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Bear Strength
Bear Strength
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Bear Strength
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 (05-28-2016, 08:17 PM)chaos Wrote: Stength is one of the "bear necessities, the simple bear necessities". That song is fitting for a bear. A grizzly is physically capable of taking down large prey - example: 300 pound barren ground grizzlies have been known to fight and kill 900 pound musk oxen. However, a bear does not like risking death or injury and so will nearly always prey upon the juveniles of large animals such as elk, moose, or bison. They are foragers who spend much of their days browsing on vegetation, ants and termites, turning over rocks and ripping open stumps and fallen trees for insects, catching fish, and digging for roots or burrowing rodents. The song "King of the Road" by Roger Miller would just about be fitting for a bear. 
I agree, but one of the two are a lot more defined in the areas listed, which is my point.
Regardless this is about bear strength, not bear vs big cat strength so lets steer back to that
The grizzly Book by Jack Samson - Hunting the Grizzly by Ned W. Frost.
Incidentally, I had an interesting experience with "Old Four-Toes" myself which showed the tremendous strength of the animal. An eastern sportsman I was guiding had wounded a big bull elk and two days later when we finally found the body, the meat was spoiled so we removed only the scalp and antlers. After two or three days' time, when hunting in the same locality, we stopped to see if any animal had been working on the carcass. Much to our surprise, the carcass was gone but there were no tracks or blood signs in the tall grass of the meadow where it had lain. After considerable scouting about, I found some signs on a log several hundred yards up the hill. Beyond that point, through some timber, I found what remained of the elk, and there also I found a four-toed track. How that old grizzly had carried that full-grown elk carcass without leaving some sort of a trail in the tall grass has always remained a mystery to me. I will give you another example of grizzly strength. My father, brother, and I cut a heavy pine log to be used as a drag for a bear-trap. It was all we could do to drag it a few yards and slip the rung of a forty-two pound, number six, bear-trap over the little end. We set the trap near a raging stream in full spring flood. The trap was sprung the first night and the drag mark of the trap and log led into the swift water, down whose flood creast were drifting uprooted trees nearly one hundred feet long in almost endless numbers. Father bade his trap and bear goodbye, for it seemed that no living animal, handicapped with such weight, could survive that torrent. A cold spell came along and the water fell several feet, so that father, by picking a place where there were several channels, could ford the stream on a large horse. The trap and long-trail were picked up on the other side almost straight across, and the bear was soon located.
Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers.
No one doubts the grizzly's strength: old-timers, trappers, and hunters tell of grizzlies killing buffalo and dragging or carrying the huge and heavy carcass some distance over rough terrain, then burying it. Many stories have been told of the grizzly catching a buffalo or steer by the head with one paw and with the other breaking its neck. One stroke of his paw can tear the hide and ribs from a victim. However, despite his great strength, the bear has not always been victorious in these encounters. One story, for which I cannot vouch, concerns a powerful bull that was charged by a bear in a forest and, retaliating, struck his horns into his assailant, pinning him to a tree. In this situation both were later found dead, the bull from starvation, the bear from wounds. I know of a Kodiak bear and a bull moose that, joined in a standoff battle, dueled each other to death. A bull or moose cannot be easily killed unless the bear surprises the animal and strikes first. All three - moose, bull, and grizzly - have a terrible tenacity that matches their strength.
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. 
How much do you think a 180-pound brown bear subadult can pull/push horizontally? And if standing on two legs, how much do you think it can lift? (Answer: You'll be surprised.)
The Beast That Walks Like Man by Harold McCracken.
When a grizzly made a kill, of some other wild animal or domestic stock, he would generally drag it to some secluded spot to enjoy the feast. Large bears have been known to transport a full-grown elk or even a hefty steer a mile or more over rough and difficult country. Their strength is amazing. They did not make such a kill everyday. Sometimes it was infrequent. On such happy occasions, however, he ate very heartily; and, not being able to consume it all at one sitting, Old Ephraim gave serious attention to preserving and protecting what was left for future meals. After satisfying his immediate appetite he would cover up the cache with leaves or even parts of dead trees, sometimes digging out a shallow hole in the ground beforehand. Then he would wander away, to return for the next meal, or he might lie down near enough to protect it from trespassers.
@
You'll have to read the following study to find out (the 83 kg~180 pound bear provides the most staggering results): 
Nice study, I'd like to see a similar test administered to gorilla grip and pulling strength and a big cats pulling strength.
(05-31-2016, 12:27 AM)Pckts Wrote: Nice study, I'd like to see a similar test administered to gorilla grip and pulling strength and a big cats pulling strength. I'll try and look for studies of the two, but for some reason, though, the internet is lacking in studies relating to gorillas. Big cats can be an easier find, though. I also have quite a few personal experiences with bears (mainly polar bears during my Polar Bear International trips.) By the way, were you surprised that a 80-kg bear can pull 1720-kg? I always thought it would only pull up to 600-800 kg according to brotherbear's accounts. Even I underestimate the physicality of animals by quite a bit.
I'll have to create two more topics titled "Ape Strength" and "Big Cat Strength", and possibly (if anyone wants), "Saber-Tooth Cat Strength" since machairodontines are kind of a combination between bear/cat.
But let's not post any non-bear strength related stuff on this "Bear Strength" thread. (05-31-2016, 12:07 AM)Polar Wrote: @ Conclusion: Bears are noted to be extremely strong by both literature and first-hand accounts, and this approach is also true for very young bears. The ratio of the vertical pulling weight to the young bear's weight approximated at 4.624x, and the ratio of the horizontal pulling weight to the young bear's weight approximated at 20.550x, slightly more than 20 times his own body weight. Powerlifters and other humans, who lift according to their body's maximum loads, will usually vertically-pull 2.5 to 3.5 times their body weight. The power of the young bear in this experiment was astonishing, and this finding could provide more light into the muscle function of not only brown bears, but all bear species in general.
Fantastic find Polar. Would you be willing to repost something you discovered before; about the muscle tissue of older bears?
Off topic, but since it has been brought up; I once wrote what I perceived as a very polite letter to a gorilla sanctuary in Georgia ( USA ), and asked if their was any possible way to test the strength of a gorilla. I made it clear that the test should not in any way be harmful, uncomfortable, or unpleasant for the ape. The response I received was anything but pleasant. You would think that I had asked them to boil the gorillas alive.
There has never, to my knowledge, been any type of strength-test performed with a gorilla. |
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