Russian Brown Bears

[brotherbear]

A bear's footprint, especially its hind feet, is extremely similar to a human footprint, except his long claws are clearly visible in the dirt. The footprint of a male is slightly wider than the footprint of a female, and a trained hunter can tell a male from a female from their footprints. Tracking a bear is easy even in the summer, because bears tramp the grass, tilting it in the direction where they walk by pulling it with their feet. Besides, a bear never walks indifferently; he is always searching for something. Sometimes he digs an anthill, or turns over boulders, big rocks, logs, windfalls, etc. This is where he shows his amazing strength! Sometimes he turns over whole fallen trees! It is fun to watch how a bear eat ants. When he digs in the anthill, he starts licking his front paws and places them on the anthill. Ants run in every direction and crawl on his paws, and at once become his meal.

Sunset and dawn are the bear's favorite times. They are when he takes off for his adventures and does all kinds of tricks! It is known that when a bear lives in one place for a long time, he uses the same paths for foraging trips. Hunters know this very well, and often catch him there. He also likes to walk on paths made by other animals and by promyshleniks; bear's footprints and droppings are often found on them. Uvals and barren sunny slopes are his favorite sites, especially in the spring. I should say that he walks there from sivers, which means out of the forests on the top of the ridges down onto the steppe. He always stops at the forest's edge, looks carefully around for possible danger, and listens to see if wild boars are nearby, especially a mature tusker boar, which he is afraid of. If he sees a pig with piglets, then he will find a convenient place to sneak closer to them and will start rolling big rocks and windfalls downhill in their direction. Often, he will get some piglets for a snack.

It is surprising that the bear, being a massive, seemingly clumsy animal, excels at stalking and catching any kind of animals, including humans. He does it so skillfully, being quiet and careful, that he even catches young roe deer where they are resting. Sometimes he crawls like a dog, sometimes he leaps like a cat, without breaking a stick. Reply