An unprecedented visual and scientific journey into the secret world of bears. Follow black bear cubs through spring in the forest, witness brown bears feasting through summer and autumn, and battle through winter with polar bears on the tundra.
BEARS OF THE NORTH A Year Inside Their Worlds WAYNE LYNCH In Bears of the North, renowned wildlife photographer, naturalist, and bestselling author Wayne Lynch offers us a work of scintillating science and stunning beauty. Following the polar bear, the brown bear, the Asiatic black bear, and the American black bear through the four seasons, Lynch provides readers with an insider’s view of the mysteries of hibernation and the birth of cubs in winter; the relentless quest for food and mating rituals in spring; hunting, fishing, and daily activities in summer; and the feeding frenzy and exuberant play that precedes hibernation in autumn. Dispelling the stereotypes—but none of the magic—surrounding these magnificent creatures, Lynch comments on the latest scientific discoveries related to the biology, behavior, and ecology of bears. He explains how satellite telemetry has revealed the purpose behind the meanderings of bears and the great distances they sometimes cover on land and in water. Taking us out into the wild to share his firsthand observations of the magnificent bears of the northern hemisphere, Lynch describes their survival strategies and the threats they face from habitat fragmentation and global climate change. Lynch’s fascinating narrative is enhanced by over 150 gorgeous color photographs capturing bears in their natural habitats, including the mysterious moon bear, fierce polar bear battles, and rare images of mothers’ intimate moments with their cubs. Informed by Lynch’s nearly forty years of experience observing and photographing bears in the wild, and aided by ever-more-sophisticated digital photo technologies, Bears of the North introduces readers to a new universe of enthralling portraits of bears in their natural environments. Renowned wildlife photographer WAYNE LYNCH (CALGARY, AB) is the author of or photographer for numerous books, including Penguins of the World, Owls of the United States and Canada: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior, Planet Arctic: Life at the Top of the World, Polar Bears: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior, The Great Northern Kingdom: Life in the Boreal Forest, and Alligators: The Illustrated Guide to Their Biology, Behavior, and Conservation.
TA B L E O F CO NTENTS Preface 1. Introduction
4. June The Mating Game
7. October–November– December
The Carnivores
The Biology of Murder
Bedding Down for Winter
The Bear Family: Family Ursidae
Coming of Age in Bearland
Danger in the Den
The Polar Bear
The Family Breaks Up
Snow Dens
The Brown Bear
Orphans and Castaways
The Challenge of Life on the Ice
The Asiatic Black Bear
Sunbathing Seals
The American Black Bear
The Hunter and the Hunted
2. January–February– March A Bear in Hibernation, Down but Not Out Den Mothers Journey to the Ice On the Sea Ice 3. April–May Den Emergence Getting Under Way Origin of the Sea Bear Hunters on the Ice
Ants and Other Edibles 5. July–August Bears on the Beach Salmon and Bears Hierarchy Highs and Lows The Language of Bears
8. The Unbearable Future Habitat Loss Chemicals That Poison Poaching for Placebos and Profit The Big Melt Appendix A. The Tropical Bears
Bear Rub Trees
The Andean Bear of the Cloud Forests
A Day in the Life
The Sun Bear
The Challenge of Living with a Cousin
Giant Panda, the Bamboo Bear of China
6. September The Fall Feeding Frenzy
The Sloth Bear: The Termite Terminator
More like Cows than Carnivores
Packing on the Pounds
Droppings and Digestibles
The Games That Bears Play
Caching and Carrion
Appendix B. Scientific Names of Plants and Animals
A Bear's Domain
References
The Brainy Bruin
Acknowledgments Photo Credits Index
VI • CONTENTS
Features over 150 gorgeous color photographs.
