Brown Bear

The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is a species of bear that can reach masses of 130–700 kg (220–1500 pounds). The Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), the Kodiak Bear and the Mexican Brown Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear. It is sometimes referred to poetically as the bruin.

Appearance

Brown Bears have furry coats in shades of blonde, brown, black, or a combination of those colors; the long outer guard hairs are often tipped with white or silver, giving a "grizzled" appearance. Brown bears have a large hump of muscle over their shoulders which give strength to the forelimbs for digging. Their forearms end in massive paws tipped with extremely powerful claws that can be up to 15 cm (5.9 inches) in length. Unlike the claws of other large predatory animals, such as lions or tigers, the claws are not retractable. This gives the claws a dull edge when compared to other predators. Despite the relatively dull edges to their claws, the sheer force of a blow from a large specimen is devastating. However, these claws are mainly used for digging, not for hunting. It uses its sharp canine teeth for neck-biting its prey when hunting. Bears use the same technique as tigers when hunting: they ambush their prey. Their heads are large and round with a concave facial profile. In spite of their size, some have been clocked at speeds in excess of 56 km/h (35 mph). Along with their strength and deceptive speed, Brown Bears are legendary for their physical stamina. They are capable of running at full speed for miles at a time without stopping. The largest subspecies of the Brown Bear are the Kodiak Bear and Alaskan Coastal Bear. Some exceptionally large male Kodiak stand over 3 m (10 feet) in height while on its hind legs, and weigh over 680 kg (1,500 lb).

Habitat

Once native to Asia, the Atlas Mountains in Africa, Europe and North America ^*, brown bears are now extinct in some areas and have had their numbers greatly reduced in others. They prefer semi-open country, usually in mountainous areas. The Brown Bear ranges from Alaska east through the Yukon and Northwest Territories, south through British Columbia and through the western half of Alberta. Isolated populations exist in northwestern Washington, northern Idaho, western Montana, and northwestern Wyoming.

The subspecies U. arctos horribilis (the Grizzly Bear) is the common brown bear of continental North America.
The subspecies U. arctos isabellinus (the Himalayan Brown Bear) is found in the foothills of the Himalaya.
The subspecies U. arctos middendorffi (the Kodiak Bear) includes bears on the Alaskan islands of Kodiak Island, Afognak Island, Shuyak Island, Admiralty Island, Chichagof Island, Baranof Island, other islands in southeastern Alaska, and along the mainland coast of southeastern Alaska.
The subspecies U. arctos nelsoni is found in northern Mexico.
The subspecies U. arctos yesoensis (the Hokkaido Brown Bear) is found on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

It is not known how long Ursus arctos has existed in North America. While there were certainly some there during the last part of the Ice Age, it is thought that the Brown Bear was not the dominant carnivore at the time. That role belonged to the far larger, taller, and stronger Giant Short-Faced Bear, also known as the Bulldog Bear, which was almost certainly dominant when the two animals met. The Giant Short-Faced Bear was adapted for fast running and meat from rather large animals was the main part of its diet; in contrast, the Grizzly or Brown Bear has teeth adapted to an omnivorous diet. The Giant Short-Faced Bear, on average, weighed twice as much as the Grizzly, despite some exceptional Grizzly Bears in the later Old West that were recorded to have grown to around 800 kilograms.

Ursus arctos also shared the land with the American lion and Smilodon, both apparently also dependent on large animals for food. But the Grizzly could eat plant food, insects, carrion, small animals of all kinds, and large mammals if needed, in contrast to the far more restricted food menu available to the giant cats and the Giant Short-Faced Bear. This made the other big carnivores very vulnerable to starvation if the supply of available large mammals gave out, which eventually happened, possibly due to hunting by humans.

