Hierarchy in Bears

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Yellowstone National Park



Text Extract



AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS OF ADULT MALES AT THE TROUT CREEK ECOCENTER

Aggressive encounters among aggregation members frequently involved spectacular feats of skill, strength, and endurance. Descriptions of these from abridged field notes for the year 1963 give some sense of the atmosphere of aggressive power that created the hierarchy each season. Marked male bears are identified by a number and/or a name; unmarked but individually recognizable bears are referred to by name only. Journal notes are as follows:

18 June 1963—Scarneck has not yet been sighted in the aggregation. Short-eared Boar is closely attending female No. 112. Inge (No. 12) is following female No. 65; she is in estrus. Inge is leaving No. 65 to challenge Short-eared Boar. He pursues him over a quarter mile [0.4 km]; Short-eared Boar turns and makes a stand. Inge closes with his opponent, parries, and jockeys for position. They move cautiously like wrestlers seeking advantage and leverage. Inge suddenly bores in, seizes Short-eared Boar by the throat, leveraging his body in a twisting turn. This maneuver throws the 750-pound male to the ground on his back. We can hear the two roaring from well over a third of a mile [0.5 km] away. Short-eared Boar regains his feet; the two stand, man-like, their jaws locked, striking fierce blows with powerful forepaws. They relinquish their holds and drop to all fours. Inge makes a bluffing charge but Short-eared Boar does not retreat. They again lock jaws and Inge forces Short-eared to back up. It is apparently not a concession, but a maneuver. Short-eared lunges for Inge's throat. Inge lowers his head and dives for the Short-eared Boar's groin. They roll and tussle. Neither can get a firm hold. Inge keeps the pressure on, driving steadily on after each lunge, backing Short-eared down the slope some 20 feet [6.1 m]. Short-eared turns and runs; he is pursued by Inge at a fast pace through the sage for half a mile [0.8 km]. Inge stands, watching his retreating contender for several minutes. He ambles slowly back to female No. 65 and together they move over the hill, the male nudging the female along until they disappear from sight.


Short-eared Boar circles back to the dump and immediately shows interest in female No. 40, sniffing her genitalia (checking). The other males have shown no interest in her this evening. Short-eared mounts No. 40 and breeds her. Number 40 is receptive and the copulation lasts 19 minutes. Number 40 moves to a feeding site; Short-eared Boar moves to the creek, enters the water, and lays down. Female No. 40 was bred earlier by No. 88 [Patch-eye] on 11 June and by Inge on 14 June. Today's breeding extends her observed estrous period to a minimum of eight days. Inge appears to be the most dominant of the large males, but he is not yet recognized as alpha. The Grizzled Boar appears to be Inge's chief contender, but he has not yet appeared today.

