Russian Brown Bears

[brotherbear]

There are two breeds of bears in forests of East Siberia: the "ant eater" bear ( muraveinik ), which is smaller and the "carrion eater" bear ( stervyatnik ), which is bigger. Strictly speaking, this division is not precise, because both kinds of bears are great lovers of ant nests, and neither will ever miss a chance to eat carrion, especially the meat of freshly-killed animals. The major difference between them is in their size. This is the only way that Siberian hunters distinguish them, and only a few of them use the words muraveinik and stervyatnik.
What names bears are called in Transbaikalia! Some Russians in conversation call the bear "master" ( khozyain ), others call it taptygin, still others call it "in-toed Mishka" or "shaggy devil"; some, carried away with their stories, call it "the dark sickness". and all these nicknames became so well-known that they do not need any explanation. Siberians also call the bear "black beast" or just "beast." In the Tungus language the bear is called kara gurosu, which also means "black beast"; Siberians probably learned this term from the Tungus along with many other words. Orochons call a bear chepchekun, and some of them also call it cheldon. It is strange that Orochons named the bear cheldon, because in Siberia exiled and persecuted people are also called cheldon. Everyone is familiar with the gait of the bear, and therefore, a fat and clumsy man would be called toptygin or "in-toed Mishka." I should say that in Siberia bears may be very big. I once saw a bearskin from a recently killed bear at a station in Krasnoyarsk Province. It was 20 chetverts long from nose to tail. In Transbaikalia, bear skins 18 and 19 chetverts long are not rare. The skins of local bears are considerably better than the skins of bears killed in the European part of Russia. They have fuzzier, softer, longer hair. Bearskins with brown-red color, which I have seen in Russia, are not seen here. In the smaller breed, the bear's coat can be almost black, with silver hairs along the backbone; in the larger breed the bear's coat is always more of a brown color. Bears with white "shirtfront" also occur. Local promyshlenniks say that they are the worst and most dangerous. They say that such bears came from mixes of the knyazek with regular bears. Reply