Russian Brown Bears

[brotherbear]

When the winter temperature drops, the bear plugs the entrance with moss from inside and remains inside until warm weather returns, if nobody disturbs it. It often happens that a dog accidentally finds the den and barks over it for a while. This will drive the bear out of its winter apartment and into another place. In Transbaikalia, it sometimes happens that three or even four bears lie together. They will be either a female with two cubs and a cub born the year before, or one with only two cubs, who grew up well during the past summer. A male bear is always alone in his den. If a mother bear and her cubs are in the den, each has its own bed lined with moss, grass, and twigs. Usually the mother bear lies with her nose near the entrance, and the cubs lay behind her. Bears leave their dens near Lady Day, April 17th or a little earlier or later, depending on how cold or warm the weather. The mother bear gives birth to new cubs inside her den, usually in March and rarely in early April. Young cubs always have a narrow white collar, which loses its whiteness after each shedding and disappears with age. In rare cases, white spots remain on the neck of mature animals. A litter contains one or two cubs, rarely three or even four cubs, which are born blind, but open their eyes in a few weeks. They are small, no bigger then two-week old puppies, which is disproportional to the size of the bear. This is because her "lock", as promyshenniks would say, is very small and cannot widen during birth. Some hunters insist that female bears can give birth to five cubs, but I do not believe this. ( Cases when a female bear gave birth to five and even six cubs are known - Vladimir Beregovoy ). Possibly this belief originated when they saw a mother with five cubs, some of which could have been adopted orphans, whose mother had died. Might it be that two mother bears spent time together with both of their cubs, and a hunter saw the cubs without the "other mother"? I consider these possibilities because no promyshlennik can convince me that he has killed a female bear with so many cubs! However, I know of one occasion when a denning female with two one-year old cubs, two new-born cubs, and one two-year old cub, all of which could be told apart by their size, was killed. Reply