Brown bears appeared in Eurasia approximately 50,000 years ago. Some of them moved to North America, where they spread and live for about 13,000 years. In the 19th century, scientists classified 86 individual grizzly bears living on the North American continent. However, by 1928 the scientific community had narrowed the number to seven, and by 1953 only one species had been recognized.

In 1963 it became clear that the grizzly bear was not separate species, but a subspecies of brown bear, and this has been confirmed by modern genetic testing. By external differences and habitat, several of its subspecies were identified, but the classification was revised along genetic lines, and today there are two morphological forms: the continental and coastal grizzly bear. In scientific sources it is usually called the North American brown bear.

External features

Like other subspecies of brown bear, the brown coat color of the grizzly bear can range from light beige to almost black. The latter has a darker coat color on the legs and a lighter shade on the back. Representatives Rocky Mountains The tips of the guard fur are white, which gives the animal a grayish color.

The external signs of a grizzly bear and a brown bear have a number of characteristic features. As animals grow older, a clearly defined hump appears in the withers area, which is good way distinguish a grizzly bear from a black bear that lives in the same areas. Small round ears and a croup located below the shoulder line are anatomical structure, also distinctive for a brown bear and not inherent in a black one. These two species are also distinguished by the length of the front claws, which in the black representative is 2.5-5 cm, and in the grizzly it is about 5-10 cm, which corresponds to the size of the claws of other subspecies of brown bear.

Size and weight

The main difference between the grizzly bear and the Eurasian brown bear is size and weight. Coastal representatives of the species are larger than those that live in the interior of the continent, and just like all of the bear family, females are smaller than males. Most adult female bears reach 130-180 kg, and males usually weigh 180-360 kg; newborn cubs do not exceed 500 grams. Average weight coastal grizzly bears weigh 408 kg for males and 227 kg for females. The corresponding weights of continental bears are 272 and 227 kilograms.

Average sizes of the subspecies:

  • length -198 cm;
  • height at withers -102 cm;
  • the length of the hind legs is 28 cm.

However, individuals have been recorded that are significantly larger than normal in size and weight. There is a well-known example big bear grizzly bear - a coastal male weighing 680 kg and 1.5 meters high at the withers. Standing on its hind legs, this bear reached almost three meters in height. Sometimes there are exceeding size and weight of grizzlies, but they are erroneous, since they correspond to the parameters of Kodiaks, others are more large subspecies brown bear

Range and numbers

IN North America grizzlies once lived from Alaska to Mexico. Now, including Canada and the United States, their range has been halved, and their number is 55,000 wild bears. Grizzly bear habitats are limited to Alaska, a large area of ​​western Canada, the northwestern United States including Idaho, Washington, Montana and Wyoming, as far south as Yellowstone and the Big national parks.

Most of population lives in Alaska. Canada has a predominant number of bears: about 25,000 individuals inhabit British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, the northwest territories of Nunavut and northern part Manitoba. The University of Alberta estimates that there were 16,014 grizzly bears in British Columbia in 2008, up from 15,075 in 2012. Modern population estimates rely on DNA sampling, capture-recapture techniques, and an improved multiple regression model.

There are about 1,500 grizzly bears left in the United States. Of these, approximately 800 individuals live in Montana, 600 bears live in the Yellowstone-Teton region of Wyoming, and 70-100 are observed in northern and eastern Idaho.

Population decline

The grizzly bear's original range in the United States included much of the southwestern states, but the population has been extirpated from most of these areas. Before California joined the United States, its state flag featured the figure of a California grizzly bear, which was a symbol of the republic. The last bear in all of California was killed in the Sierra foothills in August 1922. In Colorado, the last representative was seen in 1979. And in the vast Cascade Mountains of Washington state, there are now fewer than 20 grizzly bears.

The population decline was significantly affected by hunting and the development of human activities, occupying old places grizzly bear habitats. Other factors:

  • competition with other, more adapted predators;
  • attacks on grizzly bear cubs;
  • reproductive, biological and behavioral properties of brown bears.

Lifestyle and reproduction

Apart from females with cubs, all brown bears are solitary animals. Exceptional Feature big grizzlies bears in coastal areas North America - gather in groups near streams, lakes and rivers during salmon spawning. Each adult male grizzly bear tends personal property with an area of ​​up to 4000 km 2. Such large territory and low population density significantly complicate the search for the scent of a female. The grizzly bear hibernates 5-7 months a year.

