Bear

See also: Bear (homonymy)

The bears are large Mammifère S Plantigrade S about the carnivorous , family of the Ursidé S, subfamily of the ursinés .

Description

Physical attributes

The characteristics common to the bears are a dense Fourrure, a short Queue, great olfactive capacities and of hearing and five nonretractile claws.

The bears have a large body with powerful members. On their back legs, they go almost like the human ones. They have broad Patte S, a lengthened Museau and Oreille S rounds. Their Dent S is used for defense and like tools and depends on the mode of the bear. Their claws is employed to tear, dig, and catch.

Much bear of the Scandinavian areas “hibernates” in winter. They really do not hibernate. The temperature of their body goes down relatively low and they can be easily awaked. They are semi-hibernating

The average lifespan of a bear is from 25 to 40 years.

  • Cry of the bear: Media: Ours.mp3

Table: comparison of measurements of some bears:

Habitat

The bears live in varied habitats, Tropique S with the Arctique and forests with the ice-barriers.

Food mode

They are mainly Omnivore S, although some have a mode more specialized, like the Polar bear S, primarily carnivores, or the giant panda, which nourish mainly bamboos. They eat Lichen S, root S, Noix, and bay S. They can also go to a river or any other surface water to capture Poisson S. Of the animals as the ewes also constitute a source of food. The bear is a species Melliphage. He likes to eat Miel when he finds some. The bears will generally travel far from the sources of food. They practice usually hunting for the Crépuscule, except when human S are in the vicinity.

The bear and the Man

The bear occupies an important place in the Mythologie S, tales and legends, Blason S and religious stories, everywhere where it was present. One finds it in the nounours which was the companion many children.

Some great species, the such bears of the caves (extinct since approximately 10.000 years), the Polar bear and the Grizzly were or are dangerous for the human ones particularly in the sectors where they were accustomed to the man, but most of the time, the bears are timid and are easily frightened by the human ones. However, like many other species, they will defend their offspring savagely if they feel it threatened.

The bear suffers from hunting that one has made him for at least 2000 years in many zones of the world, but also of the ecological Fragmentation of its habitat, Roadkill and disturbance. Readily cavernicolous animal, it enters the railway tunnels also easily where it can be wounded or killed by the trains. Often disturbed and frightened by the man and obliged to hide the day, it must be nourished, with difficulty, the night or by bad weather. Badly nourished with the autumn, it awakes earlier and can be more still tried by the sheep or hives not supervised or badly protecteds.
L' polar bear is him threatened by the fast retreat of the ices which constitute its natural habitat.
Les omnivorous bears being, but readily consuming corpses and living a long time, without being at the top of the food pyramid, they accumulate many pollutants (radioactivity in the zones of repercussions of the cloud of Tchernobyl, heavy metals, organochlorinated, pesticides, etc particularly the polar bear).
Les Indian of North America which carried peaks iroquoises, stiffened the hair with grease of bear or nut oil to gather them in a kind of horn.

Protection

Caution! The bears are animals which one believes sometimes friendly and câlins because of their over-representation in the form of cuddly toys. On the contrary, they are apprehensive and become aggressive if they feel threatened.

In areas suitable for shelter wild bears, better is worth to avoid them. Go while speaking with a companion about walk or transport a small bell in order to do sufficient noise so that the bear hears you and from goes away from itself. So despite everything you meet a bear do not look at it especially in the eyes and move back slowly without to turn the back to him, if you do not hold account these precautions the bear will believe that you defy it. Especially remember as of these three points: the bear is combative (it will charge you extremely if you defy it), (obvious when it is known that a great part of the mass of the bear is charged to his muscles) and rapid (on short distances a bear is faster than a horse with trot).

If you follow all these indications you have great chances to leave unscathed the populated areas of bear. However in all last recourse if a bear street on you, it will not be to make you a câlin. In this case, take the fetal position and protect your nape of the neck with your hands. It is the best way of limiting the damage in the event of attack.

Reproductive behavior

The period of reproduction of the bear is very short. The bears reproduce in a seasonal way, usually after the Hibernation. The bear cubs come in the world made toothless, blind, and bald people. Usually in ranges from 1 to 3, they will remain with the mother for six months. Initially nourished mother's milk, they will start to drive out with the mother after three months. Then, they are separated. However, they will remain in trimmings during three years. The young animals reach their sexual maturity at the seven years age. Normally, the bears are very solitary and will be held distant from/to each other for long periods.

