluctantly). With one blow of its paw, a hardened bear can break the back of a wild boar, deer or elk.
One bear myth from Siberia, I find these interesting to read how native people have seen animals and what kind of stories there are.
Quote: The legend of the master of the taiga The folktales of Central Siberian indigenous peoples depict the bear as a strong beast whose wrath is to be reckoned with, in spite of its kind heart and wisdom. Evenki children adore the tale about Grandpa Amaka – that's their name for the bear – and the chipmunk. Spring came to the taiga. The bear had spent the entire winter sleeping in his den, but the spring brought the sun, and the den started to thaw. The bear woke up. He went out into the woods, feeling very hungry, as he hadn't eaten anything all winter. The bear tried looking for food, but he couldn't find anything. So he became angry and gripped a tree stump with his paws, trying to pull it out. However, he was too weak to do it. A chipmunk jumped out from under the stump. "Amaka, why are you so angry?" "I'm starving. Do you have any food to spare?" "I can find some," replied the chipmunk and treated the bear to sweet roots and nuts from his autumn stocks. The grateful bear stroked the tiny chipmunk with his clawed paw, and that is how chipmunks got black stripes on their backs. From here some more and some photos: https://www.rbth.com/travel/2017/01/17/5...les_682578
More about indigenous people of Siberia and far east parts of Russia (Including Korea and northeast areas of China too) and their relationship to the bear.
Quote: "Man and Nature in Archaic Religion: Honoring the Bear In almost all regions of the planet where bears have ever lived, this animal occupied a very special place in the religious and mythological concepts of hunters. The worship of the bear goes back to ancient times. Its origins are found in Paleolithic cave sanctuaries , for example, Chauvet and Montespan. In archaeological sites on the territory of the Cis-Urals and Western Siberia since the 7th century. BC. and up to the XII century. AD metal items with the image of a bear are widespread: plaques-decorations ( Plaque - a bear. Khanty. Khanty-Mansiysk national district ), hollow figurines-pierced beads ( Pronizka-bear. Khanty. Tyumen oblast, X-XII centuries ) and other items. For the peoples of Siberia and the Far East (Khanty and Mansi, Evenks, Kets, Nanai, Ulchi, Negidal, Oroch, Nivkh, Ainu), the bear is one of the most important characters with which numerous rituals and beliefs were associated. People often saw the master of the taiga in the form of a bear (Spirit-master of the taiga. Nanaitsy. Khabarovsk Territory, XX century ). It was believed that he gives hunters prey, sends and heals diseases ( Buyu-Dilin - the head of a bear. Ulchi. Khabarovsk Territory, XX century ), punishes people for violating religious rules and prohibitions ( Duente - the spirit master of the taiga. Nanaitsy, XX century . ). Hunting rules related to the catch of a bear and butchering of its carcass were strictly observed. In honor of the bear killed during the hunt, a holiday was necessarily arranged. The Ob Ugrians have widely known an oath on a bear's paw, skin, head ( Bear Claw. Khanty. Khanty-Mansi national okru, early XX century ). It was assumed that the bear would punish the false oath. In order to protect against misfortune and disease, a bear skull was kept in the dwelling, over the children's cradle ( Bear. Nivkhi. Amur Territory, XIX - early XX centuries ), a paw or claws of a bear was hung ( Bear paw. Evenki. Evenk National District, early XX centuries ). The bear was often viewed as the ancestor of certain human collectives. Many groups of Evenks trace their origins to the bear, and at present the Evenki consider the bear to be the ancestor of the entire Evenk people. The bear could be both one of the shaman's helper spirits and his twin beast. Shamans, who during the ritual were reincarnated into a bear, were considered the strongest among the Kets. Among the Nganasan shamans, the bear played the role of a guide to the spirit world. Text from here: http://www.gmir.ru/exposition/vera/vera_...48&id=2938 That link is to the site of State Museum of the History of Religion, St. Petersburg, Russia  *This image is copyright of its original author Evenki. Evenk National District, Krasnoyarsk Territory, pos. Ekonda. Beginning XX centuries Leather, claws, fabric The bear's paw was considered an amulet that protects against disease and misfortune. For this purpose, it was hung over the cradle of the child. The paw was also hung on the necks of the deer to protect them from wolves, placed on the storage shed so that it would not be ravaged by predators. It was also used for fortune telling: a paw was thrown up, making a wish, and by the way it fell, it was judged whether it would come true or not. This paw was donated to the museum by the Evenki T.G. Kombagir during an expedition to the Krasnoyarsk Territory in 1984. According to the owner, the paw was kept in the family for several generations.
