Siberian tigers & Amur leopards Photography tours! Come to discover wild Russia!

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(12-22-2018, 11:45 AM)Olga.bohai Wrote:

(12-21-2018, 11:33 AM)peter Wrote: Research says tigers hunt female brown bears with cubs more often than was assumed. You said that female brown bears, as a result, had left some districts. It's known that male tigers hunt bears in particular. When female brown bears leave a district, they have to find alternatives. Anything known on what male tigers hunt apart from bears? Or do they follow bears?

It's known that tigers, even those who often hunt adult female brown bears, do not hunt male brown bears. You said they seem to avoid each other. Is this true for both, or is one avoiding the other? What's the opinion of your guides on male tigers and bears?

According to Dmitry Pikunov, female brown bears with cubs can be dangerous. During his career, 27 people were killed by brown bears. Some of them were collegues. Would you say brown bears in the Russian Far East are more dangerous than elsewhere? Any particular reason?

I wouldn't say that tigers hunt bears (both males and females) intentionally, this is not their main diet, their favorite are wild boars. But they can kill and eat bears if they meet each other on the forest trails. They rarely follow bears in the forest.
Tigers hunt bears' cubs because it is easy for them. 
I wouldn't say Russian brown bears are more dangerous in the Far East than others, people are killed by brown bears mostly because of their ignorance and incaution in the forest. Almost the same reason for people killed by Amur tigers: may be 90% cases is human fault. All tigers which became human killers were attacked by the humans before.

That was interesting, when here was first mentioned about what Pikunov had said. I was mainly interested at that point if that claim was concerned about it, how bears act with tigers and maybe more aggressive towards tigers than normally seen with other smaller predators like wolves and wolverines etc.

What comes to humans, bears are quite harmless if/when people understand bears and how they behave. So many people have strange thoughts and simply lack of information. In my country everyone gets some basic knowledge about predators living here, especially about the bears and wolves, because those can be met in whole country. Last time a man was killed by a bear was 1998 if I remember right, anyway those cases are extremely rare. By wolf last time has been in 19h century, I don´t remember exactly when now, but about 130-150 years ago. Still reasonable people understand, that what situations can be dangerous and how to avoid getting in "danger zone".

For ordinary people who walk in the woods it is quite easy to avoid bears. Keep some noise, normal talking etc. Especially if walking against the wind. That is usually enough because bears go away if they hear that someone approaches. Potentially dangerous situations are those, where you manage to get close to a bear and surprise it so, that it gets frightened. In that situation it is impossible to know if it flee or attack, both can happen even though especially young bears tend to flee if there is room for that. Another is naturally if managing to get between mother bear and cubs, there you need nerves of steel and calm behavior to get away unharmed. Just getting near mother bear and cubs isn´t as dangerous, even though also there you need to understand bear behavior well and again be able to be calm.

One dangerous place is if you manage to get nearby the bear den, when it has just started hibernation and if I remember right also when it is close to wake in the spring. These bears can be very unpredictable if someone disturbs them so, that waking up. Accidents have happened for instance when dogs in moose hunt have noticed bear den and went there, that is dangerous for dog and hunter following dogs barking can have a nasty surprise when getting closer. 

But anyway bear is in normal conditions a very calm animal avoiding humans when it notices them. You can go through the forest with a lot of bears perfectly safely, if you just understand nature of it. It is said, that bear is like an old wise man, who doesn´t want to be disturbed, but if that happens, it can snarl sometimes.

I put here one video to show how an experienced bear expert acts, there is situation with a mother bear. They teach us, that if you meet a bear and manage to surprise it, never turn your back for it, move away backwards facing it all the time. Talk to it calmly. That demands naturally nerves or steel, but... well see yourself :) Look from 0:47 to 1:07 how a mother bear acts. And how this man gets out of "danger zone".

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