Spectacled bear habitat. Spectacled Bear - Mad Zoologist - LiveJournal
Spectacled bear (lat. Tremarctos ornatus) is the only representative of the family living in South America. It can be found on the western slope of the Andes in Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama.
For living, he chooses mountain forests at an altitude of 200 to 3000 m above sea level. But it often enters low-lying savannas and open meadows, trying to hide from prying eyes in thickets of bushes.
It is believed that the spectacled bear is a descendant of the huge bulldog bear, which became extinct about 10 thousand years ago. Some representatives of these large predators, which roamed America during the Ice Age, reached a weight of 1000 kg. Now they don’t even reach such dimensions, not to mention our brown bears.
The dimensions of the spectacled bear are relatively small - with a body length of 1.5-1.8 m, it weighs from 70 to 140 kg. Moreover, females are 30-40 percent smaller than males. The fur of both sexes is shaggy, black-brown or black with off-white or yellowish rings around the eyes, reminiscent of glasses. Sometimes these rings connect at the throat or go down to the chest, forming spots of various shapes, and sometimes they are absent altogether.
Interestingly, this type of bear has only 13 pairs of ribs, unlike its counterparts, which have one pair more. The length of the spectacled bear's tail is 7-10 cm, the muzzle is much shorter than that of its bear relatives, and the height at the shoulders is from 75 to 80 cm.
Spectacled bears live solitary lives, meeting only between May and August to procreate. “Marriage” is preceded by a mating ritual - at this time the male and female playfully fight and play together.
The “honeymoon” lasts one to two weeks, and the couple behaves quite temperamentally, mating many times. Then comes the inevitable “divorce” and, perhaps, yesterday’s lovers will never see each other again.
Pregnancy in a female lasts about 8 months and ends with the birth of 1-3 absolutely helpless 300-600 gram cubs. For some time, the mother lives with them in a cave, and from the age of one month they already accompany her everywhere, often climbing on her back. Babies become independent already at 6-8 months, but they reach puberty at 4-7 years. Short-faced bears live up to 21 years.
Spectacled bears never hibernate, because they have enough food all year round. They feed on grass shoots, rhizomes, bark and leaves of trees, and various insects. However, most of all they love to eat fruit.
They are active at dusk and at night; during the day they rest in hollows or between the roots of trees. When food is scarce, spectacled bears attack deer and livestock, catch rodents, and destroy corn crops.
Because of this, farmers do not like bears and wage a ruthless fight against them - they hunt them down, kill them, and treat crops with pesticides, which sometimes kill a whole family of club-footed animals. Meanwhile, these bears are not always to blame for the destruction of the crop - sometimes they are attributed to the tricks of birds or forest rodents.
The number of spectacled bears is quite low: only 2-2.4 thousand individuals. They are listed in the IUCN Red List and are protected.
The only representative of the bear family that lives in South America is the spectacled bear. This is a relatively small animal with a body length of 120 to 200 cm. Height at the withers ranges from 60 to 90 cm. Males weigh from 100 to 200 kg. Females are inferior to the stronger sex. Their weight ranges from 35 to 85 kg. The tail reaches a length of 8-10 cm.
The fur is long and black. There are circles of white fur around the eyes. A similar color is present on the face and throat. There are quite a few spectacled bears whose white coloring is very weak and sometimes absent altogether. The body is massive, the limbs are short. The head is large, the eyes and ears are small. The muzzle is shorter in shape than that of other members of the family.
Habitat
The spectacled bear lives in the northern and western regions of the South American continent. This is eastern Panama, western regions of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. The animal also lives in western Bolivia and northwestern Argentina. The number of the species is low. The animal has survived to this day only because it always escaped danger by climbing the tallest trees in the Andes. This population is listed in the International Red Book and is protected by law.
Reproduction and lifespan
Pregnancy in a female, including the latent period, lasts 8-8.5 months. From 1 to 3 cubs are born. They are blind and absolutely helpless. Their weight does not exceed 300-350 grams. The babies grow very quickly and within a month they begin to leave the den. Starting from 6 months, the younger generation already accompanies their mother everywhere and learns to eat properly, separating healthy plant foods from everything else.