One very interesting article concerning Kamchatka bears with great photos. To see the photos you have to use link to see original article.
Quotes: "Kamchatka diaries: How to meet a bear and survive TRAVEL JUNE 02 2015 SPECIAL TO RBTH DIANA SEREBRENNIKOVA, INSIBERIA.COM In August 2014, Siberian journalist Diana Serebrennikova went to Kurile Lake to assist the employees of the Yuzhno-Kamchatsky Wildlife Reserve during the tourist season and see how people and bears have learned to live together on their shared territory. Even though I was born in Siberia, for me the bear has always been the distant master of taiga and I could not wait to see it in its natural habitat. But is it possible to survive an encounter with this formidable predator? In the Yuzhno-Kamchatsky reserve in the Russian Far East it is possible to safely observe fishing bears that come to Kurile Lake in large numbers during the salmon’s spawning season." "After my application was accepted on the website, I was lucky enough to become a volunteer at the Yuzhno-Kamchatsky reserve for a whole month." "But even among the bears of Kamchatka the ones that live around Kurile Lake are the luckiest, as this is one of the rare places where it is possible to easily access large amounts of high-quality protein-based food." "When finally we were in the sky, passengers pressed up against the windows to enjoy the massive scale of the conservation area. In an hour or so, the urban environment of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was replaced by wild and intact nature: Tall active and dormant volcanos, meandering kilometer-long rivers and impassable forests." Regardless of their stern appearance and isolated life among predators, the preserve’s inspectors were not reserved and unsociable. After an hour they were joking happily, discussing recent events and accepting freshly baked “blini” (pancakes). I took advantage of this break to ask them some questions about their life, which is lived so close to bears. “How did you manage to achieve an understanding with the bears?” I asked. “I mean, you are constantly patrolling the territory of the preserve. Probably you have met bears many times under different circumstances.” “Why should we fight?” joked Anatoly Lazarenko, one of the senior staff members. “We are working for their own good. Bears live not only by their instincts. They can think, they can evaluate different situations. And some of them even take advantage of us.” Lazarenko exchanged winks with his colleagues. “I remember one she-bear, who saw me as an excellent nanny for her cubs,” Lazarenko continued. “At that time I was repairing a boat on the shore and every time I would start my work, the bear would come and leave her cubs with me. And she herself would swim away and fish 300 meters from the shore. If a large bear came out to the lake, the cubs would hide from it at my feet. When I would stop work for the day and leave, the mother would return and shepherd her cubs away again.” “And there have not been any unpleasant encounters all this time?” I asked. “Well, of course there were, you can’t get around them,” Lazarenko said. “In seven years we’ve had time to get to know many of the bears near Kurile Lake, to learn about their temperaments, behavior and habits. But some of them come here from other places and we don’t know what they have in mind, what they have been eating and if they have fallen into bear traps before. These individuals are very aggressive and they could use any opportunity to attack.” Whole article here: https://www.rbth.com/travel/2015/02/06/k...stay_alive
This is one very interesting article concerning bear mythology in North-East Asia and also a bit other places opening up the status bear has in the boreal zone of the globe. Since mostly these areas are in Russia I put this here. Interesting things also concerning Korea, Northeast China (Manchuria) and Hokkaido etc.
Article of professor Juha Janhunen, University of Helsinki Some quotes below, but to get overall picture read the whole article: http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/publictn...nhunen.pdf TRACING THE BEAR MYTH IN NORTHEAST ASIA ”All over the northern boreal zone of the globe, the bear is widely respected as the Lord of the Animals, which in some important respects differs from all other wild beasts. ” ”THE BEAR CULT The mythological role of the bear is manifested in the complexity of beliefs and practices known as the Circumpolar Bear Cult which has been occasionally traced back to the Palaeolithic hunting societies of the latest glacial period.6 In the Bear Cult, the bear is elevated to the status of a supernatural being which, when treated properly, will grant success to the human community. The Bear Cult may be understood as a conceptual complex aimed at controlling the bear, and, through the bear, the resources of wild game in the boreal environment. This is congruent with the bear’s status as the “Lord of the Animals,” for the bear is thought to have the ability to send not only other bears, but also other species of game to the hunter. ” ”Spevakovsky reports the following taboo from the present-day Ewen reindeer herders in Northeast Siberia: “Recent wolf’s or bear’s footprints or their excrement might influence one’s psychological condition. It is forbidden to talk about them, particularly in a negative way, since it is said that the spirits of these animals, especially the bear’s, understand the human language and might take revenge, by killing domesticated reindeer” (Alexander Spevakovsky, “Rational Role of the Religious World View in the Tundra and Forest-Tundra Zones: A Case of the Even Reindeer Herders,” Proceedings of the 9th