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| Brown Bear - Ursus arctos | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 7 2012, 08:00 PM (28,283 Views) | |
| Warsaw2014 | Jan 6 2015, 12:55 AM Post #76 |
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Herbivore
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http://www.canadianveterinarians.net/ "...Then we got into the meat of the issues, such as the differences in the attack and feeding methods of the bear, coyote, wolf, and cougar. The presenters also discussed how the location the carcass is found in relates to predator type. These were just some of the investigative points that the COs wanted to bring to our attention. The morning started with bears—both grizzlies and black bears. The presenting described grizzlies as thinkers, compared to black bears, which are more opportunistic and reactive to their surroundings. He related a story about a grizzly that systemically wore down the battery at a garbage dump in northern BC by laying his shoulder into the fence, draining the battery to exhaustion, and then climbing over it. These are extremely fast, powerful, and nocturnal omnivores with an ability to detect scent that is equal to, or better than, that of dogs. According to the COs’ statistics, a black bear’s order of preference for livestock, from most preferred to least, are cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, swine, and finally, household pets. Horses are usually only attacked by grizzly bears. The key identifier of a bear attack is often a large bite or crush wound, somewhere along the thoraco-lumbar spine, as the bear attacks from the hind end and grabs on, working its way cranially. Another telltale sign of a bear feeding on live-stock is what looks like a degloving injury on the limbs. The CO also described bear attacks as inefficient, with livestock often having severe wound -ing prior to death. They described carcasses with crushed vertebrae, which made me think twice about walking alone in the woods! Bears will often drag their carcasses to a covered area and then semi-bury their kill, allowing it to rot..." http://www.canadianveterinarians.net/documents/West%20Coast%20Veterinarian%20Magazine%20March%202012 |
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| maker | Jan 7 2015, 06:23 PM Post #77 |
Apex Predator
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http://www.iew.ir/1393/10/13/32492 http://www.fws.gov/FieldNotes/regmap.cfm?arskey=35482&callingKey=state&callingValue=AK Alaska is not in the Mountain-Prairie Region though: http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/ Edited by maker, Jan 7 2015, 06:55 PM.
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| Warsaw2014 | Feb 7 2015, 09:16 AM Post #78 |
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Herbivore
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A pretty interesting paper. credit to Sarus: http://skroc.pl/dd98b |
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| Mesopredator | Apr 17 2015, 01:30 AM Post #79 |
Disaster taxa
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Seems wild Russian bears like jetfuel, or so this article claims: http://www.thefix.com/content/russian-bears-hooked-jet-fuel91494    I think I'll stick to strong liquor, thanks. Silly bear folk. Edited by Mesopredator, Apr 17 2015, 01:30 AM.
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| Warsaw2014 | May 2 2015, 10:28 PM Post #80 |
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Herbivore
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 ‘Famous’ grizzly bear feared shot by hunters in B.C.’s Chilcotin region VANCOUVER – A photographer based in Canmore, Alberta, is expressing concern that one of the most recognizable female grizzly bears from the Chilcotin region of B.C. has been shot and killed during the grizzly hunt. Known as ‘Big Momma,’ the estimated 700-pound grizzly bear has been seen for years in the area, usually with cubs. “Big Momma is/was an extremely large female grizzly bear with a quiet easy-going disposition around people,” said photographer John E. Marriott, in an email interview. “She rarely seemed to care if she was getting photographed, regardless of whether she had cubs or not. My groups have observed her with two sets of cubs since 2009.” Hunters are discouraged from shooting female grizzly bears. Marriott first visited the Chilcotin to photograph grizzlies in 2007 and began leading tours there in 2009. He has been a photographer for more than 20 years. “To date I’ve led 11 tours there of 53 photographers, each paying $3,500 [to] $5,000. The tours all leave from Vancouver via charter aircraft. The same bears are all ‘shot’ year-after-year,” he said. He does not know for sure if Big Momma was shot and killed, but said it was unusual for her to not show up in the area in 2014 “coinciding with the re-opening of the trophy hunt after these bears had developed a trust with the locals and visitors to the area over the past 13 years.” Big Momma could have died of natural causes but it remains unknown. In the B.C. Hunting and Trapping Synopsis (page 21), it states: Compulsory Inspection and Compulsory Reporting are a requirement for specific game species under the BC Hunting Regulations. These species are submitted for the purposes of data collection and enforcement. The Compulsory Inspection process includes taking measurements and/or parts of the animals for scientific analysis and provides wildlife managers with valuable information about the sex, age and condition of animals being harvested. Without adequate information, the risk of over harvests would increase, thereby requiring managers to set more conservative harvest levels in order to protect animal populations. “She certainly could have died of natural causes, but there is also a high likelihood she was shot, either by a hunter, a poacher, or a ‘shoot, shovel, and shut-up’ rancher,” said Marriott. “There has always been a low level of tolerance for grizzly bears in the neighbouring ranch communities and rumours are always circulating about bears that have disappeared.” He said the well-known grizzly could also have altered her behaviour after being shot at legally, or illegally, and chose to avoid the area for a more secure habitat. Photo by John E. Marriott. Photo by John E. Marriott. But Marriott said the story of Big Momma is about a bigger issue. “My level of frustration with the B.C. government has reached an all-time high with recent wildlife ‘mis’-management decisions like this one, led by what I now feel is an unjustly-biased Ministry that is in bed with the trophy hunting industry,” he said. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, said there were 3,067 Limited Entry Hunt authorizations issued for grizzly bears in 2014 (1,458 in spring and 1,609 in fall). Due to success rates, the ministry said more tags were issued than bears are harvested. “For 2014, only 165 grizzlies were actually harvested from these authorizations. In addition, 102 were harvested by guide outfitters for a total harvest of 267.” Marriott said, for the Chilcotin region, the numbers are not adding up. “You would think that having three unfilled tags last spring would indicate that there aren’t as many grizzlies as the government would have us believe, yet now they’ve doubled (tripled) down and increased the number of tags for the area to [nine],” he said. “I’m astounded at this level of incompetency, even from government biologists. Keep in mind that the reason the Chilcotin grizzly bear hunt was suspended 13 years ago was because of overkill.” The B.C. Government said there are approximately 15,000 grizzly bears in the province, although that number has been disputed. Photo by John E. Marriott. Photo by John E. Marriott. Marriott is concerned about the ecotourism in the region. “If we lose (or have already lost) Big Momma and a few of our other star regulars because of this hunt, then my Chilcotin grizzly bear photo tours are finished,” he said. “I want to know why the government is willing to take that chance so some hunter can have a head to mount on their wall or a rug on their floor. It’s terrible management no matter how you look at it.” “The Ministry’s assertion that trophy hunting and bear viewing can co-exist is absurd in my opinion. Bears that get shot with guns don’t stick around to get shot with cameras, unfortunately, otherwise we would have fantastic grizzly bear viewing all over the province rather than just in a few select pockets that don’t allow trophy hunting.” Here is the breakdown for the 2015 spring grizzly bear Limited Hunting Entries by areas in B.C. “I just don’t see how hunting bears that have been protected, viewed, and photographed for the past thirteen years is something that ‘Beautiful BC’ should be proud of,” said Marriott. “I am likely going to be returning to the Chilcotin this spring to try to document grizzly bear hunters driving up and down the roads looking for and shooting bears. I’ll definitely be back in the fall for one more year of photo tours, at which point I’ll make a decision on whether or not the tours can continue.” © Shaw Media, 2015 http://globalnews.ca/news/1932442/famous-grizzly-bear-feared-shot-by-hunters-in-b-c-s-chilcotin-region/ |
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| Warsaw2014 | Jun 4 2015, 03:55 PM Post #81 |
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Herbivore
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Age changes in some parts of skull of brown bear (Ursus arctos L.) Chashchukhin V.А., DSc, professor, leading researcher B.M. Zhitkov All-Russian Institute of Game and Fur Farming, Kirov, Russia E-mail: vniioz@mail.ru Significant morphological variability complicates the use of measurable traits to determine the sex and age of brown bears. In such a situation traits are particularly important that vary with age depending on the duration of exposure to physical activity. Natural cause of such a load is logical to consider the need for extraction and consumption of food. Priority attention should be given to the morphological changes of teeth and bones of the skull holding large chewing muscles. The material for the study were 32 skulls of brown bears of all ages from the collections of the Faculty of Biology of the Vyatka State Agricultural Academy, Kirov regional and Kirov city societies of hunters and fishermen. The place of bears' capture - Kirov, Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions, Perm area and Komi Republic. chewing surface of premolars and molars of the upper and lower jaw, angular and articular processes with the lateral side of the mandible, sagittal crests and selectively incisors were photographed to compare age-related changes. Chewing surface of molars are exposed to the greatest transformation with age. The clearly distinguishable hillocks on the surface of the teeth in young bears with time gradually erased disappear in adults, in old specimens formed through with a wide exposure of dentin. The process of erasure and disappearance of hillocks is less characteristic for the last premolars. Incisors significantly change with age. The incisors of young bears are long, wide at the top with a deepening in the center. The incisors of old bears are transformed into a solid row of uniformly raw of off and short teeth. The angular process in young animals is short and smooth. It is transformed with age into a long and wide, with distinct ridges. The edge of the ridges and surface roughness on the surface of the articular process also appear on with age. It becomes wider and more massive. The lateral surface of the jaw in young bears is smooth. In adults and older bears it is covered with numerous small ridges. The sagittal crest in young bears is absent or weakly expressed. The sagittal crest on the skulls of adult is long, tall, flattened at the back; the top line of the ridge is rough, sometimes with a dip in the middle. Natural explanation of this transformation is developing with age and duration of the functioning of the masticatory muscles. The maximum life of brown bear is some 40 years. To relate punctiliously observed morphological changes with time-specific steps that age is not possible. http://agronauka-ecv.ru/en/archive/2015/%E2%84%962-(45)/age-changes-in-some-parts-of-skull.html Skull-Based Method of Age Determination for the Brown Bear Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758 V.Yu. Guskov Open Access funded by Far Eastern Federal University Under a Creative Commons license Show more doi:10.1016/j.als.2015.04.002 Get rights and