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Big cat and Bear tale
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@GreenGrolar
Quote:Nice pictures, I have no doubt that black bears of both get preyed upon. Unable to post on edge of extinction so I will respond to the latest account here. The account you posted of Odyr killing a male brown bear is impressive. Male Ussuri brown bears being killed (two modern day accounts) is still rare (probably as rare as the tigress killing a shantun bear in one of the hunting accounts) in comparison to Siberian tigers killing female Ussuri brown bears (as well as some 200kg bears of unspecified gander). Adding a bit of my opinion, since I believe the male Ussuri wins 7/10 at average weights - higher than that if the weight difference increase (but not 10/10), I am not surprise that the tiger is able to win at times. Still there are no confirm accounts on tigers preying on the smaller male Ussuri brown bears, some which can be 400 pounds. There's no doubt that smaller male Ussuri brown bears (weighing 400 - 450 lbs) fall prey to tigers. You have to remember, the vast majority of bear kills made by tigers are never found by people. Also, considering the fact that recently, some of the largest male brown bears (Chlamid was described by Batalov as "Incredibly huge") have fallen victim to tigers, proves that the smaller male brown bears must definitely be getting hunted and killed by tigers at times, because it would be completely illogical for tigers to avoid hunting the smaller male brown bears and only attack and kill the huge males. The fact that tigers hunt and kill the largest male black bears (150 - 250 kg), also strongly suggests that 400 - 450 lb adult male brown bears must be getting hunted by tigers. Of course, when tigers hunt adult brown bears, they will more often prey on the adult females, but these two modern day accounts confirm that even the largest male Ussuri brown bears are vulnerable to predation by even moderate-sized male tigers, and do get killed and eaten at times. There's likely been many more cases that have gone unnoticed by humans in the vast and remote Russian taiga. Quote:The same account also says that the tiger confidently defeats Himalayan bears up to the age of three which is surprising as Linda Kerley says even adult male Himalayan bears fall prey to tigers, something I agree with. That statement must have been referring to those young black bears that were killed and eaten by tigers, due to the large male bears driving them away from their mothers. Its a well known fact in Russia amongst all experts and specialists, that tigers prey on Himalayan black bears of all ages, sizes and genders. This is common knowledge. Krechmar stated that the tiger confidently crushes even large Himalayan black bears. Tkachenko observed and reported that adult Himalayan bears of all ages and sexes are repeatedly killed by tigers. And Linda Kerley, based on her own field observations, said she's seen tigers prey on black bears of all shapes and sizes. Biologist Sergey Kolchin told me that even large, old male black bears (which can exceed 200 kg in weight and are similar in size to large tigers) also fall prey to tigers:  *This image is copyright of its original author Due to tiger predation, large bears are frightened by very fresh marks/trails of tigers:  *This image is copyright of its original author Quote:I have also seen the accounts saying that male bears chase away cubs from their mothers and the cubs took advantage of the situation. Alexander Batolov said tigers avoid male Ussuri brown bears during mating season yet Chamlid was killed by the bespectacled tiger. Yes, large male bears chased away the cubs from their mothers and tigers took advantage of the situation and killed them. I posted this report in the tiger extinction thread. These cases had nothing to do with tigers deliberately targeting young bears to hunt. It was just the usual cases of large predators eliminating the cubs of other large predators. In the same report, it mentions that tigers have decreased the number of bears in the Khekhtsir reserve:  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author https://www.dvnovosti.ru/khab/2022/10/27/147618/ As to Batalov's remarks, what this shows is that the relationship between tigers and adult male brown bears is quite complex. Tigers usually avoid conflict with large male brown bears during the mating season, but in other seasons, large male brown bears can get hunted and killed by tigers. In the same article, Batalov also reports that in summer, tigers regularly prey on bears, and some male tigers can attack almost any bear. Which indicates that some adult male tigers will attack and kill large adult male brown bears. Hence why Kolchin wasn't even surprised that the tiger Odyr killed an adult male brown bear. Quote: Thats not data on Ussuri brown bears, thats weight/size data on East Siberian brown bears. Ussuri brown bears are only found in the Amur-Ussuri regions, Sakhalin (Russian Far East), Northeast China and the Korean peninsula. Ussuri/Amur brown bears don't live in Northeast Siberia. There are 3 different subspecies of brown bears in Russia. The Kamchatka bear, Ussuri or Amur brown bear, and the East Siberian brown bear. The Kamchatka and Ussuri brown bears are the largest brown bears in Russia. Quote:I wonder why the bear did not hibernate early. Shatun bears do not hibernate but that bear was going to hibernate (so it could not be a shatun). Either this bear was below par in weight and hibernated late or there is an abundance of food? Its most likely because there was an abundance of food. In 2022 (when the bear was killed), in the Khekhtsir reserve, there was a good harvest of acorns for bears in the forest. Due to this, some bears will continue to roam the forests until mid-December. So the big male brown bear had plenty of food to eat in the forest. You can read this in the report/screen-shot I posted above. The specialists also specifically noted that the killed male brown bear was of "impressive size". Quote:Lately two different emails have showed up. One says the bear is only three years old: There's no way that the bear could have possibly been a 3 year old brown bear, due to the size of the palm callus width of the front paw. Only the largest male brown bears have paw widths of that size. Even Krechmar (Russian bear specialist) said that an 18 cm palm callus width belongs to a very large bear.  *This image is copyright of its original author I assume that email was faked by a bear fan. Mikhail Milezhik confirmed that the killed male brown bear was an adult bear with a palm callus width of 18 cm. So how can the bear possibly be a 3 year old? Makes no sense, whatsoever. Q: I saw a news report in your reserve about a northeast tiger killing an adult brown bear, which said that it had a palm width of 18 centimeters. This is true? Thank you, wish you all the best! Mikhail Milezhik: Hello, yes the information is valid. *This image is copyright of its original author All the reports and the specialists who found the killed bear, specifically noted that the bear was "large" and of "impressive size". Even the partially-eaten carcass of the bear looks too large to be a young 3 year old brown bear. It was definitely a large adult male brown bear killed by the tiger. |
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