was assumed to be an adult male more than five years old. The second instance, which also occurred on Hopen Island, was captured on video. In this case, an adult male, estimated to be more than eight years old because of the scarring on his body, persistently chased a mother and her 18-month-old cub. The male was dogged in his pursuit and followed the pair when they attempted to escape by swimming among some offshore ice floes. When the fleeing family swam back to shore and ran up a rocky slope toward the base of a steep, unclimbable cliff, the male caught up with them and killed the yearling. The male dragged the carcass down the slope and fed on it. After feeding briefly, he took the remains to an ice floe roughly 200 yards (183 m) offshore where he fed on it for another two days. Little remained of the carcass when he finally left. In another instance in Sweden, researchers reported a case in which an 11-year-old male brown bear killed a mother who was traveling with three young cubs. Examination of the site showed evidence of a ferocious fight. The body
114 • BEARS OF THE NORTH
of the killed mother, partially eaten, was covered with moss. Two of her cubs were found alive in a nearby tree. The most common explanation for infanticide is to create a mating opportunity for a male bear. Killing a cub creates a breeding prospect in the following way: when a female’s only cub is killed, she stops nursing, and she comes into heat shortly afterwards; a persistent male may then eventually breed with her. In many species of mammals, the stimulation from suckling young inhibits estrus through the production of hormones such as prolactin and oxytocin. In Sweden, Sam Steyaert reported that within just a day or two of a female losing her litter and the cessation of nursing, her behavior shifted dramatically from the sedentary, secluded movements of a mother protecting her cubs to the roam-to-mate pattern of a female seeking a male partner. In interior Alaska, female grizzlies with cubs stayed within an average home range of 38 square miles (99 sq. km) and moved just 2 miles (3.2 km) a day. The home range of
Nursing brown bear cubs begin to feed on vegetation when they are roughly six months old. A mother bear is less able to protect her cubs when nursing, so she rarely does this when an adult male is nearby.
JUNE • 115
There are rules when grizzly cubs play: don’t run off too far, don’t bite too hard, and don’t use your claws when you wrestle and kick
These two-year-old polar bear cubs played for over 30 minutes after feeding on a juvenile bearded seal
224 • BEARS OF THE NORTH
At one point, as the bruin family moved across the tundra, it was joined by a blackbilled magpie. The magpie searched for insects in the soil disturbed by the digging activities of the mother bear. Such a colorful, long-tailed playmate was too much for the cubs to resist, and they repeatedly chased the bird. Each time, the magpie flew a few yards and then landed. The game finally ended when one of the cubs chased the bird from one spot to the next until the pair was 100 yards (91 m) from the mother grizzly. When the cub suddenly noticed how far it had strayed, it raced back to the security of its mother, and the magpie flew away. Often, the young cubs played with each other. It usually started with one of them making a surprise rear attack on its littermate. As soon as the attack was launched, the attacker ran away, hoping its playmate would chase it. The object of play in all mammals is not to win, but to keep the game going. There appear to be rules: don’t run off too far, don’t bite too hard, and don’t use your claws when you wrestle and kick.
Wayne Lynch describes the bears’ survival strategies and the threats they face from habitat fragmentation and global climate change.
SEPTEMBER • 225
After reaching the edge of the shorefast ice, this mother polar bear faced a wide expanse of open water. She loitered for about 15 minutes before walking away across the ice.