Grizzly bears have one of the lowest reproductive rates of any species. terrestrial mammals North America. Animals reach sexual maturity only at the age of at least five years. After summer mating season the female may delay embryo implantation until hibernation, which explains big difference in pregnancy - from 180 to 250 days. If the bear did not receive proper nutrition, the necessary calories and substances, then the embryo is miscarried.

Litter size ranges from one to four cubs, but more often twins or triplets are born, which the female produces during hibernation. The female bear takes care of the cubs for two years, during which she does not mate. Often bear cubs do not live to this age, becoming victims of predators. During the time spent with their mother, the cubs gain weight up to 45 kg. When two-year-old bears leave their mother, the mother bear cannot produce another litter for three or more years, depending on conditions environment.

Lifespan

The grizzly bear is a long-living animal. Males, on average, live up to 22 years, and the age of female bears often exceeds 26 years. Females live longer than males due to more safe behavior and the fact that they do not participate in the seasonal mating fights of males. The oldest continental wild grizzly bear was recorded in Alaska; he lived for 34 years. The oldest coastal bear lived to be 39 years old. At least 50% of captive grizzlies live to be 44 years old. But most bears die in the first years of life from predators or hunting.

Attacks on people

Like the polar bear, the grizzly bear is considered more aggressive than other species. However, threatening behavior is more often due to the protection of offspring. Mother bears guarding cubs are most prone to attack. They are responsible for 70% of cases of bear attacks on humans. At the same time, the heavy grizzly bear is rather slow and, unlike smaller black bears, does not climb trees well, and prefers to react to danger by standing still and driving away attackers with waves of its paws, growls and menacing nods of the head.

Cardall and Peter Rosen's article "Grizzly Bear Attacks," published in the journal Emergency Medicine, noted that there were 162 reported bear injuries, some fatal, in the United States from 1900 to 1985. This amounts to approximately two cases per year. For comparison: in the USA and Canada, up to 15 people die annually from dog attacks, and lightning strikes kill nearly 90 people per year.

Grizzly (from the English Grizzly bear - gray bear) is the name of one or more American subspecies of brown bear.

Translated from Latin language The name of this bear, Horribilis, means "terrible" or "fierce".

Grizzly bear habitat

Usually, gray grizzly chooses harsh, inaccessible places to live, where it is not disturbed by the proximity of humans. Alaska and northern Canada are the primary habitat for 98% of these mammals.

Small populations live on northern territory USA. The Rocky and Cascade Mountains also sometimes become their refuge.

By the beginning of the last century, the number of this type of bear was about 100 thousand individuals. The reason for the sharp decline in the population was excessive aggressiveness.

Appearance of a grizzly bear

The fur of a grizzly bear is slightly lighter than that of other representatives of the “brown” bear species. Distinctive feature can be called significantly big sizes. Body length adult The grizzly bear reaches from 220 to 280 centimeters and weighs about 500 kilograms. According to research by scientists, there were grizzly bears with a body up to four meters long!

The grizzly bear has very strong and strong jaws and powerful claws, which makes it a very dangerous predator.

The coat has a special color: the hairs on the neck, abdominal part and shoulders are dark brown, and at the ends they are colored in a light tone. From a distance it seems that the bear is gray.

Grizzly bear lifestyle

A characteristic character trait of the gray bear is its fearlessness. The combination of this trait with enormous strength makes it almost impossible for his enemies to win.

The victim will be torn apart in a matter of minutes by strong teeth and powerful claws. The animal can easily cope with a wild bison, but livestock is simply panic fear in front of him.

A bear does not feel any fear in front of a person and can kill him with one blow. The ferocious animal also attacks armed people, especially if it is wounded.

Attacks on humans are quite rare, but escape is almost impossible. The animal can reach speeds of up to 60 km per hour and is an excellent swimmer. Sometimes the animal prefers to hide as soon as it senses a person.

The grizzly prefers loneliness and tries not to contact its relatives. The most frequent conflicts between representatives of these animals are observed during the mating season.

Hibernation is common for grizzlies. A small hill is selected for lying down. Once covered with snow, it is turned into a den. The animal does not fall into deep sleep; rather, this state is a light drowsiness.