content Abstract Due to the lack of a proper technique for determining the ages of brown bears, a simple and straightforward method that is based on published data and our own observations is proposed. This method is based on the simultaneous use of the following different skull parameters to more accurately determine the ages of brown bears: size and weight parameters, degree of obliteration of the joints, degree of wear of the teeth, and development of the flanges. The proposed method contributes to non-destructive age determination, allows for the discrimination of immature and adult bears and also classifies the skulls of adult animals into one of the five selected age groups. Determining the Age of the Skull: Challenges and Approaches The determination of the exact age of an animal presents certain difficulties when working with morphological material. The inclusion of the animal in a particular analysis and the interpretation of the results depend on the accuracy of the determination. Incorrect definitions lead to errors in the analysis of the data and potentially to the presentation of incorrect hypotheses, particularly when working with large animals (for example, brown bears) that live long lives, during which their morphological characteristics change. To solve this problem, it is necessary to create a methodology for determining the age of the studied species. Accounting for a greater number of parameters that change with age (such as size, weight and craniometrical indicators) increases the probability of at least identifying the age within a range of 2 to 3 years if not the specific age. The parameters available for reviews also vary depending on the material that is being examined. For example, when working with live animals, craniometrical indicators are not available. The well-proven methods of age determination based on teeth cuts require destructive interference with the integrity of the skull, which is not always possible for work with museum specimens because it can lead to an inability to measure some of the parameter  http://ac.els-cdn.com/S2078152015000139/1-s2.0-S2078152015000139-main.pdf?_tid=aedd8a0c-0a82-11e5-aa42-00000aab0f02&acdnat=1433399390_d468866253d0bf886e9bd3f2c2d8ed6e Edited by Warsaw2014, Jun 4 2015, 04:00 PM.
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| brotherbear | Jul 11 2015, 11:08 PM Post #82 |
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Unicellular Organism
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Question: I have been seeking information for quite some time now with minimal results. What was the size range of Pleistocene grizzly bears in North America? Did they average pretty much the same as today's grizzly bears? |
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| Taipan | Jul 29 2015, 02:45 PM Post #83 |
Administrator
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Single hair shows researchers what a bear has been eating New technology reveals protein intake, mercury levels Date: July 28, 2015 Source: Washington State University Summary: Researchers have found they can get a good idea of a grizzly bear's diet over several months by looking at a single hair. The technique, which measures residues of trace metals, can be a major tool in determining if the threatened animals are getting enough of the right foods to eat.  Researchers used single hairs from grizzly bears at the Washington State University Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center to develop a new, more precise way to look at a what wild bear eat. U.S. and Canadian researchers have found they can get a good idea of a grizzly bear's diet over several months by looking at a single hair. The technique, which measures residues of trace metals, can be a major tool in determining if the threatened animals are getting enough of the right foods to eat. The technique can also help determine how much mercury bears are ingesting. A study published last year by many of the same researchers found that two out of three grizzlies sampled in coastal British Columbia had mercury levels exceeding a neurochemical effect threshold proposed for polar bears. "You can use the technology for both applications," said Marie Noël, lead author of both the mercury study and a more recent study, published in Science of the Total Environment, on how the technique works. "You can see how much mercury they're getting but also estimate how much salmon they're eating." Charles Robbins, a Washington State University wildlife biologist and director of the WSU Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center, said the technique is a big help in determining how bears are recovering and if they have enough habitat to meet their food needs. Grizzly bears are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the continental United States and endangered in parts of Canada. "You can see bears chasing down salmon, but other than saying, 'bears eat salmon,' that really doesn't give you much information," Robbins said. "So we'd like to know where the energy and protein is coming from to create either large bears or small bears or cubs and help them with their reproduction. We'd like something that integrates all that information over a 24-hour period, a week, a month, a year." Hair grows throughout a bear's active season, and because it is almost entirely protein, "it's a good indicator of the protein sources to the bears," he said. The technique takes advantage of the fact that trace elements bind to the sulfur atoms in keratin, the fibrous protein that is a major component of hair. Previous techniques have looked at hair in bulk, giving only a picture of overall intake, or have involved laboriously cutting up hair and analyzing it segment by segment. The new technique has a laser run down the length of a single hair. As it vaporizes one location, said Noël, the gases are analyzed by a mass spectrometer. The researchers analyzed the hairs of 20 wild bears from British Columbia and five captive grizzlies at the WSU bear center. The captive bears were fed a diet of commercial bear chow and apples while grazing 12 hours a day on white clover. For about a month, they were fed Yellowstone Lake cutthroat trout, which have high levels of mercury from nearby thermal features. Almost to the day, the researchers saw mercury levels rise in the captive bears, as well as levels of copper and zinc. The scientists then correlated those levels with levels seen in the wild bears to see what they had been eating. "Taken together," the researchers write, "the pattern obtained from these three elements can provide information on salmon consumption... as well as the amount of salmon consumed... by wild grizzly bears." Story Source: Washington State University. "Single hair shows researchers what a bear has been eating: New technology reveals protein intake, mercury levels." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150728101209.htm (accessed July 28, 2015). Journal Reference: Marie Noël, Jennie R. Christensen, Jody Spence, Charles T. Robbins. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to characterize copper, zinc and mercury along grizzly bear hair providing estimate of diet. Science of The Total Environment, 2015; 529: 1 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.05.004 Abstract We enhanced an existing technique, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), to function as a non-lethal tool in the temporal characterization of trace element exposure in wild mammals. Mercury (Hg), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) were analyzed along the hair of captive and wild grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). Laser parameters were optimized (consecutive 2000 μm line scans along the middle line of the hair at a speed of 50 μm/s; spot size = 30 μm) for consistent ablation of the hair. A pressed pellet of reference material DOLT-2 and sulfur were used as external and internal standards, respectively. Our newly adapted method passed the quality control tests with strong correlations between trace element concentrations obtained using LA-ICP-MS and those obtained with regular solution-ICP-MS (r2 = 0.92, 0.98, 0.63, 0.57, 0.99 and 0.90 for Hg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb, respectively). Cross-correlation analyses revealed good reproducibility between trace element patterns obtained from hair collected from the same bear. One exception was Cd for which external contamination was observed resulting in poor reproducibility. In order to validate the method, we used LA-ICP-MS on the hair of five captive grizzly bears fed known and varying amounts of cutthroat trout over a period of 33 days. Trace element patterns along the hair revealed strong Hg, Cu and Zn signals coinciding with fish consumption. Accordingly, significant correlations between Hg, Cu, and Zn in the hair and Hg, Cu, and Zn intake were evident and we were able to develop accumulation models for each of these elements. While the use of LA-ICP-MS for the monitoring of trace elements in wildlife is in its infancy, this study highlights the robustness and applicability of this newly adapted method. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715300620 Edited by Taipan, Oct 24 2017, 11:49 AM.
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| Warsaw2014 | Aug 16 2015, 09:12 PM Post #84 |
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Herbivore
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Aggressive body language of bears and wildlife viewing: a response to Geist: Some interesting facts: hreats versus attacks "...In the uncommon event that a bear is motivat-ed to att ack a person, the att ack is more likely to be inhibited by fear of retaliation than by con-cern for the human. Nevertheless, when a bear is in a benign mood, it may go to considerable trouble to deter a person without doing harm. On several occasions, I have had a captive bear stop me from touching it by catching the skin of my hand in its incisors, then lett ing go, without breaking or bruising the skin. Kilham (2002) refers to restrained bites to a human or fellow bear as message bites. Restrained swats, with claws lift ed so they do not make contact, are also used to deliver messages. On occasion, a wild black bear has deterred contact by my hand by directing its gaping mouth at me, even though the bear was otherwise content have its body within inches of me or sometimes pressed against me..." "...There is no indication that bears so clearly reveal fear, anger or frustration during preda-tory att empts (Herrero 1985), despite the likelihood that each of these emotions sometimes occurs while trying to kill powerful prey, such as moose (Alces americanus), caribou (Rangifer 183 Commentary tarandus) or a fellow bear. I have seen video footage and photos of an adult male walking up to a distracted subordinate and att acking without preamble. In a 1997 incident at Brooks Falls, in Katmai National Park, the aggressor quickly began eating the subordinate, ripping fl esh from its back; the adolescent hardly resisted as though immobilized by terror and shock. In a 2010 incident at the Russian River Falls, on the Kenai Peninsula, the adult male tore off a patch of skin from the victim’s rump roughly 0.3 m in diameter, then held on, as though trying to force the adolescent underwater. Again, the victim did not fi ght back. This continued several minutes before the adult male desisted and shift ed to fi shing on salmon. At no time did the att acker make a detectable visible or audible threat..." "...Risk An unfortunate trait of hazard analysis based on scant information is that one ends up emphasizing the possibility of tragic consequences without being able to quantify their probability even ordinally, much less on an interval scale. Interval analysis also is limited to a narrow range of conditions from which it is diffi cult to extrapolate. For example, consider Herrero et al.’s (2011) fi nding that of 36 black bear att acks that killed a person, 92% of the killers were adults or adolescent males. What does that reveal about the relative risk of being injured by male versus female black bears in regions where they are especially shy towards people, perhaps because shy bears have been the most likely to survive hunters? Again, the mere fact that some trait is commonly associated with agonistic or predatory aggression does not mean that it is diagnostic of aggression or even most commonly seen in that context..." "...Rogers and Mansfi led (2011), and Stringham (2011) reported that in their professional experience