Brown Bears of Russia

Brown bear is one of the most widespread, well-known and popular animals in Russia. Generally considered the national symbol, it was almost unanimously voted a mascot of 1980 Moscow Olympics. Big and peaceful bear is a favorite character of fairy tales and cartoons. Few people realize that it is the very same species as the much-feared grizzly bear of North America. Although on average bears kill ten people per year in Russia (much more in the years of poor pine nuts crop in Siberia), it is not unusual to see tourists routinely using bear trails, or village girls gathering berries almost side by side with brown bears. If such an idyllic scene happened in America, the bear would almost certainly be shot, and the girls would have to endure a three hour-long safety talk by park rangers.

Unfortunately, this almost-peaceful coexistence of bears and people, quite common in remote areas of Russia only two decades ago, is now rapidly becoming a fairy tale itself. Poaching for bale, fat and skins has severely depleted bear populations in all more or less accessible parts of the country

It is believed that Ursus arctos colonized America from Asia. Not surprisingly, brown bears of the Old World show much higher diversity in appearance and behavior than their descendants in USA and Canada. It is possible that this species is undergoing further speciation before our very eyes.

Unlike in North America, where brown bears seem to prefer open landscapes (grasslands, Alpine meadows and tundras), in Eurasia they inhabit mostly dense forests, although they were probably more widespread in grasslands and even deserts in the past. One possible reason for this difference is that the particular population that invaded America thousands of years ago was tundra-adapted. In fact, Chukchi Peninsula on the Asian side of Bering Strait is the only place in Asia where brown bears live year-round in lowland tundra. Another possible explanation is that in America, dense forests are occupied by American black bear (U. americanus). Its Asian counterpart, the Himalayan bear (U. tibetanus), is limited in its distribution to hardwood forests of Eastern Asia and to mountains of the northern part of Indian Subcontinent. If the two species do coexist (such as in Ussuriland, the southernmost part of Russian Far East), brown bear seems to prefer high-elevation coniferous forests and Alpine areas.

The most widespread form of brown bear in Eurasia is "common" brown bear, U. a. arctos. It once occurred from Britain to Transbaikalia, and from Northern Scandinavia to the grasslands of Southern Ukraine and Northern Kazakhstan. Now only a few relict populations survive in Southern and Central Europe, and in the grasslands there are no bears at all. Bears are also gone from hardwood forests around Moscow and other major cities, but they are still present throughout the boreal forest zone from Norway to Yakutia.

Within this huge area, they look more or less the same, although east from the Urals one will find a higher percentage of light- or reddish-colored bears. Recent DNA research has shown that bears of the Alps and other European mountains are genetically distinct from those of taiga forests. There are also differences in their behavior, probably caused by varying levels of hunting pressure. In Europe (including European Russia, where bears were almost wiped out by trophy hunters prior to the 1917 revolution), they are typically strictly nocturnal, and seldom attack people or livestock.

In many areas of Western, Southern, and Central Siberia, as well as in Northern Mongolia, bears depend heavily on Siberian pine (Pinus sibirica), known locally as "cedar". If its mast fails, starving bears start killing livestock, attacking people, and often do not hibernate - they wander around in deep snow until they starve to death or manage to kill a cow or a moose. Such shatun (wanderer) bears are responsible for most bear-caused human fatalities in Russia.

It is believed that bears of Transbaikalia (sometimes known as "anteater bears" for their heavy use of Formica rufa ants for food) are more aggressive towards people than those of other parts of Siberia. One possible reason is that in Eastern Siberia, winters are very dry, with little snow cover, so bears are forced to wake up early in spring, and have to hunt to survive until May, when young vegetation appears. There were documented cases of Transbaikalian bears becoming "professional" man-eaters, with two animals killing more than 12 people each.

Bears known as U. a. ognevi, that live east from Kolyma River, are generally small, light-colored and relatively non-aggressive. They feed mostly on berries, because the only tree in the area is Dahurian larch (Larix gmelini). They tend to live above the timberline (which is less than 500 m above sea level in the area), or in Arctic tundra further North.

Giant bears (U. a. piscivorus) of Kamchatka Peninsula and Paramushir Island are very similar to Kodiak bears of Alaska, but tend to be darker. They also depend heavily on salmon, and are considered non-aggressive, although some unprovoked attacks do happen. They have interesting behavioral patterns - some of them even learn to kill sea otters on rocky shallows. Kamchatka used to have almost as many bears as all of Siberia, but recent plague of Japanese, American and European trophy hunters, as well as local poachers, has brought their numbers to one-fifth of what they used to be.

On Koryak Highlands, north from Kamchatka, these bears interbreed with small ognevi subspecies, but it looks like both prefer to breed with their own.