The cubs live with their mother for up to 2 years, then they leave her and begin an independent life. Puberty occurs at 2 years. A spectacled bear lives in the wild for a maximum of 20-22 years. In captivity, the animal can live 25-27 years. In the Moscow Zoo, a bear named Klausina lived to be 30 years old.
Behavior and nutrition
The spectacled bear lives alone most of the time. Only during mating games do females and males form a pair. Each animal adheres to its own territory. At the same time, this species is quite democratic and prefers not to engage in battle with strangers who have invaded other people's possessions. Everything is limited to a polite growl, and the uninvited guest leaves.
Only females with cubs near them show aggression. A mother bear protects her offspring until her last breath. She can also attack a person if he poses a real threat. Basically, spectacled bears escape from danger in tall trees. At enormous heights, sometimes reaching up to 30 meters, these animals build special platforms from thick branches. They rest on them and store food. So it is very difficult for poachers to kill a representative of this species.
This clubfoot is the most herbivorous of the entire bear family. The diet of plant foods reaches 95%, and only 5% is meat. Main foodstuffs: palm nuts, orchid bulbs, leaves, roots, young shoots, fruits. The beast is very fond of sugar cane, honey, and corn. Animal food includes rabbits, mice, bird eggs and the birds themselves. The spectacled bear also attacks ungulates. These are deer and llamas. Cattle sometimes do not escape a sad fate. The beast does not disdain carrion. Apparently he likes meat with flavor.
Enemies
This species has three enemies. These are a jaguar, a puma and a man. The last one is the most dangerous. It was he who mercilessly exterminated the once numerous species. The decrease in population size was also affected by the growth of agricultural land. The bear was also shot for its gall bladder, which is highly valued in folk medicine. These days, only poachers shoot spectacled bears. Sometimes, however, farmers take out their guns if the clubfoot comes very close to livestock. In general, the number of the animal remains at a stable level, but at any moment it can begin to decrease.
The bear is the largest predator on earth. This animal belongs to the class mammals, order carnivores, family bears, genus bears ( Ursus). The bear appeared on the planet about 6 million years ago and has always been a symbol of power and strength.
Bear - description, characteristics, structure. What does a bear look like?
Depending on the species, the body length of a predator can vary from 1.2 to 3 meters, and the weight of a bear varies from 40 kg to a ton. The body of these animals is large, stocky, with a thick, short neck and a large head. Powerful jaws make it easy to chew both plant and meat foods. The limbs are rather short and slightly curved. Therefore, the bear walks, swaying from side to side, and rests on its entire foot. The speed of a bear in moments of danger can reach 50 km/h. With the help of large and sharp claws, these animals extract food from the ground, tear apart prey and climb trees. Many species of bears are good swimmers. The polar bear has a special membrane between its toes for this purpose. The lifespan of a bear can reach 45 years.
Bears do not have sharp eyesight or well-developed hearing. This is compensated by an excellent sense of smell. Sometimes animals stand on their hind legs to use their sense of smell to obtain information about their surroundings.
Thick bear fur covering the body has a different color: from reddish-brown to black, white in polar bears or black and white in pandas. Species with dark fur turn gray and gray in old age.
Does a bear have a tail?
Yes, but only the giant panda has a noticeable tail. In other species it is short and almost indistinguishable in the fur.
Types of bears, names and photos
In the bear family, zoologists distinguish 8 species of bears, which are divided into many different subspecies:
- Brown bear (common bear) (Ursus arctos)
The appearance of a predator of this species is typical for all representatives of the bear family: a powerful body, rather high at the withers, a massive head with rather small ears and eyes, a short, barely noticeable tail, and large paws with very powerful claws. The body of a brown bear is covered with thick fur with brownish, dark gray, and reddish colors, which vary depending on the habitat of the “clubfoot”. Baby bear cubs often have large light tan marks on the chest or neck area, although these marks disappear with age.
The distribution range of the brown bear is wide: it is found in the mountain systems of the Alps and on the Apennine Peninsula, common in Finland and the Carpathians, and feels comfortable in Scandinavia, Asia, China, the northwestern United States and Russian forests.
