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| GRIZZLY BEAR |
The grizzly bear is also known as the
American brown bear. Later on they were copied as Teddy Bears.
DIET
The grizzly bear either eats itself
to enormous weight or it starves almost to nothing. In summer and autumn they
build up their body fat on fish, carrion, ripe fruit, nuts and berries. The
following three months the bears hibernate and nurse their young. Their weight
drops by a quarter. The cubs are born blind, naked and weigh 500 g. The female
has cubs every other year and could produce one to four cubs but mostly two.
The mother defends its cubs fiercely if she thinks they are threatened
Grizzly bears mate during spring and
early summer and the fertilised egg starts to grow almost immediately. Then it
stops, being no more than tiny ball of cells. It moves freely and stays like
that for about 5 months. When she is getting ready for hibernation in October
and November it starts to grow again. All this is to make sure that the female
grizzly eats as much as possible and build up her fat store which is necessary
for her and her cubs to survive the lean period of the winter.
When they emerge from their den in
the spring the young cubs start to play games. Young bears love chasing each
others, having a wrestling match and trying to stalk each other. These games
are necessary for young cubs to learn to survive later in adult life and also
to build up their strength.
Their mother also teaches them to
find food. Mother introduces them to fish when she takes them to the river in the
summer and shows them to catch the salmon when they head up streams to their
breeding ground.
Mother also has to teach them to be independent.
After she has given her cubs all the loving care, one day the mother chases
them up the tree as she always done when there was danger. This time it is
different because she walks away. She makes them understood they have to face
the world on their own.
This must seem cruel after all the
love and devotion she gave them. However, when they manage to survive they must
leave their mother and their mother's territory because they would all end up
with food shortage. If that happened mother and cubs would not survive. They
have to go and find a territory of their own to make sure a good breeding
continues.
To mark their boundaries of their
territory the grizzly bear rolls in its urine. When they go up and down their
path from their den to the feeding ground, they stand on their hind legs and
rub against trees this leaves their scent and hairs as their mark. The odour
stays there for a long time and it gives information of the status, sex and
even the mood the animal was in.
Why are Grizzly Bears endangered?
For a long time the grizzly bears
were heavily hunted for their furs. This has been now reduced by putting the bears
under protection but the damage was almost done. The other reason for the
grizzly bear being endangered is the loss and still losing their habitat. The
bears do need a huge territory and when the new offspring emerges and leave
their mothers they need to find a new territory. Therefore, cutting forests
down so drastically does not help the grizzly bears to increase their numbers.
These are facts about the grizzly
bears which have to be faced to prevent the extinction of this magnificent
animal.
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