When a thaw occurs, the animal leaves its home and looks for food. When frost returns, it comes back and falls asleep again before the onset of warmer times. It has been estimated that bears sleep for half of their lives.

Grizzly bear nutrition

After the end of hibernation, the bear begins to intensively search for food. These representatives of the order of predators are omnivores. Grizzlies prefer plant foods.

Their main food: young shoots, nuts, berries, tree fruits, algae and roots. Bird eggs, insects and their larvae, as well as reptiles are used as delicacies. In just one day, a grizzly bear can absorb up to 40 thousand butterflies.

Carrion is also grizzly bear food. The animal can smell its scent at a distance of 30 km. A deer killed by a bear provides it with food for a week. However, the animal prefers to hunt sick, weak or young animals.

Fish is a delicacy for grizzlies. During the salmon spawning period, bears gather in groups on the shore and distribute fishing zones among themselves. They catch fish with their mouths or with the help of wide paws. Some bears manage to grab it on the fly when it jumps out of the water.

Bear cubs mainly indulge in honey, because at a young age can climb a tree. Before hibernation, the bear begins to experience polygapia - a feeling of constant hunger. This is understandable, since before going to bed you need to dial as much as possible large quantity fat

Grizzly bear breeding

The mating season for grizzly bears usually occurs in June. It is at this time that males are able to smell females even at a very long distance, amounting to several kilometers. Grizzlies stay in a pair for no more than ten days, after which they return to what is already familiar to this species. single image life.

Unfortunately, not all cubs manage to survive and grow up. Sometimes babies become very easy prey for hungry adult male grizzlies and other predators.

Gestation by the female takes approximately 250 days, after which two or three cubs are born in January-February. The average weight of a newborn bear cub, as a rule, does not exceed 410-710 g. Grizzly cubs are born not only naked, but also blind, and also completely toothless, so food in the first months is represented exclusively by mother's milk.

The cubs go out for the first time Fresh air only from the den late spring, around the end of April or beginning of May. It is from this moment that the female begins to gradually accustom her offspring to obtaining food independently.

As cold weather approaches, the mother bear and cubs begin searching for a new, more spacious den. Bear cubs become independent only in the second year of life, when they are already able to get enough food for themselves. Females reach sexual maturity only at three years, and males about a year later.

Population status and conservation of the grizzly bear

Currently, grizzly bears are protected, so their main habitat is represented by national parks on American territory.

The total grizzly bear population today is approximately fifty thousand individuals.

The gray bear is a grizzly bear, a real ferocious and ruthless killer.

He has dozens of human lives, the strong and powerful structure of the beast, makes the victim tremble in front of the bear's pile of muscles.

Appearance

A wild forest animal is enormous in size, if a gray bear stands on hind legs, then his height will be 2.5 meters. The weight of a wild animal can reach from 385 - 408 kg.

On the back of his neck there is a powerful hump, which gives him incredible strength, thanks to which he can play with 50 kilogram stones with his front paws. The coat color is dark brown.

Also, with one blow of the front paw, it can kill wild moose or a small relative. The closest relatives are brown bears. This type a self-confident predator, can afford to attack any animal and even a person.




He knocks the victim to the ground, tears the flesh with his long claws and powerful sharp teeth. It is almost impossible to escape from a grizzly attack. He does this because he considers himself the owner of the forest.

The gray bear has poor eyesight, which can cause it to aggressive behavior. Hind llamas also have powerful muscles; if a bear is tracking a prey, then at the most opportune moment it can attack it in a jump and take it by surprise.

Habitat

Grizzly bear, common in the Americas:

  • Alaska;
  • Canada;
  • Montana (Yellowstone);
  • Northwest Washington;

They migrated from Asia to North America, according to some sources, fifty thousand years ago, according to others, a hundred thousand years ago. The bear population has declined greatly over the past centuries.

According to official data, in 2000 there were about 250 of them, and by 2005 there were 600 individuals.

Habitat

The gray grizzly bear lives in the dense forests of North America. Leads a secretive lifestyle; under cover of night he can visit nearby farms. Each predatory individual marks its territory, scratching tree trunks with huge non-retractable claws and leaving noticeable marks on them.

Nutrition

The daily diet of a bear includes:

  1. Mice;
  2. Proteins;
  3. Birds;
  4. Berries;
  5. Fruits;

Despite its enormous size, wild animal develops a running speed of more than 55 km/h. It will not be difficult for him to catch a squirrel or a mouse. He is an omnivore and is always willing to eat. There have been cases when a bear opened a hunter's car like tin can in search of food.