- Polar (white) bear (Ursus maritimus)
It is the largest representative of the family: its body length often reaches 3 meters, and its weight can exceed one ton. It has a long neck and a slightly flattened head - this distinguishes it from its counterparts of other species. The color of the bear’s fur is from boiling white to slightly yellowish; the hairs are hollow inside, so they give the bear’s “fur coat” excellent thermal insulation properties. The soles of the paws are thickly lined with tufts of coarse fur, which allows the polar bear to easily move across the ice without slipping. There is a membrane between the toes that facilitates the swimming process. The habitat of this bear species is the circumpolar regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
- Baribal (black bear) (Ursus americanus)
The bear is a little similar to its brown relative, but differs from it in its smaller size and blue-black fur. The length of an adult baribal does not exceed two meters, and female bears are even smaller - their body is usually 1.5 meters long. A pointed muzzle, long paws ending in rather short feet - this is what makes this representative of bears remarkable. By the way, baribals can become black only in the third year of life, receiving a gray or brownish color at birth. The black bear's habitat is vast: from the vastness of Alaska to the territories of Canada and hot Mexico.
- Malayan bear (biruang) (Helarctos malayanus)
The most “miniature” species among its bear counterparts: its length does not exceed 1.3-1.5 meters, and the height at the withers is slightly more than half a meter. This type of bear has a stocky build, a short, rather wide muzzle with small round ears. The paws of the Malayan bear are high, while the large, long feet with huge claws look a little disproportionate. The body is covered with short and very tough black-brown fur; the animal’s chest is “decorated” with a white-red spot. The Malayan bear lives in the southern regions of China, Thailand and Indonesia.
- White-breasted (Himalayan) bear (Ursus thibetanus)
The slender physique of the Himalayan bear is not very large in size - this representative of the family is twice as small as its brown relative: the male has a length of 1.5-1.7 meters, while the height at the withers is only 75-80 cm, females are even smaller. The bear's body, covered with shiny and silky fur of dark brown or black color, is crowned by a head with a pointed muzzle and large round ears. A mandatory “attribute” of the Himalayan bear’s appearance is a spectacular white or yellowish spot on the chest. This type of bear lives in Iran and Afghanistan, is found in the mountainous regions of the Himalayas, in Korea, Vietnam, China and Japan, and feels at ease in the vastness of the Khabarovsk Territory and in the south of Yakutia.
- Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus)
A medium-sized predator - length 1.5-1.8 meters, height at the withers from 70 to 80 cm. The muzzle is short, not too wide. The fur of the spectacled bear is shaggy, has a black or black-brown tint, and there are always white-yellow rings around the eyes, smoothly turning into a whitish “collar” of fur on the animal’s neck. The habitat of this type of bear is the countries of South America: Colombia and Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama.
- Gubach (Melursus ursinus)
A predator with a body length of up to 1.8 meters, height at the withers varies from 65 to 90 centimeters, females are approximately 30% smaller than males in both respects. The body of the sloth fish is massive, the head is large, with a flat forehead and an overly elongated muzzle, which ends in mobile, completely hairless, protruding lips. The bear's fur is long, usually black or dirty brown in color, and in the area of the animal's neck it often forms something like a shaggy mane. The sloth bear's chest has a light spot. The habitat of this type of bear is India, some areas of Pakistan, Bhutan, the territory of Bangladesh and Nepal.
- Big panda (bamboo bear) ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
This type of bear has a massive, squat body, which is covered with dense, thick black and white fur. The paws are short, thick, with sharp claws and completely hairless pads: this allows pandas to firmly hold smooth and slippery bamboo stems. The structure of the front paws of these bears is very unusually developed: five ordinary fingers are complemented by a large sixth, although it is not a real finger, but a modified bone. Such amazing paws enable the panda to easily handle the thinnest shoots of bamboo. The bamboo bear lives in the mountainous regions of China, with especially large populations living in Tibet and Sichuan.
Titles: spectacled bear, short-faced bear.
