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Survival Skills of Bears
Survival Skills of Bears
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Survival Skills of Bears
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http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nature-up-cl...zly-bears/
Grizzly bears are creatures of the grasslands, and with fewer trees to climb, the best defense a mother bear can offer her cubs is a strong offense against male bears. Lewis and Clark found this out when they encountered their first grizzly bear on their journey of discovery -- a very different animal from the Eastern black bear with which they were familiar. A "most tremendous looking animal, and extremely hard to kill," wrote Lewis in his journal on May 5, 1805.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/m...an-shields By Virginia Morell June 21, 2016.
For a mother brown bear in Scandinavia, few sights are as terrifying as a strange male. Adult male bears are known to kill cubs that are not theirs—and sometimes the mother that defends them. A new study suggests that smart mama bears have found a surprising way to protect their young. To shield her cubs from male attacks, mom just has to raise them near an adult bear’s No. 1 enemy: humans. “People fear bears,” says Marcus Elfström, a wildlife ecologist at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in Ås, Norway, who was not involved in the research. But the new study shows that “vulnerable bears fear dominant [fellow bears] more than they fear people.” Female grizzly bears and Scandinavian brown bears move away from male territory after giving birth, often choosing areas far from the best bear habitats. If a mother loses her cub, she soon goes into heat, so an infanticidal male has a good chance of impregnating her. When researchers in Sweden found some mother bears and their cubs living near human settlements, they wondered whether it might be a reproductive strategy—a way of protecting their young from killer males. After all, adult male bears don’t often venture near towns because humans are likely to kill them. If it was for safety, did the mothers’ strategy work? To find out, researchers from NMBU tracked 30 GPS-collared mother brown bears in south-central Sweden from 2005 to 2012. Nineteen of the mothers successfully raised their cubs, but 11 lost their litters to infanticidal males. That’s in line with previous studies showing that some 35% of brown bear cubs in this region die every year, most of them from male attacks. When the researchers examined where the successful mothers lived during the mating season, they found that they stayed close to human settlements, at a median distance of 783 [b]meters, they report today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Some bears stayed even closer. “They were clearly using the humans as a shield,” says Sam Steyaert, a wildlife biologist at NMBU and the study’s lead author. [/b] The successful bear families also use clear-cut areas, where young trees and shrubs are thick. “These mothers select the densest vegetation, especially when they’re close to humans,” Steyaert says. “That way they can be very close to people, but the people don’t know they’re there,” potentially minimizing conflicts. Every year between August and October, people in the region hunt and kill bears, often close to homes and villages. But bear families—the mothers and the cubs—are not targeted. The smart mother bears seem to have figured this out. They stay closer to human settlements during the most likely time of male infanticide, the mating season. “It’s surprising because it shows that female bears are smart enough to think way ahead,” says William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University, Corvallis, who was not involved in the study. In contrast, the mothers who lost their cubs avoided areas with human settlements, roads, and clear-cuts, and instead stayed in areas with tree-rich bogs and forest. They kept a median distance of 1213 meters from any human habitation—exposing their offspring to despotic males in the process. The successful mother bears are engaging in [b]a tactic found elsewhere in the animal kingdom: treating the enemy of their enemy as a friend. “That’s a well-established strategy in ecology,” says Scott Creel, a wildlife ecologist at Montana State University, Bozeman. “But this study reveals that such ‘double negatives’ can have a big effect on survival.”[/b] The study also upends the long-held belief that some bears move close to human settlements because of easy access to food. The areas near homes and clear-cuts where the successful mothers live are much poorer in food quality than areas farther from human settlements. “They aren’t associating people with easily accessible food,” but with safety, Elfström says. That’s a difference wildlife managers should take into account when brown bears are spotted close to humans, he adds. But the study may raise more questions than it answers, says Merav Ben-David, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, who was not involved in this research. “Is this a learned behavior? And what happens to the cubs that were sheltered near human settlements? Are they more habituated to people, and thus, at greater risk of conflict [with humans] as adults?” All good questions, says Steyaert, who hopes that others will repeat his team’s study on other and larger brown bear populations. The study also upends the long-held belief that some bears move close to human settlements because of easy access to food. The areas near homes and clear-cuts where the successful mothers live are much poorer in food quality than areas farther from human settlements. “They aren’t associating people with easily accessible food,” but with safety, Elfström says. That’s a difference wildlife managers should take into account when brown bears are spotted close to humans, he adds. But the study may raise more questions than it answers, says Merav Ben-David, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, who was not involved in this research. “Is this a learned behavior? And what happens to the cubs that were sheltered near human settlements? Are they more habituated to people, and thus, at greater risk of conflict [with humans] as adults?” All good questions, says Steyaert, who hopes that others will repeat his team’s study on other and larger brown bear populations. 
