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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:24:53 GMT -5
Grizzlies are normally not skillful predators, although some more than others. If a grizzly had the hunting skills of a big cat he would then have no need for hibernation. Long ago, grizzlies were from 80 to 90 percent carnivorous. Although they hunted and killed large prey more often than today's grizzlies, most of the meat consumed was carrion or a carcass usurped from a more skillful predator such as a wolf pack or a big cat. Today, because of the total domination of mankind, grizzlies are on average roughly 80 percent vegetarian.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:31:40 GMT -5
MAN MEETS GRIZZLY - Gathered by F.M.Young - 1980. Upon reaching the crest of the ridge they had a full view of the buffalo, which proved to be a bull of the largest size, in full flesh and vigor. Their attention was at once attracted to the curious conduct of the magnificent animal. His head was turned partially from them, looking toward the ravine on the opposite side. He was emitting the low bellowing roar peculiar to the buffalo when excited, throwing up the dirt and raising his tail as they do when enraged. The hunters thought he was challenging another buffalo, and waited to see the result. In a few moments they saw an enormous grizzly bear moving slowly up to the knoll where the buffalo awaited his coming. The bear approached cautiously, stopping every few yards to observe his antagonist, whose excitement and rage seemed to increase and whose continuous muffled roar drowned all the other sounds. Finally, when the bear had arrived within a few rods of his noble enemy, on the narrow bench of nearly level ground, the buffalo brought matters to a crisis by lowering his gigantic head and charging with all his strength. The bear immediately raised himself on his hind legs, and skillfully avoided the buffalo's horns, caught him around the head with his left arm, seizing him at the same time by the back of his neck with his powerful jaws. Then came a grand exhibition of strength, the buffalo using all his tremendous power to get his horns under the bear and free himself from the close embrace of his adversary, while the latter, clinging with his teeth and one arm, used the other in an attempt to cripple the buffalo by the most terrific blows on his left shoulder and side. In this tremendous struggle, they turned in a circle several times, until finally the buffalo accomplished his object and threw the bear from him.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:32:56 GMT -5
Continued.... For a few moments they remained gazing at one another, evidently recovering their breath, somewhat exhausted by their previous efforts. The buffalo was bleeding from several wounds in the neck, and the bear from wounds on his side. They both exhibited the extreme of savage anger, the buffalo bellowing, tearing the earth, and shaking his great shaggy head, while the bear returned his challenge by continuous roars, showing his great teeth and swinging his massive head from side to side. The buffalo brought the truce to a close by a rapid charge, which the bear eluded, striking his adversary a tremendous blow as he passed, which again brought blood. The buffalo turned with the rapidity peculiar to the animal, and repeated the charge several times, without effecting his object. At last they closed in the final struggle, the bear clinging to the buffalo's head and shoulders, while the latter maneuvered to get his horns under his formidable antagonist. Round and round they went, tearing up rocks and bushes, until the buffalo succeeded in his efforts, forced the bear over the edge of the little plateau, and, in the impetuosity of his charge, fell on the bear with all his enormous weight, and turned a complete somersault down the steep decline.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:34:55 GMT -5
Continued.... for an instant they both lay still, but the buffalo soon recovered himself, and staggered slowly to his feet, again faced his antagonist with undiminished resolution. The bear, however, lay quiet, breathing heavily and evidently "hors de combat." After waiting a few moments for a renewal of the attack the buffalo slowly approached his fallen enemy, and applying his great strength, rolled him over. Finding him dead, he slowly ascended to the scene of the battle and proclaimed his victory by triumphant bellowing. The white hunter raised his rifle to shoot him, but the Indian sprang forward and put his hand on the rifle, and turning it away said, "No shoot! Big brave!" and allowed the victor to march slowly away to seek his comrades.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:39:09 GMT -5