Area: The spectacled bear is the only representative of the family in the fauna of South America. It inhabits mountains (up to 3000 m, and even recorded at an altitude of 4200 m) from Colombia to Northern Chile (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela).
Description: Medium sized spectacled bear. Its coat is shaggy, black or with a brownish tint, with the exception of large white markings around the eyes (hence the name “spectacled”) and spots on the chest, very variable in shape, and in some individuals completely absent. The muzzle is shorter than that of other bears, and the legs are long. Its teeth and jaws are adapted to a vegetarian diet. Females are 30-40% smaller than males. These bears have plantigrade feet, in which both the heel and the toe touch the ground while walking. Long, curved claws are adapted for digging and extracting food from the soil: insects and their larvae.
Spectacled bears have only 13 pairs of ribs, compared to 14 pairs in other bears, and they are the last remaining representatives of the extinct short-faced bears. The spectacled bear is a direct descendant of the bear that was the largest predator in the Americas during the Ice Age and was known as bulldog bear (Arctodus simus). The largest recorded specimens are estimated to weigh up to 1,000 kg, but on average they weigh approximately 600 kg. Bulldog bears roamed the Americas from approximately 2 million to 10,000 years ago.
Color: The fur is jet black or black-brown, in some individuals it can change to pure brown and even reddish. There are white or yellowish rings around the eyes, connecting with a white semicircle on the throat. Lines or patches of white also extend onto the chest.
Size: In length it reaches no more than 1.5-1.8 m, on average - 1.65 m. Height at the shoulders: 70-90 cm.
Weight: On average, the weight of spectacled bears is about 127.5 kg. Weight of males: 100-155 kg, females: 64-82 kg.
Lifespan: Lives up to 20-25 years. One bear lived in captivity for 36 years and 5 months.
Habitat: The spectacled bear is a very adaptable animal. It, like the brown bear, is found in widely varying habitats. The spectacled bear lives mainly in mountain wet rain forests, but often appears in mixed and dry forests, on open meadow slopes, in low-growing coastal thickets and thickets of bushes, in areas of steppe vegetation.
Food: It is believed that the spectacled bear is the most herbivorous in the entire family. They have a varied diet depending on the season, altitude and food availability. It feeds on leaves, roots, young seedlings, bulbs, but especially prefers bromeliads, orchids and various fruits.
These bears climb large cacti to get to their fruits located at the top. Spectacled bears have extremely strong jaws, allowing them to eat food that other animals cannot, such as tree bark and bromeliad pith. In some places, the spectacled bear damages corn crops.
A small part of their diet consists of nuts, seeds, a few insects and other small animals - animal food makes up only about 4% of their diet.
Bears are known to have a sweet tooth, and they will never turn down the opportunity to feast on wild honey or sugar cane. It happens that they attack deer, guanacos and sometimes kill cattle if they are starving and no other food is available.
At the zoo, it eats a dry food mixture (called chow), vegetables, including sweet potatoes and carrots, and fruits (apples, oranges and grapes).
Behavior: Bears are crepuscular and nocturnal animals, spending the day in gorges or in dense thickets of vegetation near water. They sleep comfortably between or under large tree roots, on tree trunks or in a cave. They are very cautious and secretive in areas inhabited by people, but in uninhabited areas they can often be found in open areas. Spectacled bears are excellent climbers, their claws are specialized for climbing. They deftly climb up trees and vines and often build artificial platforms from branches, leaves and vines on trees in order to comfortably rest and feed there.
There are cases when they climb to a height of over 10 meters to collect tasty fruits. Since their food is often found at the ends of branches that cannot support their weight, they perch and bend the branches under themselves to build a crude nest. As soon as the nest becomes large, strong and sufficient for sleeping, the bear spends up to 3-4 days on such a tree: it sleeps and eats here.
Spectacled bears do not hibernate, probably because their food supply is available and abundant throughout the year. They are timid and always try to avoid meeting people.
Social structure: They are known to be solitary creatures, with the exception of mothers and their young. In captivity, they use a variety of signals to communicate with each other.
Reproduction: During the mating season, the male and female usually stay together for one or two weeks, mating many times. While the female is in estrus, which lasts only one to five days, the male and female go through a ritual of play wrestling until she is ready to conceive.