For whatever reason the Ice Age herbivorous megafauna became extinct; the Sabertooth, American Lion, and Giant Short-Faced Bear could no longer find enough suitable food, and faded into extinction, leaving the Brown Bear alone as top North American predator, with the Gray and Dire wolves, the jaguar in the south, the American black bear, and puma also competing for large prey. It is not known precisely how long humans have lived in America, but the biggest human emigration there was about the time of the last Ice Age period, when the Paleo-Indians showed up. These people brought with them the Clovis point and advanced hunting techniques. If these people were responsible for wiping out the Ice Age herbivore megafauna, it can be argued that Ursus arctos benefited in numbers and range by the extinction of the competing predators.

In Europe, the Brown Bear outlasted the larger and closely related Cave Bear but the reasons why the Cave Bear became extinct are not clear. The Cave Bear was hunted by the Neanderthals who may have had a religion relating to this bear, the so-called Cave Bear Cult, but Neanderthal populations were not large enough to cause extinction. The Cave Bear also outlasted the Neanderthals by about 18,000 years, going extinct about 10,000 years ago. It thus held its own in Europe against modern humans for 180 centuries. Its diet was similar to the Brown Bear, which probably lived in the same area at concurrent times, so why it died out is a mystery.

The population of brown bears in the Pyrenees is so low (estimated at fourteen to eighteen, with a shortage of females) that releases of mostly female bears from Slovenia are in progress in the spring of 2006 to alleviate the imbalance, despite protests from French farmers. There are estimated to be about 200,000 Brown Bears in the world. The largest populations are in Russia, with 120,000, United States, with 32,500, and Canada with 21,750. Ninety-five percent of the population in the United States is in Alaska, though in the West the bears seem to be repopulating slowly but steadily along the Rockies and plains. In Europe, there are 14,000 brown bears in ten separate fragmented populations, from Spain to Russia and north into Scandinavia. They are extinct in the British Isles, extremely threatened or extinct in France and in trouble over most of Central Europe. The Brown Bear is Finland's national animal. The Carpathian Brown Bear population is the largest one in Europe outside Russia, estimated at 4,500 to 5,000 bears.

In Arctic areas, the potential habitat of the Brown Bear has actually been increasing. The warming of that region has allowed the species to move farther and farther north into what was once exclusively the domain of the Polar Bear. Although in non-Arctic areas, habitat loss is blamed as the leading cause of endangerment, followed by hunting.

Behaviour

The Brown Bear is primarily nocturnal and, in the summer, puts on up to 180 kg (400 pounds) of fat, on which it relies to make it through winter, when it becomes very lethargic. Although they are not true hibernators and can be woken easily, they like to den in a protected spot such as a cave, crevice, or hollow log during the winter months.

They are omnivores and feed on a variety of plant parts, including berries, roots, and sprouts; fungi; and fish, insects, and small mammals. Contrary to popular mythology, Brown Bears are not particularly carnivorous; they derive up to three-quarters of their dietary food energy from vegetable matter. Their jaws structure has been adapted to this diet habit, it is longer and lacks strong, sharp canine teeths of true predators. Interestingly, bears eat an enormous number of moths during the summer (sometimes as many as 20,000 to 40,000 in a day) and may derive up to a third of their food energy from these insects. They also occasionally prey on deer (Odocoeilus spp.; Dama spp., Capreolus spp.), Red Deer (Cervus elaphus or American elk), moose (Alces spp.). When brown bear attacks these animals, it carefully chooses young calves or aged, sick adults as they are slow and weak, thus will not be able to outrun the bear or put up resistance, which sometimes proves fatal to the hunter. Brown Bears have also been found stealing the kills of tigers, wolves, and pumas. In areas where Brown Bears and Siberian tigers coexist, brown bears are opportunists who often follow tigers's tracks to dispute its kill.

Normally a solitary animal, the Brown Bear congregates alongside streams and rivers during the salmon spawn in the fall. Every other year females produce one to four young, which weigh only about 1 to 2 kg (2 to 5 lb) at birth. Raised entirely by their mother, the cubs are taught to climb trees at the sign of danger.