habituated bears are harmless. Unfortunately, bears are not always treated with caution and skill as done by professional observers and viewing guides. Bears in the Canadian national parks where I worked were routinely molested, especially through photography, and had a very high rate of mortality (Nielsen et al. 2004). For example, a young female grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos ) showed up in my study area in the back country of Banff National Park. She did not fl ee from my vehicle as other grizzlies did (habituated?). A district warden and I were fi shing at a beaver pond when we were charged by this female. She appeared suddenly across a narrows and charged instantly, jumping into the water and swimming for us. I escaped by climbing, the warden by diving. Shortly thereaft er, she treed this same warden and a horse wrangler. When she appeared a third time, the warden was carrying a rifl e. A student of mine also was treed when he surprised a large male grizzly on an elk kill. Years later he and a warden were deep inside the wilderness of a newly-minted national park out in the wide open when they were met by a an old female grizzly with a 2-year old cub. Aft er “dancing about” apparently examining the intruders, the female and cub charged. My former student shot both bears, one of which was on top of the warden. One bear att ack by a (habituated) black bear resulted in a kill-order to remove all habituated black bears; 256 bears subsequently were killed. The wardens who did the executions secretly informed me of this while we worked in the parks. Subsequently, colleagues in parks have worked hard, and successfully, to reduce the carnage. Do bears terminate habituation with att acks? I suspect that, unless they are professionally handled, they occasionally do. And that is where the lesson resides, thanks to the dedicated professional eff orts and successes of the likes of Lynn Rogers, Susan Mansfi eld, and Stephen Stringham. I counsel caution with animals that do not fl ee, that look “habituated”, unless one knows their history. Another bone of contention between my colleagues and myself was signaling by bears. Dominance or status displays are signals universal to vertebrates, and bears are no exception. Displays of status cannot be understood in isolation from the subject of aggression (Geist 1978a). Status displays vary considerably. In mammals, they tend to be body displays in their primitive form, but may be weapon displays in other species..." "...Stringham (personal communication) related to me that in all the years of his work with black and grizzly bears he has never been addressed with a “sumo display”. This speaks legions about the tactful, careful approach in observing bears used by this exceptionally capable scholar. I have been, however, address-ed with the “sumo display” by very large black bear males for perfectly logical reasons. For the past 16 years, I have resided with black bears (and misbehaving wolves) in an agricultural district on Vancouver Island. Two salmon streams pass through our acreage close to our house, where we also have poultry, fruit trees, and grape arbors. These are great att ractants for bears, and I set myself the task of keeping bears out, as shy bears avoiding humans are the only live bears hereabouts. A dog announces the arrival of a bear, and at any hour of the day or night I respond, clatt ering the action of a pump shotgun (super-teeth-clapping) moving at the bear till it fl ees. Young bears and most old male bears fl ed at once and usually stayed away (although snowfalls revealed that they were constantly monitoring me). However, 2 large males “objected” in their species-specifi c ways and pushed back, which included sumo displays! I have seen these displays performed by large males in their interactions. Bears learned quickly to avoid the vicinity of our house, but continued making use of the salmon streams and meadows close by. From our veranda, we can hear them fi shing. The study of animal behavior is not a monolithic discipline, but it contains diff erent lineages that evolved their own language and conceptions. Konrad Lorenz introduced the notion of expressions as resultants of diff erent, confl icting emotions, and bear biologists still hang onto that..."  "Figure 2 shows a matrix of postures manifesting low, medium and high levels of aggression and comparable levels of reluctance o fi ght, resulting in 9 combinations of the 2 motivations (Stringham 2008, 2009). Aggression and likelihood of combat peak at cell aHrL (= aggression High, reluctance Low), where 2 bears face off with their nostrils <1 m apart, each bruin’s head high above its shoulders, and body weight centered on its legs to free its arms for grappling, swatt ing, clawing and fending off att acks. The upper lip puckers forward as the mouth gapes widely and is tilted upwards far enough that the upper canines are exposed to the opponent’s view. Each bear tilts its head to the right or left so as to bett er grasp and neutralize or damage the opponent’s jaws (Geist 1972). Each bear may alternately raise and lower its head momentarily as though seeking an opening to bite the opponent’s neck or cheek. Alternately, changes in relative head height may refl ect momentary changes in self-180 Human–Wildlife Interactions 5(2) confi dence, with the currently more confi dent bear holding its head highest. Both bears typically roar loudly and continuously" "...A bear, especially the loser, can be so physical-ly and emotionally exhausted by a confronta-tion that it soon sits down and may even lie down, while remaining wary of the winner (Figures 4c and 4d). Although depression is more typical of losers than of winners, I have seen a mother who saved her cub from a preda-tory male soon lie down and hardly move for >6 hours, providing no care to the injured cub and ignoring pleas by both her cubs to nurse..." http://www.researchgate.net/publication/273259003_Aggressive_body_language_of_bears_and_wildlife_viewing_a_response_to_Geist_(2011)._---------_The_pdf_also_contains_Misconceptions_about_black_bears_a_response_to_Geist_(2011)_by_Rogers__Mansfield_2011_-----_as_well_as_Geist's_rebuttal_Response_to_Rogers_and_Mansfi_eld_(2011)_and_Stringham_(2011) Edited by Warsaw2014, Aug 16 2015, 09:18 PM.
