Bear Interactions with Other Predators

[brotherbear]

Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers.
It is the mother bear's responsibility to care for the new generation alone. She will fight and drive away any male bear or other animal that might attempt to molest her or her young ones. A naturalist at Yellowstone Park told me of seeing a male grizzly trying to attack two cubs. The mother drove her cubs up a tree for protection, then fought the male. Whenever he attempted to go up the tree after the cubs, the mother would pull him down.
Occasionally, after the cubs have grown a bit and are able to care somewhat for themselves in the den, she will venture out for short periods. It is then that the fisher ( called the black cat ) will steal into the den and carry off a baby bear. These animals are the principal enemies of the young grizzly. If the mother returns while these pillagers are in the cave or den, she makes quick disposal of them.
When the cubs are about two months old, weighing between ten and twenty pounds, and of a size with a mountain hare, the mother leads them forth to learn the art of making a living. A good teacher but a strict disciplinarian, she teaches her little ones how to play and how to work; how and when to travel and when and where to lie low; what herbs are good and where to find them; how to meet and treat other animals. There is not a more sagacious animal than the grizzly bear, or a more concerned mother. Hard-pressed victims of attack have more than once found occasional to be grateful for this concern, when the mother, in the midst of administering a mauling, pauses in her fury in order to cuff her cubs to keep them out of danger. Reply