When the egg is fertilized, it divides for a while and then floats free in the uterus for several months. This causes a delay in the development of the embryo and helps ensure that the young are born at a time when food is most available and abundant.
Breeding season/period: Mating occurs between May and August. Females give birth from January to March.
Puberty: Females become sexually mature between 4 and 7 years.
Pregnancy: About eight months.
Offspring: Females give birth to 1-3 defenseless young. At birth, puppies are blind and weigh 300-360 grams. The mother takes care and feeds the cubs well, and they grow quickly. After a month, puppies can leave the den with their mother in search of food, and after 6-8 months they can provide their own food.
Often, little bear cubs travel through the forest with their mother, often riding on her back.
Benefit/harm for humans: Spectacled bears are hunted for their meat, fur, fat and bile. The meat is especially popular among the local population in northern Peru. The fat is used to treat rheumatism and arthritis. Gall bladders are sold and used in traditional Asian medicine. Recent estimates put the price of one gallbladder at $150, which is five times the average monthly wage in Ecuador. Previously, poachers killed bears due to the high demand in the market for bear paws, where one paw could fetch from $10 to $20.
South American farmers persecute these bears for attacking their livestock. There were cases when some bears began to kill a cow every day until they themselves were killed. Farmers also view bears as a threat to their corn fields. They treat the fields with special pesticides to keep bears away from them. But sometimes entire families of bears are destroyed by these poisons. The actual loss made by these bears may be overestimated and actually caused by birds and forest rodents.
Population/Conservation Status: The wild population of spectacled bears is estimated to number between 2,000 and 2,400 individuals. Habitat destruction and fragmentation due to agricultural growth are the biggest reasons for the decline in the numbers of these bears. Bears are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN and are in CITES: Appendix I.
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The spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus), also well known as the Andean bear, is a rare predatory mammal belonging to the family of bears and the genus Spectacled bears.
Description of the spectacled bear
The spectacled bear is the only modern representative belonging to the genus Tremarctos. A closely related fossil species is known in North America – the Florida cave bear (Tremarctos floridanus). Spectacled bears are direct descendants of the largest American predator of the Ice Age - the giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus), whose weight was quite impressive, reaching 800-1000 kilograms.
Appearance
The spectacled bear is a medium-sized mammalian predator. The maximum body length of this animal varies between 150-180 cm, with the length of the tail from 7 to 10 cm. The average height of the predator at the shoulders is 75-80 cm. The weight of an adult female is from 70-72 kg, and a mature male - no more 130-140 kg.
The fur of the animal is quite shaggy, coal-black or black-brown in color. Some individuals are characterized by the presence of well-defined dark red-brown shades in color. Despite the fact that representatives of the bear species have fourteen pairs of ribs, the spectacled bear is characterized by the presence of only thirteen pairs of rib bones.
This is interesting! The main difference between the spectacled bear and other members of the family is not only the characteristic “glasses” around the eyes, but also a shorter muzzle.
The strong animal, with a short and muscular neck, as well as short and strong limbs, along with other types of bears, moves on its heels. Representatives of the genus are simply excellent climbers, which is due to their large forelimbs compared to their hind legs. Around the eyes of the spectacled bear there are characteristic rings of white or yellowish color, which explains the name of the representatives of the genus. Such rings are connected to a whitish semicircle located in the throat area. In some individuals such spots are completely or partially absent.
Character and lifestyle
The spectacled bear is the most good-natured species of all members of the family. Such a predatory beast never attacks a person first. The exception is when a mammal is experiencing a clear threat to its life or is trying to protect its young. However, no deaths due to spectacled bear attacks have been recorded to date. When people appear, the predatory beast prefers to retreat, climbing a fairly high tree.
Predatory mammals of this genus never divide territory among themselves, but prefer a closed, solitary lifestyle. In areas that are very rich in all kinds of food, quite often you can observe several, quite peacefully coexisting individuals.