International Abashiri Symposium / Dai 9 kai Hoppou Minzoku Bunka Shimpojiumu Houkoku (Abashiri, 1995), p. 93). ” ”Obviously, in the Bear Festival the bear is neither a beast nor a human, but a god. It may be noted that no other beast, not even the tiger, is revered in this way in the boreal zone.11 Moreover, in dualistic systems involving the cult of two animals, the bear is always there, while the other animal may vary from tiger to elk to whale.12 ” THE BEAR GOD ”From the tales featuring a marriage between a woman and a bear it is evident that there are actually two kinds of bear. On the one hand, there are the ordinary bears, which can be hunted and killed and which form a renewable resource of the boreal environment. On the other hand, there is the Prototypical Bear, which is represented either directly by the bear husband of the human female, as in the Udeghe tale (4), or by his father, as in the Ainu tale (3). In either case, the hunter has a personal (in-law) relationship with the Prototypical Bear. There are many indications that the Prototypical Bear has supernatural powers, which make it equal to a god. For this reason, it can die only symbolically, only to resurrect later.23 The following Amur Ghilyak tale (5) suggests that the Prototypical Bear is, in fact, the Sky-God. In this tale, the hero’s elder sister ascends to Heaven to marry the Sky-God. Although it is not expressly mentioned, both the Sky-God and the sister are bears, and both of them are ultimately killed by the hero: ” ”On the basis of the presented folkloric material (1-8), the elements of the boreal bear myth may be summarized as follows: The bear is the Lord of the Animals and a male deity, who has the power of regulating the resources of the forest. In order to secure his share of the resources, the human hunter has to establish a relationship with the bear. Since the hunter is typically a man, the relationship is established through his elder sister, who marries the bear and is transformed into a bear herself. In order to approach the bear, the sister has to assume the role of shaman ” ”The tradition concerning the marriage of a woman with a bear, and the birth of bear cubs from this union, is also surprisingly widespread in the boreal zone, extending from Western and Northern Europe to Sakhalin and Hokkaido, and further to North America.35 Even relatively minor details, such as the taboo forbidding women to eat the fore parts of a bear, are attested in an identical form in regions as distant as Lapland and the Amur basin.36 ” ”The Bear Festival is a more clearly localizable phenomenon. Although the ritual killing and eating of the bear is common throughout the Eurasian boreal zone, the Bear Festival seems to be attested as a major ritual in only three relatively restricted regions: among the Finns and Sami of Fennoscandia (Finland and Lapland), among the Ob-Ugrians, Selkup, and Ket of Western Siberia (the Ob-Yenisei region), and among the Amur Tungus, Ghilyak, and Ainu of Eastern Manchuria and Northern Japan (the Amur basin, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido).3 ” ”It is therefore perhaps not a coincidence that female shamans are, indeed, conspicuously common in the Manchurian region, broadly defined, the very same region where the bear myth is also particularly prominent. Most importantly, female shamans predominate in both Korean and Japanese shamanism. The Korean female shaman (mudang) does have a male counterpart (baksu), but the spheres of the two tend to differ and the vast majority of all Korean shamans are females.43 In Japan, all shamans (itako) are females.44 The same seems to be true of the Hokkaido Ainu shamans (tusukur), while among the Sakhalin Ainu and Ghilyak, as well as among all the other Manchurian and Siberian populations, there are also male shamans.45 Even so, some particularly famous shamanic figures, such as the Nishan Shaman of the Manchu, are specifically women.46” ”It may be presumed that the female shamanism of Ancient China was already distanced from the simple context of hunting rites. The Chinese Bear Cult, with the female shaman as the main medium, must have involved an elaborate ritual drama in which it was no longer the primitive hunter, but the earthly ruler – king or prince – who sought a contact with the Sky-God, who may or may not have been conceptualized as the Prototypical Bear. Through the female shaman, clad as a bear, the ruler was able to get the help of celestial powers. Unfortunately, in the absence of preserved documentation, the exact structure of this drama and its position in the Ancient Chinese society remain unknown.55 To a considerable extent, the Chinese shamanistic traditions were distorted by the framework of Taoism.56 ” ”Similarly, the institutionalized Bear Cult of the Amur-Sakhalin region, though supported by a rich folkloric tradition of bears and females, is no longer specifically connected with the institution of female shamanism. However, it is important to note that the institutionalized Bear Cult in this region, like its counterpart in Ancient China, is also rather distant from the rituals of the boreal hunters. The economy of the ethnic groups today embraced by the institutionalized Bear Cult is by no means dominated by hunting. Rather, it involves a complicated combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, and small-scale agriculture, including the rearing of domestic animals. The elaborate Bear Festival documented from the region should therefore also be seen as a “refined” form of a spiritual tradition that has lost its original concrete connection with the boreal subsistence economy. ”
I wonder if there is some information concerning this photo?