19 June 1963—Female No. 112 is receptive to male No. 88, but he has been unable to breed her. Fighting and chasing contenders has interrupted his advances. Female No. 65 is present and apparently still in estrus as she is attracting the large, aggressive males. Inge is alert, his eyes fastened on male No. 88, 40 yards [36.5 m] away. He appears oblivious to female No. 65 and to other bears around him who are also alert and moving outward to a fringe of nervous animals. With ears erect and head thrust forward, Inge stands motionless, watching. In prelude to battle, each male approaches the other in a slow stiff-legged walk. Inge stomps his hind feet alternately downward and briefly holds his legs rigid before taking the next step in a similar manner. Advancing in this swaggering, robotlike gait, the males move closer. Both animals salivate profusely and urinate. The approach and ultimate showdown is delayed by frequent pauses as the contenders eye one another. Each appears to look for an appeasement sign or a propitious moment to charge. Inge continues his stiff-legged walk toward No. 88 and pauses. Number 88 moves in similar manner toward Inge. Both bears are studies in concentration: both seem oblivious to their surroundings. The pace increases. They are now 50 feet [15 m] apart. Most members of the aggregation have stopped feeding and are facing the contenders. Emitting a low, guttural growl, ears laid back and head low, Inge charges. It is amazingly fast. We detect no warning signal but No. 88 apparently does, for in split seconds he is prepared to defend himself. He does not meet Inge face-on as he has other contending males. He wheels around, and as he does so, Inge's jaws close on his rump, tearing free a 3-inch [7-cm] flap of hide exposing a white slash. Without losing stride or momentum, Inge climbs over No. 88, breaking him down. Number 88 twists under Inge's weight and rolls to his back, with all four feet fending off his opponent. Inge sinks his teeth deep into No. 88's groin as he lies pinned on his back. There is a brief tussle, the roaring loud and continuous. Inge rears back, lifting his head. As he does so, he lifts the near-700-pound [320-kg] bear clear of the ground and shakes him. The action is occurring in seconds, and I find it hard to believe my eyes. Both bears hit the ground in a tumbling roll. Number 88 has Inge by the neck as he finally regains his feet. He releases his hold and clamps on Inge's jowls, shaking his massive head. Inge rears back, fighting free at the expense of a ripped and bleeding lower jaw. The two stand erect face to face, jaws gaping, teeth bared, emitting rumbling growls. They drop to all fours, and in a synchronous lunge rise together to clash teeth, slap with fore-paws, and engage and disengage their jaws as each seeks an advantage. Inge throws his weight to the right, attempting to twist No. 88 to the ground, but No. 88 counters with a lunge to the left, his teeth imbedded in Inge's neck. They break apart and silently eye one another. The pause in action is only a few seconds but seems longer. Inge is the first to move. He steps upward to the right, taking advantage of the slope. Number 88 makes a leg dive; Inge sidesteps and slaps No. 88 across the shoulder with a terrific swipe of his right paw. I hear the slap and see deep furrows ripple through the fur. Number 88 lurches backward from the blow and Inge drives forward for No. 88's throat, exposed for a fraction of a second as he seeks his balance. Rising on hind legs, the two embrace with an audible clash of teeth. Biting and swiping, they exchange roars that carry across the valley and noticeably excite the spectator bears. The roaring subsides to growling and the contestants, now only feet apart, stand motionless eyeing one another with steady stares. Neither moves in this control of wills; 88 does not retreat but slowly lowers his head to one side, and eye contact is momentarily broken. Inge's head goes up, his ears erect. Number 88 holds his submissive pose, but with eyes on Inge; still, he does not retreat. Inge deliberately turns his back on 88 and very slowly moves 60 feet [18 m] to claim female No. 65. Number 88 could attack Inge from behind but he does not. This recognition of defeat is never breached. The contest is over; for this day Inge is victorious. There will be no sneak attack, no renewal of hostilities. The other bears begin to feed as though suddenly released. I can almost feel the tension subside. Number 65 had been receiving the attention of the Large Brown Boar while Inge was fighting. This male attempts to mount the female but retreats as Inge approaches. Number 88 remains where he had fought, breathing heavily, then climbs the embankment and mixes with the other males now actively feeding. He moves on to the creek. Inge, his chest expanding and contracting like huge bellows, stands with female No. 65 at his side, eyeing the aggregation. It is a challenging pose, but no bear responds. Ten minutes elapse before Inge moves. He appears to have lost interest in the female but his presence keeps other males at a distance. Neither Inge nor No. 88 appears to be seriously injured although both show wounds from the conflict. Inge is clearly dominant over No. 88 this day, but he is not yet recognized as alpha. There are other males yet to contend with.

26 June 1963—Inge (No. 12) and the Grizzled Boar [never captured and marked] have had three encounters earlier in the season, but none have been decisive. Since then, Inge and the Grizzled Boar have avoided one another. When they have approached closely, Inge has appeared to dominate. The Grizzled Boar has not challenged Inge and Inge has been relatively tolerant of his presence. The Grizzled Boar has had successful encounters with Short-eared Boar and Scarneck. He is powerful and aggressive but keeps his distance from Inge. There are three females present that are now in estrus. Inge has been aggressive toward all bears this evening, but there have been no battles.