Habituation to human areas

With the encroachment of humans into bear habitat, bears may become attracted to human-related food sources such as garbage dumps, litter bins, dumpsters, and so on, and may even venture into human dwellings or barns in search of food. In the U.S., it is not unheard of for a bear to kill and eat farm animals. Once a bear comes to associate human activity with a "food reward", a bear is likely to continue to become emboldened in its quest for food and human/bear encounters become more likely. There is a saying, "a fed bear is a dead bear", which has come into use to popularize the idea that allowing bears to scavenge human garbage, pet food, or other food sources that draw the bear into contact with humans can result in disaster for the bear.

Relocation has been used as a public appeasement strategy, and does not address the problem bear's newly learned "humans as food source" behavior. Nor does it address the environmental situations which created the human habituated bear. "Placing a bear in habitat used by other bears may lead to competition and social conflict, and result in the injury or death of the less dominant bear. ^*"

Though bears have been relocated to areas distant from human populations, some bears become "hooked" on a given food source and will return to the same location. Bears that have repeatedly returned to a given area, and thus have become perceived as dangerous, are sometimes killed to prevent human injuries or death.

Yellowstone National Park, an enormous reserve located in the Western United States, contains prime habitat for the Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), but due to the enormous number of visitors, human-bear encounters are not rare. The scenic beauty of the area has led to an influx of people moving into the area. In addition, because there are so many bear relocations to the same remote areas of Yellowstone, and because male bears tend to dominate the center of the relocation zone, female bears tend to be pushed to the boundaries of the region and beyond. The result is that a large proportion of repeat offender bears, bears that are destroyed for the public safety, are females. This creates a further depressive effect on an already endangered species (the Grizzly Bear is officially described as threatened in the U.S). Though the problem is most significant with regard to Grizzlies, these issues affect the other types of Brown Bear as well.

In Europe, part of the problem lies with shepherds; over the past two centuries, many sheep and goat herders have gradually abandoned the more traditional practice of using dogs to guard flocks (which have concurrently grown larger). Typically they allow the herds to graze freely over sizeable tracts of land. As bears reclaim parts of their range, they may take livestock as a means of survival. The shepherd is forced to shoot the bear to protect his livelihood, the community goes up in arms, and often the bears pay the price.

Subspecies

The subspecies of brown bears have been listed as follows; however, there is little agreement on classification:

Ursus arctos arctos – European Brown Bear
Ursus arctos beringianus – Siberian Brown Bear; Siberia
Ursus arctos californicus – Golden Bear (extinct)
Ursus arctos crowtheri – Atlas Bear (extinct)
Ursus arctos gobiensis – Gobi bear; Mongolia
Ursus arctos horribilis – Grizzly Bear; Canada and United States
Ursus arctos isabellinus – Himalayan Brown Bear; Nepal and North India
Ursus arctos middendorffi – Kodiak Bear (or "Alaska Coastal Brown Bear"); Kodiak, Afognak, Suyak, Admiralty, Chicagof, Baranof Islands (Alaska), plus other islands in southeastern Alaska and along the mainland coast of southeastern Alaska
Ursus arctos nelsoni – Mexican Grizzly Bear; (extinct?)
Ursus arctos pruinosus – Tibetan Blue Bear; Western China
Ursus arctos syriacus – Syrian Brown Bear; Middle East
Ursus arctos yesoensis – Hokkaido Brown Bear; Japan

Legal status

The Grizzly Bear (sometimes called the silvertip bear) is listed as threatened in the contiguous United States. It is currently slowly repopulating areas where it was previously extirpated, though it is still vulnerable.
The "California Grizzly Bear" disappeared from the state of California in 1922 when the last one was shot in Tulare County, California. It can be seen on the state flag of California. The California Grizzly Bear is alluded to in the names of the sports teams of the University of California, Berkeley (the California Golden Bears), and of the University of California, Los Angeles (the UCLA Bruins).
The Mexican Grizzly Bear is listed as endangered and may be extinct.
In Canada, it is listed as vulnerable in Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, and Yukon Territory. Prairie populations of Grizzly Bear are listed as extirpated in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

Bear encounters

It is extremely rare that brown bears kill or seriously injure humans but fatal encounters do happen. There are an average of two fatal attacks a year in North AmericaBear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, Stephen Herrero, revised edition, 2002.. In Scandinavia there are only three known cases during the last 100 years where humans have been killed by bears. This has usually happened because the bear is injured or a human encounters a mother bear with cubs. Some types of bears such as Polar Bears, are more likely to attack humans when searching for food while American Black Bears are much less likely to attack.