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| Warsaw2014 | Nov 7 2015, 06:48 PM Post #85 |
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Herbivore
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Hollywood director plans film for Wojtek the bear Read more: http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/hollywood-director-plans-film-for-wojtek-the-bear-1-3936986#ixzz3qnOakKy2 |
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| Taipan | Feb 5 2016, 02:10 PM Post #86 |
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Administrator
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Bears' seasonal hibernation linked to changes in gut microbes Date: February 4, 2016 Source: Cell Press  This visual abstract depicts how the microbiota and serum metabolites in brown bears differ seasonally between hibernation and active phase. Colonization of mice with a bear microbiota promoted increased adiposity. These findings suggest that seasonal microbiota variation may contribute to metabolism of the hibernating brown bear. Credit: Sommer et al./Cell Reports 2016 Each year, as bears prepare to hibernate, they gorge themselves on food to pack on fat. And yet, despite the rapid weight gain, the animals somehow avoid the health consequences so often associated with obesity in humans. Now, researchers reporting in Cell Reports on February 4 show that the bears' shifting metabolic status is associated with significant changes in their gut microbes. Fredrik Bäckhed of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who led the new study, said he was particularly struck by the discovery that the bears' summer gut microbiota includes microbes that take in more energy from the diet. "The restructuring of the microbiota into a more avid energy harvester during summer, which potentially contributes to the increased adiposity gain without impairing glucose metabolism, is quite striking," he said. Bäckhed and his colleagues showed more than 10 years ago that the composition of the gut microbiota can influence the amount of energy harvested from the diet. Much more recently, they found that the microbiota also shifts in people who are obese and in those with type 2 diabetes. That led them to wonder whether changes to the microbiota might also be important in hibernating brown bears in the wild. The researchers collected fecal samples from wild bears during hibernation and in the active period and analyzed the microbes living within those samples. The hibernation microbiota showed reduced diversity, they report. The identity of the microbes in the guts shifted from more Firmicutes and Actinobacteria to more Bacteroidetes. The researchers also observed changes in several metabolites involved in lipid metabolism, including triglycerides, cholesterol, and bile acids, over the course of the season. To further explore whether those changes in the microbiota might drive the shift in metabolism, the researchers transferred the bears' summer and winter microbiota into germ-free mice in the lab. Mice colonized with a summer bear microbiota showed greater weight and fat gain than mice colonized with a winter bear microbiota, they report. What's more, despite their increased weight, mice colonized with summer bear microbiota showed no differences or even a slight improvement in their glucose metabolism compared to mice colonized with a winter microbiota. Further investigation of the metabolites circulating within those mice also showed some similarities to the bears, suggesting that the bears' seasonal metabolic status had been partially transferred to the rodents via those microbes. Bäckhed said the findings lead him to think "that the microbiota may be a more important switch for energy metabolism and cold adaptation than previously appreciated." Interestingly, Bäckhed noted, another recent report in Cell suggests a link between the microbiome and exposure to cold temperatures. Bäckhed's team is now exploring this link through additional studies. They also say it's possible that the findings in bears might suggest new strategies for managing obesity in humans. "I think it's too early [to say], as I consider this being very basic science," Bäckhed said. "However, if we learn more about which bacteria and the functions that promote and/or protect against obesity [in hibernating bears], we may identify new potential therapeutic targets." This study was supported by the Swedish Research Council, Torsten Söderberg and Ragnar Söderberg foundations, IngaBritt and Arne Lundberg's foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation, the regional agreement on medical training and clinical research between Region Västra Götaland and Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the Lundbeck Foundation, and the European Research Councils. The Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project is funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, WWF Sweden and the Research Council of Norway. Story Source: Cell Press. "Bears' seasonal hibernation linked to changes in gut microbes." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204150555.htm (accessed February 4, 2016). Journal Reference: Felix Sommer, Marcus Ståhlman, Olga Ilkayeva, Jon M. Arnemo, Jonas Kindberg, Johan Josefsson, Christopher B. Newgard, Ole Fröbert, Fredrik Bäckhed. The Gut Microbiota Modulates Energy Metabolism in the Hibernating Brown Bear Ursus arctos. Cell Reports, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.01.026 Highlights •Bear microbiota composition differs seasonally between hibernation and active phase •Blood metabolites differ seasonally in the brown bear •The bear gut microbiota promote energy storage during summer Summary Hibernation is an adaptation that helps many animals to conserve energy during food shortage in winter. Brown bears double their fat depots during summer and use these stored lipids during hibernation. Although bears seasonally become obese, they remain metabolically healthy. We analyzed the microbiota of free-ranging brown bears during their active phase and hibernation. Compared to the active phase, hibernation microbiota had reduced diversity, reduced levels of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, and increased levels of Bacteroidetes. Several metabolites involved in lipid metabolism, including triglycerides, cholesterol, and bile acids, were also affected by hibernation. Transplantation of the bear microbiota from summer and winter to germ-free mice transferred some of the seasonal metabolic features and demonstrated that the summer microbiota promoted adiposity without impairing glucose tolerance, suggesting that seasonal variation in the microbiota may contribute to host energy metabolism in the hibernating brown bear. http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/abstract/S2211-1247(16)00047-4?_returnURL=http%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2211124716000474%3Fshowall%3Dtrue |
