Brown bears are a small closed group of predatory mammals. They live in mountain forests and taiga. In addition to Russia, they are found in the Atlas Mountains (north of Africa), in Asia and Europe. To date, their number has decreased and has 125-150 thousand individuals.
Adult animals weigh 75-100 kg. The length of their body is on average about 2 m, and at the withers - about 1 m. Under good living conditions, the height can reach up to 140 cm with a length of up to 260 cm and a weight of about 800 kg. This is how gigantic a brown bear can grow. The photo shows them well. The skin can be of different shades: from reddish to dark brown.
Unlike many predatory animals, brown bears also eat plant foods. They love roots, young shoots of plants, mushrooms, nuts, berries and may not eat meat for a long time. Although their main food is small rodents, various insects and honey.
Polar and brown bears are considered clumsy. So you can say only during the period when they are preparing for hibernation. The rest of the time they are excellent swimmers, overcoming a strong current, and brown ones also deftly climb slopes and trees. These predatorsable to run long and fast, chasing the prey. Bears do not take strength, they can drag prey weighing 5 centners for several kilometers.
Brown bears have excellent hearing and sense of smell. But they do not see very well, especially stationary objects. They live an average of 30-40 years, in captivity they can live up to 45. They live in certain areas, considering them their property and protecting them from the encroachments of strangers.
Only hunger can force them to leave their chosen place. In search of food, they are able to travel hundreds of kilometers, because by hibernation they need to accumulate up to 10 cm of fat layer so that it is enough for the entire period of sleep. Hungry brown bears do not go to sleep, becoming rods. During such a period, they are very dangerous, they can attack wild animals and even people, wandering into settlements.
For dens, brown bears look for remote places, carefully confusing their own tracks. The first days in the den, the bear is lightly dozing, and not sleeping. Their winter sleep is shallow and differs from the hibernation of other animals. During sleep, their body temperature drops slightly (only 3-4 degrees), and their body weight decreases by about 40%. The duration of hibernation depends on the weather, the age and he alth of the bear. As a rule, they wake up in April.
Cubs in bears are born in the middle of winter, while females do not wake up. Babies appear blind, naked, toothless, weighing no more than 0.5 kg. Eating rich mother's milk, they grow quite quickly. By the time they leave the lair, they weigh 6-7 kg and manage toget furry.
The male, leaving the den, begins to actively look for food, gain weight. The mother bear behaves in a completely different way: she gives the food she finds to the babies, no matter how hungry she is. At the same time, she carefully monitors whether something threatens her offspring. All summer the mother wanders with the cubs, teaching them the necessary skills. By autumn, the young growth grows well, but the cubs do not leave the bear. Next season, when the mother has new cubs, the older ones (they are called nurslingers) will take care of them. Surprisingly, the family always moves in a certain order: the mother is in front, the kids are behind her, and the fosters are at the end.
Brown bears have been known to man since ancient times. However, there are a lot of unexplored issues related to their life. For example, why do some individuals settle the lair somehow, while others carefully prepare it. Why do some go to bed in the place where they live, while others go hundreds of kilometers away? Let's hope that answers to these and other questions will be found, and the number of these animals will increase.