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah - published in 1919.
I would give the grizzly first place in the animal world for brain-power. He is superior in mentality to the horse, the dog, and even the gray wolf. Instinct the grizzly has, but he also has the ability to reason. His ever-alert, amazingly developed senses are constantly supplying his brain with information - information which he uses, and uses intelligently. His powers of scent are exquisite. His ears hear faint sounds; they are continually on scout and sentinel duty. Wireless messages from long distances which his senses pick up are accurately received and their place of origin correctly determined.
http://www.sdl.lib.mi.us/history/curwood.html
James Oliver Curwood was an avid hunter long before he became a conservationist. He wrote fiction novels which were based on the real natural world. His book, 'The Grizzly King' ( 1916 ) was made into a popular movie, 'The Bear' in 1988. Of course, the French director, Jean-Jacques took a few liberties ( Disney style ). The book is much more exciting and informative than the movie. Also note that Thor was a real-life grizzly. One of the things that got me to thinking came from a conversation between the two fictional hunters, Langdon ( the older, wiser, more experienced ) and the younger hunter, Bruce. I will not copy word for word from the book; much too lengthly. But here is the gist of it: The old hunter was saying that most books written about grizzlies either make a hunter laugh or make him angry. For example, the idea of a grizzly making his scratch marks on a tree and, supposedly the next boar grizzly that comes along tests his reach against the dominant boar who had made his mark. Utter nonsense! Most grizzly experts today will tell you that a grizzly is not territorial. Curwood had another idea. The dominant boar grizzly is indeed territorial; but the rules of a grizzly are not the same as the rules of a big cat ( big cats not mentioned in the book ). The apex boar grizzly will allow other grizzlies and other predators to live within his domain. After all, while some grizzlies are more predatory than others, no grizzly depends solely on meat. The top grizzly will ignore the other males so long as they stay out of his way. To challenge him over a berry bush, a choice fishing spot, or a female will not go unpunished. He will patrol his kingdom often, making sure that all who live there knows and understands that he is their lord and master.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills - published in 1919.
A Utah grizzly killed about 1,000 head of cattle in fifteen years. During this time there was a large reward offered for his death. Numerous attempts were made to capture him. Old hunters and trappers tried with rifles and traps; expeditions of men, horses, and dogs pursued him. All these years he lived on as usual in his home territory, made a kill every few days, and was seen only two or three times. Another grizzly, eluded pursuers, slaughtered live stock freely, and managed to survive thirty-five years of concerted efforts to kill or capture him. There was a rich reward on his head. There are similar accounts of Clubfoot, Three-Toes, and other outlaw grizzlies. All of these bears slaughtered cattle by the hundreds in their home territory, lived with heavy prices on their heads, and for years outwitted skillful hunters and trappers, escaping the well-organized posse again and again. Knowing many of the hunters and their skillful methods, and the repeated triumphs of other grizzlies over combinations and new contrivances, I am convinced that the grizzly bear is an animal who reasons.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills.
This is rather lengthy, so I will not hand-copy the entire story. But, Enos Mills is telling about numerous cases of how a grizzly will sometimes take precautions of hiding his footprints. I know of no other animal who does this. Most predators hunt more by scent that by site. But, being the 'thinkers' that they are, some grizzlies have figured out that man is a site-hunter and that he looks for footprints. Here are some quotes: Then he traveled on a short distance to another small area. Doubling in his tracks, he came back for one hundred feet or so in the trail he had thus made. Working toward his first trail, he hid his tracks by leaping among fallen timbers and bushes, and at last made a leap into his first trail by the bowlder, where he made many tracks in the snow. Along this trail he traveled east again a short distance, stepped precisely in his former footprints. Out of this trail he leaped upon the top of a low, snowless bowlder on the right, and from this upon another bowlder. He walked along a bare fallen log. Here I must have searched more than two hours before detecting two or three broken sticks, which gave me a clew to the direction he had taken. From the log he walked upon a cross log and then plunged through fifty or sixty feet of thicket which showed no trail. From where he had emerged on the farther side of the thicket there was little by which to trace him for the next quarter of a mile. 