( in my own words )... We will probably never know if the big male grizzlies that followed the bison herds on the American prairie ever challenged a bull bison. Numerous tales were told by the early pioneers. Some tell of the victorious buffalo; others tell of Old Ephraim killing the "buffer." Just how much truth is in those tells is anybody's guess. We do have evidence that those grizzlies that fed heavily on bison, whether from predation or from scavenging, were some bigger than today's Yellowstone bears. They fed more heavily on meat than today's grizzly. IMO - The grizzly of the early 19th century was likely about 60 or 70 percent carnivorous. The majority of meat consumed, besides prairie dogs, was carrion and carcasses taken by force from wolves. Calves were certainly killed by grizzlies. But, there were likely a small handfull of big dominant boars, ranging from 800 to 1,100 pounds, who would dare to give challenge to a one-ton bull bison.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:47:29 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. Old Ephraim, The Grizzly Bear. The king of the game beasts of temperate North America, because the most dangerous to the hunter, is the grizzly bear; known to the few remaining old-time trappers of the Rockies and the Great Plains, sometimes as "Old Ephraim" and sometimes as "Moccasin Joe" - the last in allusion to his !%#@%, half-human footprints, which look as if made by some misshapen giant, walking in moccasins. In the old days when the innumerable bison grazed on the prairie, the grizzly sometimes harassed their bands as it now does the herds of the ranchman. The bison was the most easily approached of all game, and the great bear could often get near some outlying straggler, in its quest after stray cows, yearlings, or calves. In default of a favorable chance to make a prey of one of these weaker members of the herds, it did not hesitate to attack the mighty bulls themselves; and perhaps the grandest sight which it was ever the good fortune of the early hunters to witness, was one of these rare battles between a hungry grizzly and a powerful buffalo bull.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:48:52 GMT -5
Continued.... At present the wapiti is of all wild game that which is most likely to fall a victim to the grizzly, when the big bear is in the mood to turn hunter. Wapiti are found in the same places as the grizzly, and in some spots they are yet very plentiful; they are less shy and active than deer, while not powerful enough to beat off so ponderous a foe; and they live in cover where there is always a good chance either to stalk or to stumble on them. At almost any season bear will come and feast on an elk carcass; and if the food supply runs short, in early spring, or in a fall when the berry crop fails, they sometimes have to do their own killing. Twice I have come across the remains of elk, which had seemingly been slain and devoured by bears. I have never heard of elk making a fight against a bear; yet at close quarters and at bay, a bull elk in the rutting season is an ugly foe.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:49:56 GMT -5
Continued.... A bull moose is even more formidable, being able to strike the most lighting-like blows with his terrible forefeet, his true weapons of defense. I doubt if any beast of prey would rush in on one of these woodland giants, when his horns were grown, and if he was on his guard and bent on fight. Nevertheless, the moose sometimes fall victims to the uncouth prowess of the grizzly, in the thick wet forests of the high northern Rockies, where both beasts dwell. An old hunter who a dozen years ago wintered at Jackson Lake, in northwestern Wyoming, told me that when the snows got deep on the mountains the moose came down and took up their abode near the lake, on its western side. Nothing molested tham during the winter. Early in the spring a grizzly came out of its den, and he found its tracks in many places, as it roamed restlessly about, evidently very hungry. Finding little to eat in the bleak, snow-drifted woods, it soon began to depredate on the moose, and killed two or three, generally by lying in wait and dashing out on them as they passed near its lurking-place. Even the bulls were at season weak, and of course hornless, with small desire to fight; and in each case the rush of the great bear - doubtless made with the ferocity and speed which so often belie the seeming awkwardness of the animal - bore down the startled victim, taken utterly unawares before it had a chance to defend itself. In one case the bear had missed its spring; the moose going off, for a few rods, with huge jumps, and then settled down into its characteristic trot. The old hunter who followed the tracks said he would never have deemed it possible for any animal to make such strides while in a trot.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:51:19 GMT -5
American Bears - Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt. The Bear's Disposition. My own experience with bears tends to make me lay special emphasis upon their variation in temper. There are savage and cowardly bears, just as there are big and little ones; and sometimes these variations are very marked among bears of the same district, and at other times all the bears of one district will seem to have a common code of behavior which differs utterly from that of the bears of another district. Readers of Lewis and Clark do not need to be reminded of the great difference they found in ferocity between the bears of the Upper Missouri and the bears of the Columbia River drainage system; and those who have lived in the Upper Missouri country nowadays know how widely the bears that remain have altered in character from what they were as recently as the middle of the century.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:52:29 GMT -5