Classification

The subfamily of Ursinés includes/understands five kinds, they coexist within the family of the Ursidé S with a second subfamily the Ailuriné S (subfamily of the Panda S):

  • Kind Ursus

    • Ursus arctos with a variable number of subspecies according to the authors:
      • Brown bear, Ursus arctos arctos
      • Grizzly, Ursus arctos horribilis
      • Bear kodiak, Ursus arctos middendorffi
      • Mexican Grizzly, Ursus arctos nelsoni
      • Brown bear of Syria Ursus arctos syriacus (Turkey and Moyen the East)
      • Bear Isabelle Ursus arctos isabellinus (the Himalayas)
      • Ursus arctos stickeenensis
    • black Bear of America or baribal, Ursus americanus
    • Polar bear, Ursus maritimus
    • black Bear of Asia, (or with collar ) Ursus thibetanus
    • Bear of the caves, Ursus spelaeus
  • Kind Melursus
    • Bear lippu or bear juggler, Melursus ursinus ( Ursus ursinus in certain classifications)
  • Kind Helarctos
  • Kind Tremarctos

Eight extinct kinds

  • Agriarctos
  • Amphicticeps
  • Amphicynodon
  • Arctodus
  • Cephalogale
  • Indarctos
  • Parictis
  • Plionarctos


Phylogeny

There were many discussions to know if the giant Panda belongs to the family of the bear or that of the raccoon. The pandas are closely related to these two families. The recent analysis of DNA seems to just like indicate that the giant panda is well closely related to the other bears, a species classified until recently among the raccoons, the russet-red panda.

In the line of the European brown bears one finds like ancestors:

The occupation by the brown bears of the American continent and their differentiation in Kodiak and Grizzli is very recent. The separation of with the bears of the tropical areas is older, the bear with glasses of South America being most distant genetically.

Territories

Laws were voted in many parts of the world to protect the bears from the hunters or to prevent the destruction of their habitat, but they are not always respected or are not implemented. In France, the National park of the Pyrenees was not created on a really ideal territory for the bears, but where the promoters, shepherds and foresters judged that it would be the least awkward for them. No viable population of bear thus never spontaneously and durably settled there.

In Europe

Our ancestors entered in conflict with the bear, predator and direct rival, as of the Préhistoire. If the elimination of the Ours of the caves by the man at the end of the last glaciation is not proven (climatic and genetic factors having probably involved the extinction of the species), the bear was intensively driven out, to defend the cattle, for its flesh or the " sport" (the Abélard monk signed a document prohibiting its monks from driving out the bear more than two days per week, and a menu precise that 300 stuffed bear cubs were been used for only one banquet given by the king Louis XIV). Another cause of the decline of the bear in Europe was that of its habitat, which accelerated at the 17th century then 19th century; in its encyclopedia, the Wonders of nature , appeared in 1868, Alfred Brehm wrote: “ the good weathers of the bear passed. The species cannot remain any more but in the places which the man did not invade yet. (...) The always increasing extension of the man on the ground drives out the bear and will end up completely destroying it in the Central and southernmost Europe ”. Today their territory was reduced considerably, at least in Western Europe with some in the Pyrenees, a hundred in Spain, Italy in the the Abruzzi and about thirty in Austria. It is still comparatively numerous in the forests of Scandinavia, the Carpates, the Balkans and the Russia d' Europe (the population of these four areas gathers approximately 12000 animals, that is to say the essence of the European population).

In the the French Pyrenees the last ourse of stock, Cannelle was cut down by a hunter in 2004, which caused a wave of protest and of indignation on behalf of ecological associations and defense of the animals (SPA, WWF, Pays of the Bear - Adet, Ferus). Whereas the species disappeared, some bears coming from Slovenia were reintroduced, raising a controversy in particular at the Berger S. the introduced first ourse, Palouma, was found died in August 2006 with the bottom of a rock bar to 2100 m of altitude. A second ourse introduced, Franska , were killed by a car on August 9th, 2007. Although the surveys show that a vast majority of the population is favorable to maintains populations ursines in France, the species is always at the edge of the extinction in this country which still sheltered several hundreds of bear in the middle of the 20th century.