The Scandinavian Bear Research project lists the following situations as potentially dangerous:

Meeting an injured bear
A human suddenly appearing between a mother and her cubs
Meeting a bear in its cave
Meeting a bear who has been provoked by a dog

A careful person should always try to avoid these situations. Anybody who walks in a forest where there are bears could carry around an air horn (so called 'bear bells' tend to provoke a bear's curiosity) since a Brown Bear's natural instinct is to run away from humans; in groups trail songs are also effective. If camping, do not bring food into the tent and be sure to clean up all garbage; a bear thinks with its stomach. If one still meets a bear it is important to remain calm and to slowly walk in the opposite direction. A running human may trigger the bear's chasing instinct and a bear can outrun a human adult in terms of both speed and stamina. It is important not to make threatening moves, not to make eye contact nor to shout.

If a Brown Bear attacks and it is not possible to get away, the person should lie down in a fetal position and put his/her hands around the head to protect from bites. This may reduce damage to vital organs. Not panicing and pretending to be dead might save you.

Other bear encounters

American Black Bears, which attack to kill and to eat, require a different technique. For these, the person should huddle together if in a group, raise hands or backpack in the air to appear bigger, as well as make lots of noise. There is a good chance of scaring away a Black Bear. If it attacks anyway, fight back. Black Bears will often disengage if injured. The best defense, however, is to make plenty of noise in areas with bears to scare them away before an encounter.

Firearms for Defense

In some areas it is permissible to carry firearms to defend against bear attacks. This includes most of the state of Alaska and the Canadian bush. In parts of northern Canada a rifle of sufficient power is required equipment. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recommends as a minimum firearm for use against brown bear a rifle in the .30-06 range firing 200 grain expanding bullets moving at least 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) at impact. Many Alaskan hikers prefer using shotguns firing a Brenneke slug at magnum velocities or lever action rifles able to fire magnum-level .45-70 cartridges. These firearms are lighter and easier to tote than a full size bolt-action hunting rifle but can fire heavy hardcast slugs which impact with 3,000 ft·lbf or more at close range. They are less effective in hunting brown bear due to limited effective range, but for purposes of defense that is not of paramount concern.

It is also important to remember that the considerations while hunting a brown bear are different from those which arise while defending against an attacking brown bear. Hunters will wait for a broadside shot at the heart/lung area of an unsuspecting bear. With proper placement, almost any rifle is capable of taking a brown bear in these circumstances. Though it is not recommended and may be illegal under current game rules, historically the .30-30 and even .32-20 were used to hunt brown bear. When the bear is charging, however, a round of substantially more power is preferred to both disable the animal quickly and penetrate the thick layers of bone, fat and tissue between the bear's head and shoulders and its vital organs. Hitting the brain is notoriously difficult due to its placement deep below a muscular brow.

In the past decade, a number of high-powered handguns have been produced in the United States for use in handgun hunting and bear defense. These include the .454 Casull revolvers produced by Taurus and Ruger and the .500 Smith & Wesson produced for that company's supersized "X" frame revolver. While these cartridges, properly loaded, are sufficient to kill any bear, their enormous recoil and weight make them difficult to deploy quickly in the field. Their utility in defense against brown bears is still a matter of great controversy.

A number of pepper sprays have recently been developed as non-lethal and potentially safer defense against bear attacks. Pepper spray is deployed in the same manner one would deploy a can of mace; an effective shot is one to the face. Pepper spray is not used like insect repellant; spraying campsites with pepper spray seems to attract bears.

References

Bears

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