Another subspecies, U. a. manchuricus, inhabits the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, Amur Basin, Sakhalin Island and Ussuriland. It once occurred in North Korea and Northeastern China, but is now almost extinct there. These animals are large (some were documented killing tigers), and utilize a great variety of food, from salmon to wild grapes. Interestingly, local hunters believe that there are three species of bears in the area: brown bear, Himalayan bear (locally called "white-breast" for characteristic V-shaped mark on its chest), and black bear, which is said to be the largest and most carnivorous of all three. The analysis of bear attacks on people and observed cases of bear predation on livestock and wild ungulates seems to confirm that all meat-eating individuals are large and dark-colored, and almost all of them are males. It is possible that this population is evolving towards separating into two species. But it is also possible that these bears are a mix-up of two races, one originating from Siberia or Central China and another - from Japan.

Brown bears U. a. yesoensis of Hokkaido and the two southernmost Kuril Islands are said to be extremely dangerous. On a 100 mile-long Kunashir Island, where a few hundred people coexist with two hundred bears, bear attacks happen almost annually. These bears have unusually narrow skull and almost always show a reddish collar or spots around the neck.

The three southernmost subspecies of Asian brown bears, collectively known as "white-clawed" bears, are strikingly different from all others. They are small, yellowish, with large ears and long messy fur. In the mountains of Hindukush, where Himalayan bears are more often brown than black, these two species can be easily misidentified. All three "white-clawed" subspecies are relatively harmless (in India, Nepal and Pakistan the Himalayan bear is considered much more dangerous). The "pika-eating bear" U. a. pruinosus, once widespread in Central Asia, is now surviving in very low numbers in the Himalayas, Tibet, and adjacent mountains of China. It was still common in Karakorum, Pamir, and Hindukush in the 1960-s, but is probably extinct there by now. The "red bear" (U. a. isabellinus) of Tien Shan Mountains is now very rare outside some Nature reserves in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The "yellow bear" (U. a syriacus) of the Middle East has been hunted to extinction almost everywhere. It recently occurred as far south as the Golan Heights and as far east as Turkmenistan, but now it is limited to the most remote parts of Kurdistan, Iran, Eastern Turkey, and to Hosrov Nature Reserve in Armenia. The bears of Turkey, known as U. a. lasistanicus, now restricted to a few mountain ranges, are probably intergrades between this race and Balkan version of U. a. arctos. They have black claws, but otherwise are very similar to slightly smaller syriacus.

The relationships between black-clawed and white-clawed bears were recently studied by Anatoly Kudaktin in the Caucasus with some very surprising results. Typical bears from the Northern Caucasus, known as U. a. meridionalis, look like a smaller version of European brown bears. They are not aggressive, almost entirely diurnal, and predominantly herbivorous. Kudaktin took a closer look at them, and found out that there were, in fact, four distinct forms in the area:

According to Kudaktin, "caucasicus" spends summer months at the Northern slope of the Caucasus, and on Alpine meadows on both sides of the range, while "meridionalis" summers in hardwood forests of the Southern slope, and at higher elevations in Transcaucasia. "Lasistanicus" also occurs in the forests of the Southern slope and in Transcaucasia, and "syriacus" only occasionally wanders into the mountains, but is more common in dry hills of Armenia. In the fall, the first three forms migrate to the lowlands, sometimes using the same trails. Only the first two races hibernate in winter.

The most interesting thing is that breeding biology of these forms is strikingly different. Males of the first two forms are strictly territorial. During mating season they remain below timberline where they mark their territories by scratching trees. Females stay with chosen males for a week or more.

Males of the latter two races do not have territories and spend the mating season in forest clearings and meadows. If they find a receptive female, they follow it around, but no longer than for three-four days. Kudaktin found no cases of "lasistanicus" or "syriacus" males mating with "meridionalis" or "caucasicus" females. He observed very few pairs formed by "lasistanicus" females and "meridionalis" or "caucasicus" males. In these pairs females did not pay attention to males' territorial marks and moved to the meadows. Males had to follow them but left after two-three days.

Critical analysis of Kudaktin's data shows that there is probably enough evidence to consider southern races of brown bear a separate species. In this case, the first two forms should be considered ecotypes of U. a. meridionalis, while the other two are probably distinct subspecies of "white-clawed" bear and should be called U. pruinosus lasistanicus and U. p. syriacus.

There are three mysterious forms that probably hold the key to understanding the systematics of brown bears. Unfortunately, two of them, U. a. crowtheri of Northern Africa, and undescribed population of Central Kazakhstan, were hunted to extinction in the late 19th century, and the other one, the elusive mazaalai of Southern Gobi Desert, is vanishingly rare - it is believed that less than 20 of them exist. It could be a relict population of U. a. pruinosus, or U. a. isabellinus, or something entirely different. Local people consider these animals very distinct from "normal" U. a. arctos bears of nearby Altai Mountains.

Anyway, it is obvious that only molecular research of all bear populations of Eurasia will shed light on the old problem of the number of bear species actually existing in the world.

Below is a list of online images of brown bears of various subspecies. Note that bears are extremely diverse in individual appearance. In almost every local population, you can find animals looking like typical members of all known subspecies.

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