The spectacled bear is a South American cousin of the Siberian bear

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

The spectacled bear is the only representative of the glorious bear family on the South American continent. He prefers to settle mainly in the humid forests of the Andean highlands, but some individuals wander into the lowlands. Sometimes it can be found at an altitude of about two hundred meters above sea level. The spectacled bear has an unconventional diet for his family: he

predominantly vegetarian, although sometimes he does not disdain eating carrion. Among the bears, only the panda, which eats exclusively bamboo shoots, is more "pacifist" than him.

The unusual name of the animal was due to the peculiarity of the color: light rings resembling glasses are located around the eyes. From them, the bear got its name. True, these features of pigmentation of the hairline are not found in all representatives of the species.

The size of the spectacled bear is inferior to its relatives: its length- no more than one hundred and eighty centimeters (not counting the seven-centimeter tail), height at the withers - up to seventy-six centimeters, and weight - up to one hundred and forty kilograms. Like most other members of the family, the spectacled bear climbs trees well and builds a lair for itself. True, he does not want to hibernate, and uses the lair exclusively for raising offspring. Really - why hibernate when there is so much food around?

The mating season for spectacled bears lasts from April to June, and the pregnancy lasts eight months. From one to three tiny cubs weighing from three hundred to six hundred grams are born. But the cubs grow quickly, and already at the age of a month they roam after their mother when she is busy looking for food. Sometimes they use their parent as a mount, climbing on her back during such journeys. And in half a year they become completely independent and leave the bear, because the spectacled bear is a solitary animal.

Bears eat everything that gets under their paws. But the main diet is plant foods: grass, palm branches, various fruits. They give particular preference to plants of the Bromeliad family, which make up up to half of the volume of food they eat. The most famous representative of bromeliads is the well-known pineapple. The South American bear's lip is not stupid!

Having found a large accumulation of fruits on top of a palm tree, the bears climb there and, having built something like a nest or a couch from the branches, live without going down to the ground untiluntil they eat everything around them. The spectacled bear is genetically a predator and theoretically can devour small animals in a hungry year, but in practice this is extremely rare. Still, in the tropics, yes, you can’t find plant food! Spectacled bears are not particularly agile. The speed of movement is simply unnecessary for them. The speed of the Andean clone bear is very far short of that of its Siberian counterpart, whose running speed can reach sixty kilometers per hour.

In practice, the predation of the spectacled bear is limited to destroying termite mounds and eating their inhabitants. It also annoys the South American peasants, as it often messes with their fields, devouring young shoots of corn and sugar cane. Cases of attacks by bears on livestock have also been noted, but this does not happen often. The peasants taught the animals to stay away from their private property. But photographs of bears are popular in the countryside of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela - the places where the animals are most widespread. Peasants decorate their poor dwellings with them.