Inge (No. 12) is now moving among the 60 bears present. All show him deference—some by moving aside, others by lowering the head, and some by ignoring him completely. The Grizzled Boar and the Short-eared Boar are squared off, intently eyeing one another. Inge moves swiftly toward them, attacking the Grizzled Boar from behind. The Grizzled Boar is unaware of his approach until he is crushed to the ground. Inge does not carry the fight but allows the Grizzled Boar to retreat. [Inge] has not been feeding; he seldom does. He is patrolling the aggregation, exerting authority. The Grizzled Boar moves toward a choice feeding site, scattering younger bears and female No. 96 with her one cub. A growl and a rapid step is all it takes for,him to clear the site. The Grizzled Boar has fresh scars on his jowls and neck that were not there a day ago; he has been in a battle we did not observe, perhaps in the backcountry. His behavior toward Inge has changed drastically. He is now relatively submissive. He probably fought Inge for female No. 65 or possibly for female No. 40. In any case, he and Inge have battled, and Inge is now the alpha male. The Grizzled Boar recognizes this, as does the entire aggregation. There was no need to have seen the showdown; evidence speaks in the actions and behaviors of every bear. All defer to the "boss," from weaned yearlings and 2-year-olds to Inge's other major contenders, Short-eared Boar, No. 88, and Scarneck. Inge has dominated all the large aggressive males and has reclaimed his former status, relinquished to Scarneck last season (1962). We might say that he has established himself as alpha in 26 days of aggressive action and constant vigilance, or that the aggregation has accepted him as the dominant male after a 26-day period of contention. He has vigilantly checked the fertility of estrous females and has copulated at least three times with two different ones. He has earned the right to select females without a battle and to take choice feeding sites throughout the summer.


Encounters such as those just described occurred each year and determined the ascension and succession of alpha males from one year to the next. The organization of the remainder of the male hierarchy fell into place by the same process.


Source: The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone: their ecology in the Yellowstone ecosystem, Craighead, J.J. (1995).



Next: McNeil River, Alaska.

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Churchill, Manitoba, on the west coast of the Hudson Bay (Polar Bears)



Selected text extracts with an emphasis on male Polar Bears:


Now, every fall, large numbers of polar bears meet in the region of Churchill, Manitoba, on the west coast of Hudson Bay. They not only meet but some also feed together. And a few travel together, seeming to form "friendships" that may last several weeks. At Churchill, males often play together but only after proper introductions have been made and all minutiae of a complex protocol have been observed. First encounters between bears tend to be courteous but very cautious.


The very opposite of the mild and matronly Linda was a great male known to various biologists as BOB (an acronym for Bag of Bones), Nasty, or Cassius (because of his lean and hungry look). I first saw him in 1979, when John Kroeger and I were studying polar bear behavior from an observation tower at Cape Churchill, forty miles east of the town, and he was the largest, leanest, meanest bear I've ever met, a deeply scarred and gaunt giant with a ragged coat and an evil temper. He tried repeatedly to hook John and me off the tower (he could reach nearly fourteen feet up), and when that failed, he shook the tower as one would shake a small apple tree and seemed extremely vexed that we did not fall off.

Although Cassius was an old and ailing bear, all other bears were afraid of him, for he attacked with little provocation and virtually no warning. This sort of behavior is rare in polar bear society where intentions, hostile or friendly, are, as a rule, well advertised. Cassius's health improved in 1980 and he gained at least 200 pounds, but he was as unpleasant that year as the previous year and came again to shake our tower. In 1981, he was very sick, but he still roused himself from time to time to attack all bears that came near. We saw him briefly in 1982, but not in 1983.

A newcomer approaches the cape's resident bears with utmost circumspection. High-rumped and low-shouldered, he walks slowly and deliberately toward them in a rolling, pigeon-toed shuffle. He pauses frequently, head high, sniffing, weaving slightly from side to side. He may rise on his hind feet for a better look, but he relies primarily on his incredible sense of smell to identify and classify the res dent bears and they, in turn, assess his size, intent, and social standing.