Seasonal diet of a bear

Having gained a sufficient amount of fat, the animal prepares for hibernation. Tries to predict weather and at the most crucial moment he lies down in the den. blizzard covers the base of the hole, and the bear sleeps in the warmth until early spring. During hibernation, it loses 1 kilogram of weight per day.

Reproduction

The mating season for grizzly bears begins in mid-May, and the entire process takes no more than a month. While searching for females, the male begins to growl loudly, thereby attracting females to his territory.

There are funny cases when two tall bears sort things out for the right to impregnate them. Each predator has a harem of three or four females. During marriage ritual he protects them from rivals. But females prefer to mate with two or three males.



After 8 - 9 months, the female brings a litter of 2 - 3 cubs. Babies are born blind and deaf, covered with sparse hair, weighing no more than 500 grams, and their length does not exceed 25 cm.

Only the female participates in the rearing process. After 3 - 4 months, the babies become a size that is comparable to the size of a dog. They develop slowly, only after 3-4 years they become independent and leave their mother. The young body of a grizzly bear grows up to 11 - 13 years.

Lifespan

IN wildlife Gray grizzly bears live from 20 to 25 years.

  • Huge individuals living along the coast of Alaska reach huge size. The animal is more than 3 meters tall and weighs up to 1 ton.
  • In search of food, a bear can dig deep holes. In this he is helped by powerful front paws and sharp, long, non-retractable claws.
  • If you scare forest predator, then he is guaranteed to attack the offender.
  • Met in modern practice, man-eating bears that hunted unsuspecting tourists in the forests. Sometimes it took years to identify a cannibal bear and eliminate it.

Reading fiction You often come across stories about grizzly bears. The grizzly bear is vividly described in the books familiar and beloved in childhood by Fenimore Cooper, Seton-Thompson and Jack London. There he is presented as the owner of the forest.

Grizzly and really the biggest beast of prey on the American continent. Its weight reaches 450 kilograms, and its length is 2.5 meters. The claws reach 15 centimeters. Because of their long claws, grizzlies cannot climb trees.

The main habitat of the grizzly bear is the inaccessible places of Alaska and northern Canada. Because of its color, the grizzly bear is sometimes called the gray bear.
He is credited with bloodthirstiness, although in fact this is not the case. For the most part, this bear eats plant foods, but does not shy away from meat and fish.

It attacks humans very rarely and generally tries to stay away from people. Although a wounded and enraged animal is extremely dangerous. A grizzly bear attacks a person when defending its hunting grounds or when a female protects her cubs.

Sometimes the Spaniards pitted the bear against the bull. The bear's freedom of movement was limited, and he almost always emerged victorious in the fight.

The picture shows a grizzly brown bear for comparison.

Brown bear- the hero of many fairy tales and legends. This is the most common type of bear. Its weight is from 80 to 400 kilograms, body length is 250 cm, height at the withers is from 75 to 160 cm.

Females are smaller than males. Average duration life in freedom is 20-30 years. Females give birth to offspring every 2-4 years. And babies live with their mother until they are 3 years old. They live on all continents of Eurasia in forest zones. They know how to climb trees.

For the most part they eat plant foods and are very fond of honey, but they do not mind eating fish and roe deer.
In winter, having accumulated fat over the summer, bears hibernate.

In spring, bears often attack animals because plant food There is little in the forest in spring. Both wild boar and elk can become its prey. Particularly aggressive are bears that have not accumulated fat reserves in the summer and therefore do not sleep in the winter and walk through the forest for prey. People call them connecting rods.

Very often bears perform in the circus. Bears are one of the smartest animals.

The main differences between a grizzly bear and a brown bear:
Different habitats.
The grizzly bear is larger than the brown bear.
The coat color is different.
A grizzly bear can't climb trees, but... Brown bear climbs well.

P.S. Despite some differences, the brown bear and grizzly bear are closest relatives and belong to the same bear family (lat. Ursidae)

Titles: brown bear, grizzly bear, North American brown bear.
In North America it is known as the “grizzly bear” (previously, the brown North American bear was identified as a separate species).

