Russian Brown Bears

[brotherbear]

Quote: The swarming hordes of caddis entice Brown Bears out of the woods. After waking up, they forage around in the forest looking for freshly germinated herbs and berries that have survived the winter, and pine nuts left over from caches made by chipmunks. Now, the caddis flies give them a welcome bonus of insect protein. During the evenings, the bears - many of them females with small cubs in attendance - wander along the water's edge, deftly turning over stones with their great forepaws and quickly licking up the insects clinging to them. When they have eaten their fill, the sated bears shuffle off into the forest until the following day.

The spawning salmon provide a bonanza of nutrients, derived from the sea, which helps to nourish the animal and plant communities that live on Kamchatka's raw volcanic soil. Even in death, salmon bequeath the goodness in their exhausted bodies to the rivers in which they breed. The flush of fertilizing minerals from the putrefying fish stimulates the growth of aquatic invertebrates on which the newly hatched salmon depend. The dead and dying fish are also consumed by terrestrial animals - indeed, they are crucial to their survival during the winter. Large numbers of Northern Ravens and Slaty-backed Gulls assemble to peck at the carcasses. They are joined by some of Russia's - and the world's - biggest Brown Bears. About 9,000 of these great bears live on Kamchatka; when rearing up on their hind legs, the largest males stand nearly 3 m ( 9 feet ) tall and weigh up to 800 kg ( 1500 pounds ), rivaling their equally well-fed cousins, the Grizzly Bears of Kodiak Island, Alaska.

The Kamchatka peninsula is one of the richest realms for these outsized Brown Bears, with a profision of wild berries and oil-rich salmon available just before they settle down for their winter's sleep. When putting on fat at this time of the year, a hungry Kamchatka bear can eat up to 20,000 berries or nearly 50 kg ( 110 pounds ) of fish in a day. In Alaska, Grizzly Bears often gather in impressive groups to feast on the glut of fish, but in Kamchatka, the bears appear to keep their distance from each other, tolerating only other scavengers, such as Stellar Sea Eagle. Reply