In Romania, companies of hunting make it possible to cut down a bear for a little more than one thousand of euros during “safaris” discussed by the militants of the animal cause who assert that even when a bear poses problem (by what he was accustomed to the man for example), one can deaden it or to trap it without suffering and the stress caused by beaten or traditional huntings. New tourism naturalist of observation of the Wolf, bear, Lynx or Castor develop, but which do not have enough recognition to induce a true protection of the habitats of these species.

In Asia and North America

The brown bear remains still rather abundant in Siberia (: 120000 animals in the years 2000) and in North America (approximately: 50000), especially in Alaska and with the Canada, in the form known as of the bear Grizzly, which is only the one giant shape of the brown bear). More in the south, of the populations meet with the the Middle East, in the the Himalayas, with the Japan (approximately: 3000 animals on the island of Hokkaido) and in the Western of the the United States.

Captivity

Without having exact dates, one can however affirm that since unmemorable times, bears were kept in menageries of princes or travelling acrobats in Europe and Asia. The raising of bear was very popular, and continuous to remain until our days; these spectacles are discussed more and more have regard to the suffering of the animals, drawn up under violent conditions (using ignited whips, firebrands, etc…), and certain countries (like Turkey, Greece or Bulgaria, but not France to date) prohibited the exhibition of bear " savants".

The bears are also frequent hosts of the zoos; however, it became very rare that animals are taken in nature to populate such establishments (the reproduction of the bears in captivity is very easy, at least in the brown bear), and their living conditions often improved since a score of years. The bears are gradually withdrawn from the antiquated pits like those of the Botanical garden in Paris, and they are more and more often presented in large wooded parks which offer to them living conditions a little closer to nature (for example Thoiry, CERZA, the animalist Parc of Holy-Cross, etc…); it is significant to note that the bears then recover frequently behaviors " naturels" like the winter lethargy.

Culture

Films

Cartoons and cartoon films

Books

  • the bear history of a deposed king , Michel Pastoureau, the threshold, 2007 (ISBN 978.2.02.021542.8) summarized work and discussion with the author
  • Bear always , Xavier Hanotte, Belfond, 2004
  • the Bear of Philippe Huet, photographs of Vincent Munier, ED. Flammarion, 2005,30 €
  • fables of the bear and the amateur of the gardens and the lioness and the ourse of Jean of the Fountain
  • History of Loop of gold and the three bears
  • Tales of the brown bear of Benjamin Rabier
  • the magic bear of wood of Jones Peterson

Arts

Culture and Folklores

The bears belong to many folklores:
  • the Bear is reproduced on many blazons since the Moyen-âge in Europe.
  • Of many names of cities (Bern…), and first names (Bernard, Ursule…), are resulting from a word meaning " Ours" (Latin or Germanic origin).
  • During centuries, in Europe, the bear leaders were very present, traversing the cities and the villages.
  • a Finnish praise of the 18th century known as: “It is you whom I venerate, it is of you that I await my prey. Bear, never I will not forget to address my praise to you. ”
  • a bear is reproduced on the Drapeau of the California. It indeed present and is protected in the Sierra Nevada, in particular in the park of Yosemite.
  • Teddy bear: it is at the beginning of the 20th century that the teddy bears start to diffuse themselves, starting from the Germany and of the the United States. The expression “Teddy Bear” was created by Morris Michtom which thus called its toys in the honor of the US president Theodore Roosevelt, which had refused to kill a bear cub at the time of a shooting party.
  • During the Cold war, the Soviet was often represented in the shape of a bear carrying a cap with a star.
  • the mascot of the Olympic Games of Moscow (1980) was the bear Misha (complete name: Mikhaïl Potapych Toptygin Chitokov).
  • In China, of the farms raises bears under miserable conditions to take their bile, product of the Chinese pharmacopeia.

See too

bear|bear

Quotation and proverbs

  • “One should not count his chickens before they are hatched”, drawn from the fable of the Fountain the bear and the two companions .
  • Polish Proverb: " A bear grogne when a branch falls to him on the head, but it is keep silent under the weight of a arbre."
  • " To be a bear badly leché" mean being of bad mood.

External bonds

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