 *This image is copyright of its original author This photo from here: https://kamchatkabear.com/ Photo is also here and mentioned as one of trophy photos: https://kamchatkabear.ru/gallery/nggalle...ei-medved/
One article about bears and Russia. Some figures are what they are, but overall interesting information. From December 2009.
Quotes: The Most Russian of All Beasts "A bear has been Russia's long-standing national symbol: in all political caricatures, Russia is shown as a bear. The association holds not only because Russian politics has always been in line with the bears' nature but also because our country does have a record number of these animals." "In Russia, brown bears occur everywhere where there are forests: from the western border to the Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, and Sea of Japan. In the Russian north-east, one can come across these animals as far to the north as the tundra, up to the Arctic Ocean shore. The largest animals live in the east, along the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean seas, from Kamchatka to the Russian Far East." Next to Gods "Down the ages, man has come across brown bears more than once. Evidence for this is so extensive that we can dwell on just a few facts here. In the primitive times, the bear became a cult animal embodying strength and fearlessness. Moreover, many nationalities regarded him the ancestor of humans, their senior relation, the creature that personifies the connection between the sky and the earth." "A bear was the most worshipped animal of Ancient Slavs. In the pagan times, it was associated with the god Volos, patron of domestic animals. In the Slavic folklore a bear was the totem personifying a man: father, husband, or fiance. It was no accident that legends about turnskin bears appeared: it was believed that people could be turned into bears for misbehavior – no wonder the feet and toes of these animals resembled the humans’." "Russian mythology puts an emphasis on the bears’ hypersexuality – the animals are considered to be well-disposed to women, who they attack to take them to their lairs and cohabit with them. According to legends, the progeny of such “marriage” is bogatyrs (epic heroes). It is not for nothing that in ancient Slavic wedding rituals the bride and the groom were called a he-bear and a she-bear. At Christmastide a young guy was dressed as a bear – he would go around guisers and prey on young girls." "Bear cubs often come to people’s hands as a result of hunting bear lairs. Therefore, zoos of this country abound in bears, and hunters themselves often have to keep the cubs for quite some time. Bear cubs under a year old are sweet and charming, friendly and shy. They can spend hours playing with people and domestic animals. Only when they are two years old, they become dangerous. As luck would have it, for two years we observed a couple of bear cubs living at a hunting farm, virtually at large. The bear cubs and dogs played their games that looked like fights to us. However, they would never do harm to each other: the paws of a bear can be very delicate unless the animal is put in a temper or scared. So do not believe those who tell you horror stories about malicious bears. These animals are the ornament to Russian forests, our true younger brothers, who claim respect and, ultimately, need to be protected." Article here: https://scfh.ru/en/papers/the-most-russi...ll-beasts/  *This image is copyright of its original author
Kamchatka brown bear and a good photo to give an idea what kind of canines they have.
 *This image is copyright of its original author https://kamchatkabear.ru/gallery/nggalle...ei-medved/ 
Photo: Viktor Kuzmenko/ The Amur Tiger Centre
 *This image is copyright of its original author
Bears bounce back in the Kronoki reserve. Linked is a video of a bear swimming amongst salmon, which have recently increased in abundance providing much needed food for the bears.
The Siberian Times on Twitter: "Inspector Liana Varavskaya: ‘Finally after 3 hungry years there is so much food that bears - even grown up males - are playing like they are cubs’. Video from Lake Kurilskoye @Kronoki reserve at Kamchatka peninsula;the reserve cares for Eurasia’s largest population of brown bears [url]https://t.co/ZfB1aCdX45" / Twitter[/url] 
NOTES OF AN EAST SIBERIAN HUNTER.
"Many people, who think that a bear is clumsy, and cannot run fast, are extremely mistaken. Anyone who has shot many bears knows their quick movements and running speed, and these qualities together with their strength make them dangerous foes. This is why not everyone decides to hunt bear, leaving it to braver promyshlenniks."  *This image is copyright of its original author https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=P1wSxToZ7SMC&pg=PA74&dq=Shatun%20bear%20kills&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiMk_eihvL4AhV5J7kGHfI9ATUQ6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=Shatun%20bear%20kills&f=false  *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/T...frontcover Why brown bears are more aggressive than black bear counterparts: living in open environments means little place to run and hide. |
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