Area: The brown bear was once common throughout Europe, including England and Ireland, in the south its range reached northwest Africa (the Atlas Mountains), and in the east through Siberia and China it reached Japan. It probably came to North America about 40,000 years ago from Asia, through the Bering Isthmus, and spread widely in the western part of the continent from Alaska to northern Mexico.
Now the brown bear has been exterminated in a large part of its former range, and is scarce in other areas. IN Western Europe its scattered populations survive in the Pyrenees, Cantabrian Mountains, Alps and Apennines. The brown bear is quite common in Scandinavia and Finland, sometimes found in forests Central Europe and in the Carpathians. In Asia, it is distributed from Western Asia, Palestine, northern Iraq and Iran to northern China and the Korean Peninsula. In Japan it is found on the island of Hokkaido.

Description: Appearance this beast is well known. His body is powerful with high withers (hump). This hump is actually a mass of muscles that allow brown bears to dig easily and use their paws as striking force. The head is massive with small ears and eyes. The tail is short - 65-210 mm, barely standing out from the fur. There is a clearly visible depression between the forehead and the bridge of the nose in profile. In a standing animal, the withers are noticeably higher than the croup. Paws are strong, five-fingered, plantigrade. The feet of a brown bear are very wide, the toes are armed with long, powerful, laterally compressed and crescent-shaped non-retractable claws 8-10 cm long, which are much longer on the forelimbs than on the hind limbs.
The coat is long, thick and coarse, often felted and usually evenly colored. Brown bears molt twice - in autumn and spring. Spring molt lasts a long time and is most intense during the rutting period. Autumn molting proceeds slowly and imperceptibly, ending with the period of lying in the den.
The brown bear has 40 teeth.

Color: The color of the brown bear is very variable, and not only in different parts range, but also within the same area. The color of the fur varies from light fawn to bluish and almost black. The most common is the brown form. In Rocky Mountain grizzlies, the hair on the back may be white at the ends, giving the appearance of a gray or grizzled coat. A completely grayish-white color is found in brown bears in the Himalayas, and a pale reddish-brown color is found in Syria. Bear cubs have light markings on their necks and chests, which disappear with age. The bear's paws are black or brownish in color, with wrinkled skin on the pad.

During the rutting period, usually silent animals begin to emit a loud roar.

Size: The length of the European brown bear is usually 1.2-2 m with a height at the withers of about 1 m and a weight of 135 to 250 kg. Bears living in middle lane Russia, smaller and weigh only 80-120 kg. Largest sizes bears from the Far East, Kamchatka and especially from Alaska and Kodiak Island, where they are called grizzlies, differ - some giants, standing on their hind legs, reach a height of 2.8-3 m.

Weight: The weight of an adult brown bear ranges from 80-600 kg and, despite intensive hunting, bears weighing up to 750 kg are still found. The largest individuals are found in Alaska and Kamchatka - they weigh 300 kg or more, and giants weighing 600-700 kg have been encountered. Most big bear, caught on o. Kodiak for the Berlin Zoo, weighed 1134 kg. Average weight: males: 135-390 kg, females: 95-205 kg. In autumn, a bear's weight can increase by about 20%.

Lifespan: In nature they live for 20-30 years, in captivity they live for more than 50 years.

Habitat: The brown bear is a forest animal. Its usual habitats in Russia are continuous forested areas with windbreaks and burnt areas with dense growth hardwood, shrubs and grasses, interspersed with swamps, lawns, and ponds; can enter both the tundra and alpine forests. In Europe it prefers mountain forests; in North America it is more often found in open areas - in the tundra, alpine meadows and on the coast.
The range of the brown bear in our country occupies almost the entire forest zone, with the exception of its southern regions. The bear finds refuge under the forest canopy, open areas They serve as feeding places for him. Berry trees, tall grasses, hazel trees - this is what attracts bears, regardless of where they grow - in a dark coniferous forest, in a clearing of a light forest, in a stream valley or in the chars of the Siberian mountains.

