Brown Bears (Info, Pics and Videos)

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Here some information about brown bears and how they use prey of other predators. I am not sure how much it is studied, but at least in Russian far east a little bit. Interesting part was, that from total trail of one studied bear, 22% of that was tracking other predators and following them to find something to eat. Of course this bear was most probably one not hibernating. It would be interesting to see results from time, when all bears are awaken in early spring and late autumn especially. And from many bears.

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"Feeding on Carrion and Prey of Other Predators
Brown bears are commonly consuming dead animals found by them (Zavatsky, 1979, Zyryanov, 1979, Kaletskaya, 1981, Zhiryakov, 1987, Pazhetnov, 1990), including in Sikhote-Alin (Bromlei, 1965, Matyushkin, 1974, Darman, 1982, Yudin, 1993, Zaitsev and Seryodkin, 2011). The results of the capture of bears conducted by us in the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve have shown that they are attracted to carrion (Seryodkin et al., 2005b). In 1992–2001 six brown bears were caught with the use of bait: three animals using meat bait and three — using fish bait. The rate of successful capture was much higher using these baits (560 days/individual), rather than using trails and marked trees (1196 days/individual). Meat baits are consumed by the animals in any season.
Besides dead and wounded animals bears eat the prey of other predators and the remnants of their meals in Sikhote-Alin. Most often, the bears consume prey of tigers and lynxes(Matyushkin, 1974, Kostoglod, 1976, Seryodkin et al., 2005a). A case of using the prey of yellow-throated marten is known (Zaitsev, 1991). Large bears cannot only eat up remains after tigers, but also chase them off their prey or join the fight (Sysoev, 1966, Kucherenko, 1971, Kostoglod, 1976, Seryodkin et al., 2005a). In the snow period some bears purposely track tigers and lynxes to find the remains or take away their prey (Kostoglod, 1976, Seryodkin et al., 2012). According to observations of Kostoglod, the trail of a bear not settled in its lair tracking other predators in order to capture their prey was 22% of the total length of the bear trail (44 km out of 200 km) (Kostoglod, 1976). In the spring before snow melting bears look for animals which died during winter and prey of tigers buried in snow (Seryodkin et al., 2005a). For this purpose bears go along the floodplain of a river or a creek, often leaving the path to examine interesting places, winding, sometimes stopping to sniff. A bear is able to smell the odor of the remains of an animal at a distance of 250 m at a temperature below 0 °C. Bears also go in the footsteps of their relatives, picking uneaten remains of carrion. Snowtracking of three brown bears in the basin of a creek in the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve in April revealed that along the 17 km trail the bears have four times found the remains of red deer crushed by tigers during the winter, and once — a whole red deer that died of a broken limb. In three cases other bears have been on these tiger prey before them."

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...201630027X Reply