You missed the best survival skill among bears species - piggy back their cubs till they reach adulthood in Indian jungles.
 *This image is copyright of its original author It proves offensive is the best defensive in predators land.  *This image is copyright of its original author Because of the stupid wild life laws this is not possible but these ''dancing bears'' can be best PETS in the world.   *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...child.html Last but not least this is the only bear which regularly kills humans, it doesn't have weapons to kill a man instantly instead it starts eating face.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills.
In Alaska I saw a grizzly out at sea, swimming vigorously along between two islands that were seven miles apart. The grizzly is fond of water, is an excellent and enduring swimmer, and in the water fights effectively.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills.
The grizzly spends about a third of each year in hibernation. He may use the same den year after year, repairing and reshaping it; or perhaps he will dig a new one. Sometimes he goes outside his own territory for a den to his liking. He is sometimes driven forth during hibernation by landslides as well as by snow-slides and floods.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills.
Perhaps it would be well if we could think of the grizzly as being largely vegetarian. He digs up roots; feeds on weeds, tender shoots of shrubbery, fungi, mushrooms, berries, seeds, rose-hips, pine-nuts, and acorns; and also eats bark like a rabbit and grass like a grass-eater. A bear will reach up and pull down the top of a plum tree, and, biting it off, eat the small limbs, the bark, the leaves, and the fruit. A grizzly browsing in a wild raspberry-patch will bite off the tops of the vines together with the berries, the leaves, and the thorns. Sometimes the twigs and terminal buds of the pine, the fir, and the spruce are eaten. One day I saw a grizzly approaching in a manner which indicated that he knew exactly where he was going. On arriving at an alder clump by the brook he at once began tearing off the bark and eating it. On another occasion I watched a bear strip nearly all the bark within reach from a young balsam fir. I have often seen places where bears had bitten and torn chunks of bark from aspens and cottonwoods. Though they also tear the bark from pine and spruce trees, I do not believe that this is eaten as frequently as the bark of the broad-leaved trees. During the first few weeks after coming out of the winter den much of the grizzly's food is likely to be of the salad order - juicy young plant stalks, watery shoots, tender bark, young grasses, buds, and leaves. In late autumn, just before hibernation, his last courses are mostly roots and nuts.
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills.
However, the normal grizzly is an omnivorous feeder. He will eat anything that is edible - meat ( fresh, stale, or carrion ), wasps, yellow-jackets, grasshoppers, ants and their eggs, bugs, and grubs. Of course he eats honey and the bees. He also captures snakes, and many a rat and rabbit. He is a destroyer of many pests that afflict man, and in the realm of economic biology he should be rated high. I doubt if a dozen cats, hawks, or owls annually catch as many mice as the average grizzly. The food of a grizzly is largely determined by locality. Along the streams of the northern Pacific Coast he lives chiefly upon fish, while the grizzlies in the Bitter Root Mountains and British Columbia generally feed upon roots and plants. Those in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the Southwest have a mixed diet. 
@
About #118: I also heard this maxim about grizzlys "the only one thing they don't eat is the stone".
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills.
The spring-beauty, the dog-tooth violet, and the shooting-star, both tops and roots, supply the grizzlies of some localities with much of their food, while in other regions they rarely, and possibly never, touch them, though they grow abundantly. The bears in the Bitter Root Mountains eat the shooting-star freely, while the violet and the spring-beauty are favored by the bears of the Selkirks. Yet, strange though it is, the bears of both localities pay little attention to carcasses which they find. One of the plant roots which the bears of British Columbia dig out in autumn until the ground is frozen, is a wild pea, the hedysarum. I frequently follow a grizzly whose home territory was close to my cabin in the Rocky Mountains. Apparently he liked everything. One day he spent hours digging out mice. On another he caught a rabbit. He ate a bumblebee's nest, and, with the nest, the grass, the bees, their young, their honey, and their stings. |
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