If he is small or medium sized, the local bears pay little heed. But if he is large, 800 pounds or more, his appearance causes a stir. Young bears become apprehensive and may trot away, and old, decrepit bears become huffy and defensive. They rise and growl or hiss, the upper Hp puffed out, hairs raised on neck and along the curved, protruding spine. The newcomer, no matter how large and powerful, will nearly always back away from a hostile bear. He has come to await the forming of the ice— to feed, perhaps to sleep, but not to fight

If times are propitious and the newcomer's age and weight are right, he may invite another bear of roughly equal age and size to play. As a rule, only fat males play, and the frequency and duration of play-fights vary greatly from year to year. In 1979, the Hudson Bay ice broke up early, the bears had a long, lean season ashore, and by October their fat reserves were nearly depleted. Most bears slept and very few played. The 1980 ice season, however, was exceptionally long, the bears had extra weeks to hunt seals, and most were still swathed in fat when they came to Cape Churchill in late fall. They played frequently, often for hours. They could afford to dissipate energy upon an extremely strenuous activity from which they derive no immediate benefit except sheer pleasure and perhaps preparation for the real fights of future mating seasons. The following year, 1981, was also prosperous and many fat bears played. In 1982, most bears were lean and played less, and 1983 was a hunger year for many bears. In the latter year, some came to the Churchill region as early as July and by late fall most bears were famished, lean, and edgy. Only a few, those in better condition than most played, but rarely for long.

Bears that play are usually between four and eight years old and weigh 300 to 750 pounds. Males in their prime, great muscle-packed 1,000-pounders, do not play-fight any more. Young bears, the recently abandoned two- or three-year-olds, rarely play. They are usually hungry and, suddenly motherless among this horde of larger bears, may not feel like it. Only once in five years did I see two youngsters (probably siblings) romp, and they were exceptionally fat and could afford the fun. Very old bears never play. They appear bent, grouchy, and arthritic, well past both play and passion. Only fear or the prospect of food rouses them.



To be continued...



Note: McNeil River brown bear segment has been rescheduled & will follow next at the conclusion of the Churchill, Manitoba polar bears.

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Churchill, Manitoba, on the west coast of the Hudson Bay (continued)


A bear that wishes to play slowly approaches another suitable male, and the two begin a massive, slow-motion minuet They circle and sniff, heads low, mouths closed, eyes averted, and they are silent signaling by attitude and posture peaceful intent and mutual respect They come closer and closer and finally stop, face each other, and sniff, allowing their dark noses to touch. They "mouth" each other with jaws wide open or chew gently at each other's necks like horses grooming each other. One places a massive, fur-fringed paw upon the other's shoulder, they rise and spar and push, lose balance and embrace, sway and wrestle. One topples and lies on his back, huge paws pedaling in the air. The other, jaws agape, throws himself on top and they romp on the ground, then rise and wrestle again. Considering their awesome power, the bears practice marvelous restraint and are extremely careful not to hurt each other. Each bout lasts ten to fifteen minutes, and toward the end both bears are panting so loudly that they can be heard a hundred yards away. Hot and exhausted, they move apart, stretch out on snow or ice like rugs-to-be, gulp snow to cool their overheated bodies, and rest a while. Then one gets up, nuzzles and nudges his prone chum, and after some prodding the play-fight begins anew.


Males that play together may stay together. Some arrive at the cape together, having met, we assume, on their way up the coast. They may also be former litter-mates. Others form "friendships" at the cape. They play, then rest near each other. They may even share a scooped-out snow bed in which they sleep entwined like lovers. They feed peacefully next to each other, and may remain together until ice forms on Hudson Bay and the bears ship out
Bears of equal size become acquainted quickly, and opening ceremonies prior to play are often brief and perfunctory.

Occasionally a large male in the mood for play approaches a little bear, but the invitation is rarely taken up. The large bear advances very slowly and hunches down low, signaling "peace" with every nuance of posture and movement in the ursine lexicon. The little bear, apprehensive and abristle, keeps backing up; both wander around the cape, one forward and one backward, until the small bear wheels and flees.

On very rare occasions, the gentleness of the large bear will allay the small bear's fears and they carefully play together. In such unequal play-fights initiated by a large bear, the little bear nearly always "wins." The large one, powerful enough to severely injure his small opponent with one swat uses utmost caution not to intimidate the little fellow, because that would instantly end the fight and the fun. So he lets himself be pummeled and pushed by the small bear and frequently goes limp and collapses. In one bout I watched between a 700-pound and a 300-pound bear, the big bear toppled eleven times, the small one only once.

