Russian Brown Bears

[brotherbear]

Where there is a nest of a bear with cubs one will never find tracks of other mammals, such as roe deer, Siberian elk, hare, and other animals. This serves as one sign when you are searching for a bear's apartment! Besides, in the wintertime, when it is very cold, water vapor coming out of the bear's den and condensing on nearby bushes is a sure sign that the bear is in the den.
The bear likes Manchurian pine nuts very much, eats them in huge quantities, and becomes very fat. A bear in the nut garden is fun to watch! See how the bear picks pine cones, standing on his hind legs and gathering them in I pile, or holding them between his paws and his chest. Then, he carries the cones onto a clear place, and rolls them between his paws or on the ground or on a rock so the nuts come out and become a tasty treat. He also eats salty plants and especially mineral water, and laps it in large quantities like a dog.

Prior to his time of denning, in late fall, the bear does not eat anything, except bear root and some grass ( I could not find its name ), which cleans his intestines so they become as clean as though they were washed, and then he dens up. This is a strange thing, and I want to attract the attention of gentlemen hunters and naturalists to it. The bear lies in the den with so-called vtulok. This is nothing but a cylindrical lump the size of a fist located in the bear's rectum, near its outer part. Whenever a bear is killed in Transbaikalia, it always has this vtulok. It is never found in shatuns, bears that do not den in wintertime for a variety of reasons. This vtulok is very tough and it is hard to smash with an ax butt or a rock; I do not know about its composition and what its function or meaning is for the bear. Siberians say that it locks the heat inside the bear for the entire winter. This is a peculiar explanation! I think that maybe it is formed of some intestinal junk as a result of the bear's stopping feeding; or maybe it is the remaining waste, which, after diarrhea during hibernation, heat, and the absence of formation of excrement inside the den, turned into such a condition? I am sorry that I did not investigate these vtulok well. They look like they are formed out of chewed coniferous tree leaves, or bark. Maybe the bear eats these materials instinctively for a certain naturally designed end? These vtuloks are sometimes found in uvals ( sunny grassy mountain slopes ) where bears live. One who does not know about them may take them for something else, but never as a thing formed inside the bear's stomach!! There have been examples where, in some bears killed in dens, two vtuloks were found, situated one after another near the rectum. Local hunters have a funny explanation. They say that the bear prepares two vtuloks just in case one of them would shoot out if the bear were frightened. Then the other one would still remain, and he could lie down again in another den to finish his hibernation. They also say that without the vtulok bear will not overwinter but will freeze to death. It would be interesting to find out if such vtuloks occur in bears killed in climates warmer than in Transbaikalia? Reply