shaggygod.proboards.com/ - First posted by grraahh. "A vegetative diet alone is not a sufficient stimulus to produce large size, as is illustrated by several successful taxa of small mammals. Small animals are more vulnerable to predation than are large ones so they need to remain adjacent to escape habitat such as holes in the ground, trees, or thick vegetation. To survive in open habitat, a mammal must be able to defend itself from predators or be fast enough to escape them. Consequently, as the body size of some bear species increased, they probably occupied more open habitat for longer periods, and were able to increase the proportion of vegetation in the diet. Their larger size also made them better able to defend themselves from predators. As the diet became progressively more vegetative, there would have been continuing pressure for body size to increase so enough vegetation could be ingested and processed to substitute for a high quality diet of animal material. Larger body size also made it possible to travel more in search of patchy food resources and to store and carry more fat with which to survive during periods of seasonal or unpredictable food shortage. With increased body size and well-developed canines, some bears were able to kill ungulates and other mammals, defend carrion from competitors, and protect themselves from other predators. Through this unique combination of being able to be predators, scavengers, and herbivores, they were able to exploit several food bases." "Small predators are restricted to small prey, so that one benefit of being large is that an animal can kill both small and large prey (Gittleman 1985). For example, brown bears are capable of taking advantage of relatively small animals such as ground squirrels and salmon in circumstances where their abundance makes such behavior energetically or nutritionally worthwhile (e.g., Stonorov and Stokes 1972, Murie 1981). Even so, the ratio between the size of the bear and its prey may be misleading since the predator's large size may be necessary to move heavy stones or earth to catch ground squirrels or to stay warm while standing in cold water for protracted periods while fishing for salmon. In the case of the more carnivorous bear species, their maximum size may have been influenced by the maximum size of generally available prey.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:53:53 GMT -5
The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills. In only exceptional cases has the grizzly been a killer of big game. In his search for food he digs out small mammals and kills rabbits and beaver. He is not likely to attempt anything as large as wild sheep, but when a grizzly forms the habit of killing big animals he is likely to make this serve as his entire food-supply. Thus a cattle-killing grizzly is likely to give his chief attention to the killing of cattle, or incidentally to that of sheep, deer, or elk. In the days of the buffalo the great herds frequently were trailed by one or more grizzlies. These, however, probably obtained most of their meat from carcasses left behind by storms, drowning, or other means of death. In the course of miles of daily wandering the grizzly may occasionally come upon a wounded animal or a carcass. If his find be large, he may lie close until it is consumed; or he may make a cache of it, returning again and again until it is eaten. Grizzlies will bury an elk in the earth or cover the carcass of a cow with numbers of logs. Nothing is more common than for them to cover a carcass with refuse consisting of twigs, fallen leaves, grass, and trash. They will cover a quantity of fish with stones and logs.
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:55:35 GMT -5
Being caught at the scene of a crime does not prove guilt - The Grizzly, Our Greatest Wild Animal by Enos Abijah Mills. A few grizzlies become cattle-killers; many grizzlies eat cattle they did not kill. On the live-stock ranges in the mountains of the West cattle die from many causes. They succumb to disease and to accidents. Winds proclaim carcass news and a feast to flesh-eaters near and far. Bears have amazing keen noses and often are the first to enjoy the feast. A grizzly I was following caught the scent of a carcass that was more than a mile away. He stopped and sniffed, then changed his course and set off for the carcass. The carcass was being watched. As the grizzly was the first animal to arrive after the kill, the owner of the cow concluded that he was guilty of the killing, and accordingly proceeded to kill him and to condemn all bears as cattle-killers. Yet, this cow had died from feeding too freely upon poisonous larkspur. I was once trailing a grizzly through the snow, when he came upon the trail of a mountain lion, which he followed. Farther along the lion killed a horse. When the grizzly came upon the scene, he drove the lion off. The following day, while having a second feast off the horse, he was discovered by a rancher, who at once procured dogs and pursued and killed the "famous horse-killing grizzly."