50 • BEARS OF THE NORTH
Arctic, found that bears traveled only 1.2 to 3 miles (2–5 km) per day, with frequent stops to rest and nurse along the way. On Herald Island, Russia, where the they den on steep slopes, polar bears may use two or three temporary dens on their way to the ocean. Researcher Nikita Ovsyanikov told me he thinks females sniff the winds coming from the sea to monitor ice conditions. In Hudson Bay, where the bears travel farthest to reach the sea, the course is not meandering but amazingly straight. Biologist George Kolenosky wrote that the ability of females to travel direct routes over featureless terrain was remarkable and indicated a highly developed system of navigation. Near the sea, the odor of open water may assist orientation, but inland there appeared to be few navigational aids. It is not known how polar bears navigate, but if they are like other animals, they may use a number of methods. It’s possible that bears can use the angle of the sun and make adjustments for the season and the time of day, as birds do, to travel accurately in one direction. They might also be able to detect the weak magnetic field of Earth. Many birds rely on a magnetic sense to navigate during migration, and recent research suggests that some mammals also have this sensory ability—migratory greater mouseeared bats and hunting red foxes. Regardless of how bears navigate, it is clear that they can do so quite accurately. Analyzing over 621 miles (1,000 km) of polar bear tracks made by female bears leaving maternity dens along Hudson Bay, biologists found that all of the mother bears walked
in a northeast direction to reach the ice. This direction guaranteed that the bears always intercepted an area of the bay where there would be seals to hunt. Along southern Hudson Bay, bear families journey to the ice more or less in a straight line, but the mother will frequently follow streams if they course in the same general direction in which she wishes to travel. Even in areas of tundra, trees and bushes frequently grow along the banks of streams, and the bears may follow these streams to shelter from the wind. The vegetation along streams also traps blowing snow into drifts in which the mother can dig a temporary den if the weather becomes too severe for travel. The average daytime temperatures during March, when the bears leave their dens along Hudson Bay, are −4°F to −22°F (−20°C to −30°C). One March when I was observing bears, there was a three-day cold spell with record temperatures of −43°F (−42°C). A brisk northwest wind drove the wind chill down to −94°F (−70°C). Polar bear cubs cannot withstand such extreme temperatures. It is likely that during such weather a mother bear digs a temporary den in which to shelter her family until the conditions for travel improve. Young polar bear cubs cannot withstand temperatures below −22°F (−30°C). Although a polar bear cub’s pelt is well developed when the bear family leaves its winter den, the young cubs, like all baby animals, have a high surface area in relation to their body mass, so they lose body heat more readily than adult bears. To compensate, cubs
This mother polar bear and cub were being followed by an adult male bear, and the mother was coaxing her cub to join her in the water and swim to some nearby pack ice, which they eventually did
JANUARY • FEBRUARY • MARCH • 51
Other animals share the bears’ habitat.
• OUTFOXING THE COLD • EVERYTHING ABOUT AN ARCTIC FOX is designed to
on the sea ice or by preying on newborn seal pups.
cope with the cold. To begin with, the undersides of its
In the nearby Beaufort Sea, sometimes more than a
feet are covered with fur, and its coat is the warmest
quarter of seal pups are killed by Arctic foxes.
of any land mammal studied. The tough little fox can
The Arctic fox rarely walks, and it seems to have
weather temperatures down to −45°F (−43°C) before
only two travel modes: a dead stop or a steady lope.
it must increase its metabolism to keep warm. One
Out on the sea ice, the three surviving foxes studied by
Arctic fox was kept at an astonishing −112°F (−80°C)
Pamperin, two males and a female, traveled 4.6 to 11
for an hour, and its body temperature never dropped
miles per day (7.5–17.6 km per day). Male number one
a degree.
moved onto the sea ice on November 6 and stayed
When biologist Joel Allen proposed his famous rule
there for 120 days, until March 6. During that time,
to explain how animals conserve body heat, he must
he traveled 562 miles (904 km). Male number two
have been thinking about the Arctic fox. According to
was on the sea ice for the shortest time, just 76 days,
Allen’s Rule, animals from cold climates have smaller
from December 8 to February 22, but still logged 681
ears, muzzles, legs, and tails than their relatives from
miles (1,096 km). The young female fox was the most
warmer climates, and the Arctic fox, when compared
adventurous of the trio and spent the longest time
with the more southern red fox, follows the pattern
on the ice, 156 days, from November 26 to May 1. In
perfectly.
her winter wanderings she covered an impressive 1,713
The Arctic fox is a circumpolar species that ranges
miles (2,757 km).
