Survival Skills of Bears

[brotherbear]

California Grizzly by Tracy I. Storer and Lloyd P. Tevis, Jr.

The bodily framework of the grizzly is substantial, to support the weight of the animal; yet the bear has a greater degree of flexibility in its movements than is possible in many other sturdily built mammals. This freedom of motion is a correlated function of the bones, ligaments, and muscles. The skeleton of a bear - grizzly or other kind - is much like that of related carnivores, but there are many small differences.

A noticeable massiveness is evident in all the bones. The neck vertebrae are large but are capable of much rotation movement, the spinous processes along the back on the dorsal vertebrae are heavy, and the shoulder blade is ample. The limbs are of nearly equal length. Both fore and hind feet are fully plantigrade: the entire surface of each foot comes in contact with the ground as the bear walks. The bones used in lifting or extending the feet ( the pisiform on the fore foot, the calcaneum on the hind ) are larger than in some other carnivores. All bones of the legs, both front and rear, are separate. In the front leg, the radius and ulna are of nearly equal size for easy and powerful rotation of that member; and in the hind leg, the fibula, which is involved in twisting movements, is free and larger in relation to the tibia than in mammals unable to make such movements. These skeletal features, together with the muscles attached to them, give the bears dexterity in using their limbs - more or less in the manner of human beings ( fig. 11 ). Reply