The bears at the cape are most active in the morning, doze during much of the day, and are again active in the late afternoon. Most sleep at night, but some pad about in the dark, restless. While there is a certain camaraderie among some of the younger males, most avoid close contact and are politely distant.

This benign neutrality ends abruptly when food is involved. By November most of the bears at the cape have not had a good meal for several months and they are presumably famished. Yet even under this stress, fights over the rare kill are infrequent. Large bears take precedence. If a large bear is first at the food, only bears of nearly equal rank will come close. They growl and threaten—they may even lunge—but they do not fight. Smaller bears sidle up, hoping for leftovers, but they are meek and careful.

Prior possession of food confers some rights. If small bears are first at the food, the large bears try to muscle in, but they are very slow and cautious and back off, at least temporarily, when the "owners" roar and threaten. Despite Freuchen's assertion that if a young bear tries to defend his food "he is invariably slain by the older bear," nearly alt the bears at the cape seem loath to get into a real fight, presumably because brawling wastes precious energy and one of them may get hurt.

Most unpredictable of all bears are the young and the very old. The young may not as yet have learned proper bear manners; the old are perhaps too touchy and grouchy to care. Both are often hungry, they are insecure and fearful and that makes them aggressive. It is probably no coincidence tfiat on the extremely rare occasions when bears have attacked and killed people, the aggressors were usually young or very old animals. Two oil drillers working in Canada's western Arctic were killed by lean three-year-old bears. In 1983, a 200-pound bear killed a man in Churchill, and the same year an old bear severely injured a friend of mine, Fred Treul, while we were watching bears at Cape Churchill.

The young are understandably nervous and jumpy. Among all those large bears, they must at times feel like Daniel in the lions* den. Before coming to the cape, a youngster only had to yell when he got into trouble, and a mighty mother rushed to the rescue. Although he is now alone, he is still in the habit of cockiness and will charge a bear five times his weight Amazingly, he may get away with it perhaps because it is such a drastic breach of etiquette and takes the large bear by surprise. The large bear backs off and the hungry youngster rushes in and gulps down the food. This won't happen too often, though: inevitably the young bear soon runs into tougher bears, is hurt or at least badly scared, and learns both caution and manners.

Nearly everyone avoids the very old bears. They have their private sphere that none may transgress and they lunge with hardly any warning at bears that come too near. Nearly all bears at the cape are very ill at ease if one animal is particularly hos tile and aggressive. They behave in his presence like people stuck in a subway car with a loud, obnoxious, and pushy drunk: they avoid eye contact, try to ease away, pretend to be oblivious, and hope he will pick on someone else.

On the whole, considering the number of bears at the cape, there is little friction and no serious fighting until nearly the end of the season, usually in mid-November, when females with cubs arrive. Most females pass, inspect the ice, give the males a wide berth, and return inland. But a few come right toward the gathered males, and that usually means trouble.



To be continued....

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Churchill, Manitoba, on the west coast of the Hudson Bay (continued)


Emphasis on sow polar bear & cubs


In late November 1983, there were forty-three bears at the cape, twenty-eight close together. A young female with two small cubs approached. A crowd of bears attracts bears. It may mean food. It was probably this, hunger, and inexperience that made her advance toward the massed males. She turned frequently to "talk" to her cubs and they followed obediently behind her. She appeared to be extremely nervous and was unusually hostile. When she was twenty yards away, she charged the nearest male, roared, clawed, and bit. He was more than twice her weight but he roared back, recoiled, and ran. She rushed back to her frightened cubs and immediately attacked the next male. The commotion and roaring began to interest the bears. Four large males advanced on the cubs from different sides. The youngsters fled, and the sight of little running cubs excited the males. Three of them pursued the cubs, not really in dead earnest but at a leisurely trot. The female charged two more males, the last one with such impetuous fury that he stumbled and fell. Suddenly she missed her cubs; she called frantically, heard them bawl, and raced after them. The three males immediately abandoned their half-hearted chase and the female led her cubs away.

