The sounds a bear makes. The cries of Himalayan bear cubs
Bears can make various sounds - growling, sneezing, snorting and even squeaking. And each of the sounds necessarily means something. I think each of us has seen a bear at least once in films about animals or at the zoo. For some reason, the first thing that comes to mind is that the bear growls very loudly and menacingly; this can mean dissatisfaction and a threat to others.
Of course, if we talk in general about the sounds that a bear can produce, then the main ones will be the sounds that characterize its movement through the forest - the crunching of branches, the rustling of leaves under its paws.
But, if we are talking about the sounds that a bear makes, then here we can only talk about a bear’s roar or growl, which, frankly speaking, sounds very threatening.
You can hear how it sounds by following the link and selecting a bear among the animals (on the first page, closer to the bottom).
I would really not like to meet a bear alone in the forest. In the zoo, they are usually calm and you rarely hear a threatening roar from them.
The bear has articulate speech only in fairy tales; in reality, this animal makes do with the capabilities given to it by nature. The sounds made by a bear can be divided into threatening and warning - these are growls and grunts. In terms of communication, this is the smacking with which the mother bear calls her cubs, this contented rumbling when the bear family gathers and gives affection, this is sneezing and coughing during games and conversations. A bear can express dissatisfaction and hunger by purring - low, abrupt sounds of um-um. And of course, the uterine rumbling is reminiscent of the rumbling of cats, only lower - a sign of complete satisfaction.
When the bears performed at the circus, I always wanted to touch their fur, hug them, and pat them. It seems to me that their fur is so soft. But unfortunately these are only dreams, since my hugs with the bear may be my last. Its moat is worth everything - it sounds threatening. But bears growl when they sense danger and want to show their superiority. In life, they also make other sounds, such as rumbling and snorting.
I myself have never seen a bear in person, but if you watch a video (for example, on Discovery or another educational channel), they usually make a growling roar or snort or cackle. These sounds are not like other animals.
The most emotional sound of a bear is considered to be roaring. They roar before an attack, as well as in danger, and in general in various situations. And so, they can growl, and grumble, and make guttural sounds. In general, bears make a wide variety of sounds, but in books the main type is considered to be the bear roar. Even in the famous work Telephone by Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky it is described:
Therefore, when teaching a child the sounds of animals, I call the bear roaring.
In the Central non-chernozem zone she-bear More often three bear cubs are born, less often - two, and very rarely - one or four. And usually one or two babies go with their mother. The fact is that weak cubs in the harsh conditions of forest life die in the first months after the family leaves the den. Only strong, healthy cubs remain.
When a mother bear leads her cubs, from time to time she makes a peculiar quiet but clear smacking sound. If he sees that one of the kids is behind, he will immediately give a signal. The cubs also make “snorting” and “sneezing” sounds, by which the mother recognizes her children. In the summer, when the grass rises and the forest is covered in dense foliage, family members may not see each other, but sound signals provide them with communication, which is very important during feeding or on vacation. Bears also make alarming sounds - danger signals. As soon as one of the bear family gives such a signal, everyone becomes wary, begins to listen and sniff. If danger really exists, leave this place.
In early spring, puddles still glisten everywhere and the soft forest soil, like a sponge, is saturated with water. In the dense spruce forests, the snow remains for a long time. At this time it is not easy to find a dry place. Little bear cubs, running through the puddles, are shivering from the cold, plaintively and tediously “mooing”: “U-um, um-um, um-um...” - they ask their mother for food. Although the bear chooses a drier place to feed, she does not do it very carefully; sometimes she lies down directly on the squelching moss. In good weather, he will certainly choose a place in the sun. The bear lies down on her side and turns her front and back legs so that the cubs can lie on them. The wet and chilled babies immediately climb up to her, warm up on their mother’s warm feet and begin to chirp contentedly: “Er-er-er-er...” Having eaten, they immediately fall asleep.
The mother bear is not so courteous with second-year cubs. Her connection with them is no longer so strong. Yes, and they often move far to the side, but still then catch up with the departed mother in the footsteps. In the fall, the cubs weighed 35 - 40 kilograms, and now, in the spring, they have lost weight to 28 - 30. But what energy! They constantly prowl around, destroy rotten stumps, turn over logs and stones, and poke around the forest floor in the hope of finding something edible. The cubs already know a lot and, in case of danger, they run away or climb a tall tree, where they sit quietly. Most of all they are afraid of adult bears. They are also afraid of any large animal - wild boar or elk. Bears hear a person walking through the forest very far away and hide in advance, but, carried away by something, a bear, especially a young one, can let the person come close, and then, frightened, runs away with a bang into the forest.
At the same time, cubs of the third year of life, who spent the first winter in a den on their own, leave their winter housing. The severance of family ties occurs at the end of May - June, when bears begin their weddings. The she-bear leaves, and the one-and-a-half-year-old cubs are left to live on their own. They often walk in twos until late autumn and can even lie down together in the same den. But already in the spring, when they have to struggle to find food, the pair splits up - this makes it easier for them to feed themselves. Third-year cubs weigh 55 - 65 kilograms in the spring.
What determines the fact that bears of different sexes and ages leave their dens at different times in the spring? It turns out there are reasons.
Firstly, there are not many convenient places in the area that are cleared of snow early. They are occupied primarily by the most powerful animals. If a weak person comes to such a place, he will be expelled and will be forced to wander through the still snow-covered forest - wasting his strength in vain. In the den, such a bear moves little and spends much less energy, which means it has a greater chance of successfully finishing the winter.
Secondly, cubs of the year emerge from their dens very small and are not able to walk for a long time in deep snow.
Thirdly, in the spring, more than at any other time of the year, there is a danger of being eaten by another, stronger bear. Therefore, second-year cubs with their mother and already independent cubs of the third year of life leave the dens later, after the large males are distributed in their places, and thawed areas appear in the forest, where they can profit from something.
Thus, different timing of bears leaving their dens turns out to be beneficial for the well-being of the entire bear population.
In early spring, bears leave their dens in the snow, and at this time there is a rare opportunity to track the animal and read from its tracks about its behavior during an important period of life.
(Ursus thibetanus) loudly shouts “ay!”, signaling that he is in a hopeless situation: he climbed a fallen tree and cannot get down. This often happens to cubs at this age, when they are just learning to climb trees and begin to explore the taiga on their own for the first time. It is the cry “ay!”, or barking, that helps a mother bear or other cubs find a lost cub in case of poor visibility in the dense undergrowth of the Ussuri taiga.
It is believed that bears rarely make sounds and mostly either puff or puff, like Winnie the Pooh, or growl to intimidate the enemy. However, compared to other mammals that lead a solitary family lifestyle, bears have a rather rich and specific set of sound types. In the bear family, the vocal repertoire has been studied in detail only in one species - the giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca), whose sounds differ significantly from the sounds of other species of the family. In order to dispel the myth that bears are silent, we examined the vocalizations of orphaned Himalayan bear cubs that underwent two years of rehabilitation before being released into the wild in the Ussuri taiga in the foothills of the Sikhote-Alin.
To summarize, let's say that vocal communication of Himalayan bear cubs is an important mechanism for regulating conflicts for food resources and alerting fellow animals about possible danger or about the lag of one of the cubs.
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