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| Nergigante | Mar 18 2016, 03:27 AM Post #87 |
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Carnivore
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The Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos lasiotus), also known as the black grizzly is a population of the brown bear. One of the largest brown bears, Ussuri brown bears approach Kodiak brown bear in size. It is the largest of and only terrestrial mammals exceeding mankind in size in Japan. Appearance: It is very similar to the Kamchatka brown bear, though it has a more elongated skull, a less elevated forehead, somewhat longer nasal bones and less separated zygomatic arches, and is somewhat darker in color, with some individuals being completely black, a fact which once led to the now refuted speculation that black individuals were hybrids of brown bears and Asian black bears. Adult males have skulls measuring 38.7 cm long and 23.5 cm wide. They can occasionally reach greater sizes than their Kamchatka counterparts: the largest skull measured by Sergej Ognew (1931) was only slightly smaller than that of the largest Kodiak brown bear (the largest subspecies of brown bears) on record at the time.       Behaviour and biology: Dietary habits In Sikhote Alin, Ussuri brown bears den mostly in burrows excavated into hillsides, though they will on rarer occasions den in rock outcroppings or build ground nests. These brown bears rarely encounter Asian black bears, as they den at higher elevations and on steeper slopes than the latter species. They may on rare occasions attack their smaller black cousins. In middle Sakhalin in spring, brown bears feed on the previous year's red bilberry, ants and flotsam, and at the end of the season, they concentrate on the shoots and rhizomes of tall grasses. On the southern part of the island, they feed primarily on flotsam, as well as insects and maple twigs. In springtime in Sikhote Alin, they feed on acorns, Manchurian walnuts and Korean nut pine seeds. In times of scarcity, in addition to bilberries and nuts, they capture larvae, wood-boring ants and lily roots. In early summer, they will strip bark from white-barked fir trees and feed on their cambium and sap.They will also eat berries from honeysuckle, yew, Amur grapevine and buckthorn. In southern Sakhalin, their summer diet consists of currants and chokeberries are eaten. In the August period in the middle part of the island, fish comprise 28% of their diet. In Hokkaido, the brown bear has a diet including small and large mammals, fish, birds and insects such as ants. Recent increases in size and weight, reaching 400 kg, or possibly up to 450 to 550 kg largely caused by feeding on cultivations. |
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| Taipan | Jun 2 2016, 04:38 PM Post #88 |
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Administrator
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Kodiak bears track salmon runs in Alaska Date: June 1, 2016 Source: The University of Montana  An Alaskan brown bear enjoys a salmon meal. Credit: Photo by Jonny Armstrong A University of Montana graduate student's research on Alaskan brown bears and red salmon is the May cover story of the high-profile journal Ecology. Will Deacy, a UM systems ecology graduate student under the direction of UM Professor Jack Stanford, researched brown bears on Kodiak Island, Alaska, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Brown bears are faced with a challenge: They need to consume lots of salmon each year, but salmon only are available for a few weeks in each shallow spawning ground. However, salmon spawn at different times in different habitats, which could allow bears to eat salmon for long periods of time if they move to different spawning grounds. GPS collars allowed Deacy to observe where and when bears foraged for salmon. "We found that the bears greatly extend their use of the salmon resource by migrating from one run to another," Stanford said. "We call this 'surfing the salmon red wave.'" "This research shows wildlife have very sophisticated foraging behaviors," Deacy said. "The bears benefited from variation in spawning timing, which is ultimately created by complex natural watersheds. This highlights the need to conserve complexity in wild places." Deacy conducted his field work over the course of five years in the soggy and remote Karluk area of southwestern Kodiak Island, which is accessible only by float plane. The area has one of the most dense brown bear populations on Earth. It also has hundreds of rivers, streams and lake beaches used by spawning Pacific salmon. The researchers' studies of Alaskan bears are ongoing. They want to understand how human activities, like bear viewing and low-level flying, impact brown bear salmon foraging behavior. Story Source: The University of Montana. "Kodiak bears track salmon runs in Alaska." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160601112703.htm (accessed June 2, 2016). Journal Reference: William Deacy, William Leacock, Jonathan B. Armstrong, Jack A. Stanford. Kodiak brown bears surf the salmon red wave: direct evidence from GPS collared individuals. Ecology, 2016; 97 (5): 1091 DOI: 10.1890/15-1060.1 Abstract A key constraint faced by consumers is achieving a positive energy balance in the face of temporal variation in foraging opportunities. Recent work has shown that spatial heterogeneity in resource phenology can buffer mobile consumers from this constraint by allowing them to track changes in resource availability across space. For example, salmon populations spawn asynchronously across watersheds, causing high-quality foraging opportunities to propagate across the landscape, prolonging the availability of salmon at the regional scale. However, we know little about how individual consumers integrate across phenological variation or the benefits they receive by doing so. Here, we present direct evidence that individual brown bears track spatial variation in salmon phenology. Data from 40 GPS collared brown bears show that bears visited multiple spawning sites in synchrony with the order of spawning phenology. The number of sites used was correlated with the number of days a bear exploited salmon, suggesting the phenological variation in the study area influenced bear access to salmon, a resource which strongly influences bear fitness. Fisheries managers attempting to maximize harvest while maintaining ecosystem function should strive to protect the population diversity that underlies the phenological variation used by wildlife consumers. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-1060.1/abstract;jsessionid=99815B4382BFEFB81A2B746A9CCD8D6B.f04t02 |
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| Taipan | Jun 11 2016, 01:28 PM Post #89 |
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Administrator
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Alaskan Bears Enjoy a Whale of a Meal By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | June 10, 2016 02:18pm ET  A brown bear explores a sizable meal — a sperm whale carcass that washed up in southeastern Alaska. Credit: Karyn Traphagen A naturalist guide for a remote lodge in Alaska recently photographed an incredible sight — close-up views of a beached sperm whale carcass that was being scavenged by brown bears. The images were captured by Karyn Traphagen, a naturalist guide with the nearby Tutka Bay Lodge in the southeastern part of the state. She snapped the photos on June 4 as a bear prowled around the carcass and even climbed on top of it, and then posted the photos on her "Stay Curious" Facebook page, where she chronicles her encounters with Alaska plants and wildlife. Traphagen told Live Science in an email that the whale was mostly intact when she first saw it, and that bears were "licking the skin and oil and eating soft parts." She described the whale's teeth, visible in the lower jaw, as "bigger than the bear's claws," estimating them to be about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in length.  A meal this rich needs to be appreciated from every angle. Credit: Karyn Traphagen An airplane pilot first spotted the beached whale in the beginning of June, and Traphagen later led small groups of lodge guests to observe the location from a distance, so as not to disturb the bears that had begun to feed. "It was pretty windy, so the smell was not too bad — yet!" Traphagen said.  A brown bear atop the decaying sperm whale. Credit: Karyn Traphagen Largest living land carnivores The brown bear species Ursos arctos includes several subspecies such as the North American grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) and the Kodiak bear (U. a. middendorffi). Brown bears are native to Alaska, according to a species description published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), appearing across the southeastern part of the state, where they live on islands as well as on the mainland. The FWS describes males as weighing between 500 and 900 pounds (227 and 408 kilograms) and they are considered to be the largest living land carnivore. Their core diet varies widely with the seasons, the FWS said — salmon in the spring, grasses in the summer, and berries in the fall, along with pretty much anything they find or catch. Small animals like marmots, squirrels and porcupines might be on the menu, or even larger mammals like caribou and moose. Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park are even known to gorge themselves on moths, filling their bellies with as many as 40,000 of them in a single day. At this time of year, Traphagen told Live Science, the brown bears she typically sees are eating mostly sedge plants and clams. "Bears are opportunistic," Traphagen said. "When presented with a high-protein, high- fat food source this early in the season — before they are eating salmon — they will definitely take advantage of it." Competing for scraps According to Traphagen, during their second visit to the location on June 7 there were even more bears clustered around the whale. And as the carcass decayed, it became more accessible to other scavengers, as well. Traphagen saw shorebirds pecking at the whale, and spotted wolves watching from a distance. She also found wolf tracks on the sand, hinting that they were feeding when the bears were absent. Though her work as a naturalist guide involves daily exploration of natural wonders large and small, Traphagen described the sight of the beached behemoth as "exhilarating" — especially with the feeding activity and a volcano as a backdrop. "There is no such thing as an average or typical day for me," Traphagen told Live Science. "Every day is different and is affected by things like the weather, the ever-changing seas and tides, and the unpredictable nature of wildlife. I'm just incredibly lucky to be here and to share this," she said. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/55043-bear-eats-whale.html#sthash.4v371SZV.dpuf Edited by Taipan, Oct 24 2017, 11:51 AM.
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| Warsaw2014 | Nov 6 2016, 08:52 PM Post #90 |
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Herbivore
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Source ECOLOGICAL AND ETOLOGICAL CHARATERISTICS OF BROWN BEARS IN THE ORENBURG REGION The study is aimed at the description of the most important ecologobiological features of brown bear population (Ursus arctos L.,1758) in the Orenburg region in order to work out scientific foundations for the maintenance and efficient management of economically utilized territories of the South Urals zone. Adult bull moose killed by brown bear  Edited by Warsaw2014, Nov 6 2016, 08:52 PM.
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