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Some days ago we lamented that we might not see bear matings this year; large adults have not been seen for various reasons.

 

A  “honeymoon“ is quite evident in the beginning of the video, although it is one o’clock in the night.

 

At the end of May some individuals were in heat already. It leads to changes in the life of almost the whole population. To start with female bears chase off the barely one and a half year old cubs who have accompanied them since birth (female bears are in heat every other year given good nourishment and health). Adult male bears start looking for mates – forest inhabitants know very well who are around and where. The young bears starting their own lives are of course afraid of the adult males. Sometimes siblings stay together for a while, or they may prefer to be on their own; it depends on their character and the relations between them.  They are already large enough, but still lack proper “bear sense”. We will soon hear about them and read newspaper reports about their antics on forest roads and near villages where they study the surroundings standing on their hind legs. They are discovering a new world and fear of humans has not yet become firmly established.

 

A few days ago we wrote about the elk calves that are also looking for habitats. They too stray more often into cities now: LINK

 

What else is there to know about bears? Many researchers maintain that the females mate with several males, and so the cubs of a female can have quite different colours and also behaviour. That too we have seen in the webcam over the years.

 

The same pair visited the viewing ground just before midnight. Image from webcam by Dima, LK forum