Characteristic differences from the brown bear in terms of lifestyle also include the complete absence of a period of hibernation. In addition, spectacled bears extremely rarely build dens for themselves. Representatives of the genus prefer to stay awake at night, and during the day such animals rest in special, independently made nests. As a rule, it can be very difficult to find such a unique bear nest among dense thickets of plants.
How long does a spectacled bear live?
The maximum life expectancy of a spectacled bear in the wild, as a rule, does not exceed 20-22 years. Mammalian predators kept in captivity are quite capable of living even a quarter of a century. The inhabitant of the Moscow Zoological Park, a spectacled bear named Klausina, according to official data, was able to live to the respectable age of thirty.
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is manifested in the anatomical differences between females and males that belong to the same biological species. It can be expressed by a wide variety of physical characteristics, including the weight and size of the animal. For example, the size of an adult male spectacled bear exceeds the size of a mature female of this species by approximately 30-50%. Also, females are noticeably inferior in weight to representatives of the stronger sex.
Range, habitats
The habitat of spectacled bears is represented by the western part and southern regions of the South American continent, including eastern Panama, western Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador. In addition, such a predatory mammal is found in Bolivia and in the northwestern part of Argentina.
Today, the spectacled bear is the only representative of the bear family living in South America. The beast prefers mountain forests on the western slope of the Andes, located at an altitude of no more than three thousand meters above sea level. However, such a predator may well appear on open meadow slopes, in low-lying savannas and bush thickets.
Diet of a spectacled bear
Spectacled bears are the most herbivorous of all their relatives, so meat food makes up a very small percentage of their daily diet. The amount of plant food makes up approximately 95% of the diet, and the amount of meat does not exceed five percent. In order to provide the body with protein, such predatory animals actively hunt all kinds of rodents and rabbits, as well as not too large ones, some arthropods and birds.
In the hungriest times, spectacled bears are capable of attacking walking livestock, but most often they are content with a variety of carrion to satisfy themselves. Due to the structural features of the muzzle and a fairly long tongue, such a mammal periodically feeds on termites or all kinds of insects after their home is dug up and almost completely destroyed.
Food of plant origin is too difficult and takes a long time for the body to digest for many animals, and the spectacled bear is one of the few representatives of predatory animals whose internal organs are capable of digesting such food. Shoots of grass, rhizomes and all kinds of fruits, orchid bulbs, palm nuts, and foliage are the basis of nutrition for bears of this species.
This is interesting! Spectacled bears have unusually strong jaws, allowing them to eat food that is virtually inaccessible to other animals, including tree bark and bromeliad pith.
The predatory mammal is able to quickly climb large cacti, which allows the animal to get fruits growing at the very top of the plant. In addition, spectacled bears are well known to have a sweet tooth, never turning down any opportunity to enjoy sugar cane or wild honey. In some places, spectacled bears greatly damage corn crops, destroying a significant part of them.
Reproduction and offspring
Spectacled bears come together in pairs exclusively during the breeding season, which lasts from March until October. This feature directly indicates that this predatory mammal has the ability to reproduce almost regardless of the time of year. Representatives of the genus reach full puberty from the fourth to the seventh year of life.
The pregnancy of a female spectacled bear, including the entire latent period, lasts approximately eight months or a little more, after which from one to three cubs are born. Newborn babies are completely helpless and blind, and the average weight of a born bear cub, as a rule, does not exceed 320-350 grams. However, the cubs grow quite quickly and actively, so after four weeks they begin to gradually get out of their den. Babies' eyes open around the end of the first month.
Until about the age of six months, cubs accompany their mother almost everywhere, who tries to teach her offspring to eat properly, as well as to find plant foods that are useful for the growing body. Most often, cubs of this species do not leave their mother until they are two years old, and only when they are fully grown and have acquired hunting and survival skills do they become completely independent.
This is interesting! The fertilized egg divides, after which it is freely located inside the uterus for several months, and due to delayed implantation, the birth of cubs occurs at a time when the amount of food becomes maximum.
Despite the fact that many scientists classify spectacled and brown bears as animals that are very similar in many characteristics, exchange gene processes between them are impossible, so natural reproductive isolation exists. Despite the possibility of mating between representatives of these species, the offspring that are born will be sterile or completely non-viable.