Such violent encounters must be rare. In five years I have only seen one. If a female does come to the cape, the males usually show no interest. The female remains on the periphery, acting worried and nervous. She talks nearly constantly to her cubs and soon leaves.

Soon they will all leave. November is the crucial month for the bears at Cape Churchill, for it is then that Hudson Bay begins to ice over, starting just north of the cape. Studies of their winter movements show that many of the bears will head north or northeast, following the direction of the deepening freeze, and some will travel hundreds of miles. Initially, they will form temporary groups on the edges of the shore ice or out on large floes. But this fraternity is purely a matter of convenience. The social season is over for these patient polar bears and as they push north, they will gradually fall away from each other, until each is alone again.

Those watching from shore don't see even these subtleties, though. One day forty-seven bears will be mingling at the cape; the next morning, perhaps two or three. And then, very soon after, they're gone.



Bruemmer, Fred. How polar bears break the ice. Natural History, Vol. 93, No. 12, December 1984, pp. 38-46.




Next: McNeil River, Alaska Brown Bears.

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Next: McNeil River, Alaska (continued)



INTRODUCTION

Adult brown bears Ursus arctos are typically solitary. Subject to few, if any, of the evolutionary pressures (e.g. interspecific predation, food procurement) that favour formation of social groups (Eisenberg 1966; Kummer 1971; Estes 1974), brown bears retain a simple social system that is probably little advanced over that of primitive carnivores (Eisenberg 1966). Social affilia- tions between brown bears are restricted to family groups of a female and offspring and sibling litter mates that remain together for 1 to 3 years after separation from the female (Stonorov & Stokes 1972). Brief male-female consort relationships occur during the breeding season (Murie 1944; Hornocker 1962; Stonorov 1972).

Like other solitary carnivores, however, brown bears form loose aggregations to feed on carrion (Craighead & Craighead 1967; Cole 1972; Glenn 1973), in garbage dumps (Hornocker 1962; Craighead & Craighead 1967), and on salmon streams (Stonorov & Stokes 1972). Though feeding aggregations are transient and clearly distinct from social groups formed by truly gregarious species, many of the associated behavioural contingencies are similar.

A gathering of brown bears on a small portion of a salmon stream provided the chance to study the social behaviour of this little-known, elusive carnivore. The objectives of the study were to learn the behavioural characteristics of various brown bear sex and age classes, to quantitatively describe the dyna- mics of their social behaviour over a 40-day summer fishing season, and to determine social and environmental factors correlated with the frequency of different types of behaviour. We further hoped to make inferences about the overall social system of brown bears and to determine the way in which brown bear behaviour parallels or differs from the behaviour of gregarious carni- vores. Some of our preliminary results are presented here.



Allan L. Egbert, Allen W. Stokes and Allen L. Egbert. The Social Behaviour of Brown Bears on an Alaskan Salmon Stream. Bears: Their Biology and Management Vol. 3, A Selection of Papers from the Third International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Binghamton, New York, USA, and Moscow, U.S.S.R., June 1974. IUCN Publications New Series no. 40 (1976), pp. 41-56.


PDF LINK: www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bearbiology.com%2Ffileadmin%2Ftpl%2FDownloads%2FURSUS%2FVol_3%2FEgbert_Stokes_Egbert_Vol_3.pdf&rct=j&q=The%20Social%20Behaviour%20of%20Brown%20Bears%20on%20an%20Alaskan%20Salmon%20Stream&ei=j0gsTrXcCpG-sQPalt3LCg&usg=AFQjCNGD_kEWTKwKbUwLOLr2Q7BJO3-JLg&cad=rja

[grrraaahhh]

McNeil River, Alaska (continued)



INTRODUCTION

Adult brown bears Ursus arctos are typically solitary. Subject to few, if any, of the evolutionary pressures (e.g. interspecific predation, food procurement) that favour formation of social groups (Eisenberg 1966; Kummer 1971; Estes 1974), brown bears retain a simple social system that is probably little advanced over that of primitive carnivores (Eisenberg 1966). Social affilia- tions between brown bears are restricted to family groups of a female and offspring and sibling litter mates that remain together for 1 to 3 years after separation from the female (Stonorov & Stokes 1972). Brief male-female consort relationships occur during the breeding season (Murie 1944; Hornocker 1962; Stonorov 1972).