from the Arctic tree line far out onto the polar pack
The recent sea ice travels of a juvenile female fox
ice. Fox tracks have been seen at N 89°11.15´, a mere
from Spitzbergen, Svalbard, are even more impres-
few dozen miles from the North Pole. Researchers
sive. The young fox was fitted with a satellite trans-
have known for decades that foxes travel out onto the
mitter in March 2018. The fox’s subsequent journey
sea ice, where they scavenge the kills of polar bears,
left scientist Eva Fuglei speechless. Within 21 days,
but until 2005, no one had followed their movements
the fox had traveled 940 miles (1,512 km) to northern
with satellite telemetry. Biologist Nathan Pamperin
Greenland. By June 10, 76 days after she left Svalbard,
attached radio transmitters to 14 juvenile foxes along
she was tracked to the tip of Ellesmere Island, the
the northwestern coastline of Alaska. Three of the
most northern lands in Canada. In her jog across the
young foxes moved onto the sea ice and survived
polar seas, the athletic fox traveled a total distance
the winter. The 11 who remained on land all died,
of 2,179 miles (3,507 km) across extensive stretches of
suggesting that the use of sea ice may be advanta-
sea ice, moving at a rate of 29 miles per day (46.3 km
geous. Pamperin thought that the foxes survived by
per day)—the fastest movement rate ever recorded
scavenging polar bear kills, and in the spring, possibly
for this species.
by feeding on amphipods that graze on algae growing
On the sea ice, the Arctic fox is a capable predator as well as a scavenger of polar bear kills. In one study period in the Beaufort Sea, the fox preyed upon 45% of the newborn ringed seal pups. The map insert records the Arctic fox’s epic journey from Svalbard to the Canadian Arctic.
58 • BEARS OF THE NORTH
produced only half as many cubs as usual. It took over five years for the polar bear population to recover. Polynyas that ice over in winter do not always spell disaster for the polar bears in an area. At times, when the weather changes abruptly for the worse, the amount of open water in a polynya may shrink. If whales and walruses are unable to flee to another area of open water, the animals gradually become packed into a smaller and smaller space. Unlike ringed seals, which can maintain breathing holes in ice 6.6 feet (2 m) thick, whales and walruses must break through the ice, and they have a limited ability to do this. A walrus can use its head as a battering ram to smash through ice up to 8 inches (20 cm) thick, as can the brawny bowhead whale. The smaller beluga and narwhal are hampered by much thinner ice, usually as little as 4 inches (10 cm). When the ice in a polynya becomes too thick for whales and walruses to break apart, the animals withdraw to the last pools of open water. In these circumstances, they are like goldfish trapped in a bowl. In one incident in the Chukchi Sea, off the western coast of Alaska, polar bears killed 40 belugas when the whales became accidentally trapped in a small lead surrounded by thick pack ice. Observers did not know how many bears had done the killing, but an estimated 30 polar bears scavenged from the carcasses that were scattered around the opening in the ice. An eyewitness account of a polar bear killing a beluga in Novaya Zemlya, Russia, reported that the bear lay on the ice with its paws outstretched and killed the beluga with a crushing blow to the animal’s head when it surfaced within range.
The visible lumps on the necks of these bull walruses are skin thickenings that shield and protect the animals from the jabs of tusks during fights
Walruses will crowd tightly together even when there is a surplus of vacant sea ice. The most likely explanation is that a group has a greater likelihood of detecting and defending itself against a predator.
JANUARY • FEBRUARY • MARCH • 59
COMING IN OCTOBER 352 pages 8½ x 11 167 color photos, 12 color illus. 978-1-4214-3941-9 $34.95 £26.00 hc Also available as an e-book
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Also from Wayne Lynch
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Biology, Behavior, and Conservation
The Animal Answer Guide
JOHN E. REYNOLDS III
KENT A. VLIET
photographs by Wayne Lynch
GERALD L. KOOYMAN and WAYNE LYNCH
A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior
WAYNE LYNCH
photographs by Wayne Lynch
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$28.95 paperback/ebook 978-1-4214-1051-7
Text by ANDREW E. DEROCHER photographs by Wayne Lynch $41.95 hardcover/ebook 978-1-4214-0305-2
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