Food: The brown bear is omnivorous, but its diet is 3/4 plant-based: berries, acorns, nuts, roots, tubers and grass stems. In years when there is no berry harvest, northern regions bears visit oat crops, and in the south - corn crops; on Far East in autumn they feed in cedar forests.
Its diet also includes insects (ants), worms, lizards, frogs, rodents (mice, marmots, gophers, chipmunks). In summer, insects and their larvae sometimes make up up to 1/3 of a bear’s diet. Large males attack young ungulates - roe deer, fallow deer, deer (caribou, Noble deer, pampas deer), ibex, wild boar and elk. Some animals, most often males from the northern part of their range, hunt ungulates, hiding them or attacking from ambush. An adult bear is capable of breaking the spine of an elk or horse with one blow of its paw. When hunting ungulates, such bears display amazing strength, agility and tirelessness in pursuing victims.
The bear covers the prey or found carrion with brushwood and stays nearby until it has completely eaten the carcass. If the animal is not very hungry, it often waits several days until the meat becomes softer.
On occasion, brown bears hunt sea otters and seals on coastal haulouts and even go out onto the ice in pursuit of seals. Grizzlies sometimes attack baribal bears.
The brown bear sometimes takes prey from tigers, wolves and pumas. In summer and autumn, Far Eastern bears catch salmon going to spawn. On spawning rivers you can sometimes see 10-30 animals at once.
In years when food is poor, bears sometimes attack livestock and destroy apiaries. In some years, due to the failure of the pine nut harvest in large areas Siberian taiga bears do not have time to fatten up properly in the fall, and in winter they become homeless connecting rods, very dangerous for a person who finds themselves in their path.

Behavior: The brown bear is active more often at dusk, in the mornings and evenings, but on rainy days it wanders throughout the day. Daytime vigil is typical for bears in the mountains of Siberia. The seasonal cyclicality of life is clearly expressed.
Bears are very sensitive; they navigate the terrain mainly with the help of hearing and smell; their eyesight is weak. Brown bears can smell rotting meat more than 2.5 km away.
Although the bear's body weight is large and it seems clumsy, in fact it is a silent, fast and easy-to-move animal. The bear runs extremely fast - with the agility of a good racer - at a speed of over 55 km/h. He is a good swimmer, can swim 6 km or even more, and willingly swims, especially in hot weather. In his youth, a brown bear climbs trees well, but in old age he does this reluctantly, although it cannot be said that he completely loses this ability. However, it moves in deep snow with difficulty.
When encountering a dangerous opponent, the bear emits a loud roar, stands on its hind legs and tries to knock down the enemy with blows of its front paws or grab him.
In the winter, looking for a den, bears can go far from their summer area.
The brown bear is a sedentary animal and only the young, having separated from the family, wander until they create their own family. Individual hunting areas large and males have more than females. The bear marks and defends the boundaries of the areas. In the summer, male bears mark the boundaries of their territory by standing on their hind legs and tearing bark from trees with their claws. Such “border trees” have been used by various animals for decades. In treeless mountains, the bear tears up any suitable objects - clay slopes or tourist tents (usually in the absence of the owners). To secure your tent, the easiest way to mark the boundary of your site is to urinate in several places at a distance of 10-20 meters around the camp. Boundaries are not respected only during the ripening period of oats and on the eve of hibernation.
In the summer, the bear settles down to rest, lying directly on the ground among grass, bushes or in moss, as long as the place is sufficiently secluded and safe.
In autumn, the animal has to take care of a reliable shelter for the winter until mid-spring.
Depending on climatic and other conditions, bears are in dens from October-November to March-April and later, i.e. approximately 5-6 months. Bears with cubs live the longest in dens, old males live the least. In different areas winter dream lasts from 75 to 195 days a year.
For a den, the bear chooses the most reliable, remote and dry corners, somewhere on an island of forest in the middle of a vast moss swamp. The animal sometimes comes here from several tens of kilometers away and, approaching the target, confuses its tracks in every possible way. Sometimes bears have favorite places wintering grounds, and they gather here from the whole neighborhood. So, once in Russia, 12 dens were discovered on an area of ​​about 20 hectares.
Very often, dens are located in holes protected by windbreaks or roots of fallen trees. In some areas, animals dig deep dens in the ground, and in the mountains they occupy caves and rock crevices. Often, bears limit themselves to open lying in dense young spruce trees, near a tree or even in an open clearing, having dragged there a bunch of moss and spruce branches in the form big nest. Sometimes a bear makes a den right in a dug-up anthill of red forest ants. Pregnant female bears make deeper, more spacious and warmer dens than males do. The bear lines the finished den with moss, dry grass, pine branches, leaves and hay. Over time, the den is covered with snow from above, so that only a small hole for ventilation remains (the forehead), the edges of which are in very coldy covered with frost.