Like other solitary carnivores, however, brown bears form loose aggregations to feed on carrion (Craighead & Craighead 1967; Cole 1972; Glenn 1973), in garbage dumps (Hornocker 1962; Craighead & Craighead 1967), and on salmon streams (Stonorov & Stokes 1972). Though feeding aggregations are transient and clearly distinct from social groups formed by truly gregarious species, many of the associated behavioural contingencies are similar.

A gathering of brown bears on a small portion of a salmon stream provided the chance to study the social behaviour of this little-known, elusive carnivore. The objectives of the study were to learn the behavioural characteristics of various brown bear sex and age classes, to quantitatively describe the dyna- mics of their social behaviour over a 40-day summer fishing season, and to determine social and environmental factors correlated with the frequency of different types of behaviour. We further hoped to make inferences about the overall social system of brown bears and to determine the way in which brown bear behaviour parallels or differs from the behaviour of gregarious carni- vores. Some of our preliminary results are presented here.



Allan L. Egbert, Allen W. Stokes and Allen L. Egbert. The Social Behaviour of Brown Bears on an Alaskan Salmon Stream. Bears: Their Biology and Management Vol. 3, A Selection of Papers from the Third International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Binghamton, New York, USA, and Moscow, U.S.S.R., June 1974. IUCN Publications New Series no. 40 (1976), pp. 41-56.


PDF LINK: www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bearbiology.com%2Ffileadmin%2Ftpl%2FDownloads%2FURSUS%2FVol_3%2FEgbert_Stokes_Egbert_Vol_3.pdf&rct=j&q=The%20Social%20Behaviour%20of%20Brown%20Bears%20on%20an%20Alaskan%20Salmon%20Stream&ei=j0gsTrXcCpG-sQPalt3LCg&usg=AFQjCNGD_kEWTKwKbUwLOLr2Q7BJO3-JLg&cad=rja

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McNeil River (continued)



INTRODUCTION

Each summer 60 to 80 brown bears (Ursus arctos) congregate at McNeil River Falls, located 320 km southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula, to fish for migrating chum salmon Oncorhyncus keta. The falls impede upstream movement making salmon vulnerable to bears. As simultaneously, many only a few metres over 30 days many as 25 bears apart. Many bears each summer and return yearly. may fish stay at the falls.

Because we can observe so many bears throughout a fishing season and during subsequent seasons, McNeil Falls provides an excellent its development opportunity to in a natural situation. The purpose of our study was to describe study prey-catching behaviour and brown bear fishing behaviour, its development, and its relation to environmental and social factors.

This paper describes fishing behaviour and its relation to salmon abundance. Elsewhere in this volume (Paper 4) Egbert fishing success, notably time of and Stokes report on other factors influencing day and status of the bears.





Michael H. Luque and Allen W. Stokes Fishing Behaviour of Alaska Brown Bear Bears: Their Biology and Management Vol. 3, A Selection of Papers from the Third International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Binghamton, New York, USA, and Moscow, U.S.S.R., June 1974. IUCN Publications New Series no. 40 (1976), pp. 71-78.

PDF LINK: www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CB4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bearbiology.com%2Ffileadmin%2Ftpl%2FDownloads%2FURSUS%2FVol_3%2FLuque_Stokes_Vol_3.pdf&rct=j&q=The%20Social%20Behaviour%20of%20Brown%20Bears%20on%20an%20Alaskan%20Salmon%20Stream%20&ei=Fmk0Tr6MMqLw0gHyr5zYCw&usg=AFQjCNF2Z3XKtTBFoZ4lduiC7W54tSyTtA&cad=rja

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Great accounts. Some accounts say that mother bears with cubs usually dominate all at feeding areas except for large mature males.

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From the new Animal Planet documentary:

Viking Wilderness - Bears Brawl and Mate

[warsaw]

Kamchatka