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Post by brobear on Mar 22, 2017 10:56:49 GMT -5
Although the grizzly is a part-time predator, some more than others, he is actually the ultimate scavenger among land-based mammals.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 5:47:00 GMT -5
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S207815201630027XBehavior of Brown Bears During Feeding in the Sikhote-Alin Open Access funded by Far Eastern Federal University Predation on Ungulates Predation on the ungulates is a trait of ecology of brown bears typical for different areas of the species range (Bromlei, 1965, Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, 1979, Zavatsky, 1979, Lavov, 1987, Pazhetnov, 1990 and Bobyr, 1991). The extent and nature of predation vary with the seasons. In most cases, this method of feeding behavior is of the greatest importance for bears in the spring (Pazhetnov, 1990). This statement is typical for brown bears in Sikhote-Alin (Bromlei, 1965, Yudakov and Nikolaev, 1987, Yudin, 1993 and Kostoglod, 2006). In summer there is a decline of predation related to the abundance of feed (Bromlei, 1965). In autumn with the abundance of fattening feed of vegetable origin predation is not expressed, but during hungry years it is on the contrary typically occurring among bears (Bromlei, 1965, Rakov, 1966 and Abramov, 1972). Wild boar and red deer (Cervus elaphus) are the most common ungulate prey of brown bears in Sikhote-Alin.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 6:07:36 GMT -5
Red Deer. These deer of northern Europe and Asia are related to the American elk ( Wapiti ) and only slightly smaller. They are one of the grizzly's choice prey animals. Probably, because of the deer's speed, the bears mostly kill fawns.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 6:14:09 GMT -5
Wild Boar. You might find it difficult to locate any good reliable information on the "natural" Russian Wild Boar" which is the largest wild hog on earth. But, for "sport hunting" purposes, these majestic wild animals are interbred with various domesticated stock to produce "monster hogs" of unnatural sizes. The real Russian wild boar is capable of reaching a weight of from 700 to 800 pounds in the wild, although a weight of from 400 to 500 pounds is much more common. These big fierce omnivores are another choice prey animal of the grizzly.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 6:19:12 GMT -5
Yak. Equally as big and dangerous as the bison. Will a grizzly take on a mature bull yak? I consider the Yak and the Bison as probably pretty much the grizzly bear's prey-size limit. In a battle-of-brutes against a big boar grizzly ( 600+ pounds ), a bull yak or a bull bison would each stand at least a 50-50 chance of killing the bear.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 6:23:59 GMT -5
Moose ( called elk in Russia ) is the largest living deer. Grizzlies have been known to kill mature bull moose; but this is extremely rare. A moose can weigh as mush as 1400 pounds ( 635 kg ). Just as with the bison and the Yak, a bull moose can be an even match for a big boar grizzly - a very risky prey choice.
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 6:29:36 GMT -5
Musk Ox. Amazingly, the barren ground grizzly of Canada, perhaps the world's most aggressive bear, will hunt and kill musk oxen; even the big bulls which can weigh as much as 900 pounds ( 408 kg ). The grizzly normally weighs from 300 to 350 pounds ( 136 to 158 kg ).
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Post by brobear on Mar 23, 2017 7:07:50 GMT -5
Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers.
Old plainsmen and trappers often debate which was more powerful, the buffalo or the grizzly bear. Both were fearless titans. There are more accounts of grizzlies killing buffalo - perhaps the expected outcome, in view of the weapons and tactics employed by both animals.
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