Polar bear and grizzly bear interactions and accounts

[oldindigosilverback]

[Gorilla king]

[Gorilla king]

POLAR BEAR SPECIALIST GROUP


THE REPORTED GRIZZLY KILLS ARE OF CUBS OR JUVENILE POLAR BEARS:






books.google.com/books?id=QiIXAQAAIAAJ&q=Grizzly+bear+predation+on+young+polar+bears&dq=Grizzly+bear+predation+on+young+polar+bears&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi12pn6v_riAhXlTN8KHbdBDds4ChDoATAGegQIARAl

[oldindigosilverback]

Still no record of a grizzly killing a mature male polar bear as the latter is obviously too big. I wonder if a polar bear will kill a grizzly someday.

[oldindigosilverback]

Grizzly Bears Enter Polar Bear Territory.


Grizzly bears have entered polar bear territory, setting the stage for deadly bear versus bear encounters to come, suggests a study recently published in the journal Canadian Field Naturalist. Should the bears meet, the grizzlies could do some serious damage. "This is worrying for the polar bears because grizzly bears would likely hibernate in polar [...]

By Jen ViegasPublished on 2/24/2010 at 2:05 PM

Grizzly bears have entered polar bear territory, setting the stage for deadly bear versus bear encounters to come, suggests a study recently published in the journal Canadian Field Naturalist.



Should the bears meet, the grizzlies could do some serious damage.



"This is worrying for the polar bears because grizzly bears would likely hibernate in polar bear maternity denning habitat," explained Linda Gormezano, a co-author of the paper. "They would come out of hibernation at the same time and can kill polar cubs."



(Go to this page to see a video of a polar bear cub nursing.)



Gormezano and her colleagues documented sightings of the bears in Canada's Wapusk National Park. The bears are moving into the Canadian province of Manitoba in regions traditionally thought of as polar bear habitat.



"Grizzly bears are a new guy on the scene, competition and a potential predator for the polar bears that live in this area," said Robert Rockwell, who also worked on the study. He is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History and a professor of biology at the City College of the City University of New York.



He shared that "the first time we saw a grizzly we were flying over the middle of Wapusk, counting fox dens" when Gormezano "shouted, 'Over there, over there-a grizzly bear.' And it wasn't a dirty polar bear or a moose-we saw the hump."



Before 1996, there was no evidence that grizzly bears encroached on polar bear territory. From that year on, however, there have been at least 12 sightings, negating the prior theory that the barren landscape north of the Hudson Bay was impassable, in terms of resources, for migrating grizzly bears. But the flexible bears, which can eat everything from meat to berries, have crossed the gap and likely won't look back much, since the polar bear region is known for its abundant caribou, moose, fish and berries.



"Although we don't yet know if they are wandering or staying-the proof will come from an observed den or cubs-these animals will eventually be residents of this national park," said Rockwell. "The Cree elders we talked to feel that now that grizzly bears have found this food source they will be staying."



Gormezano continued, "A big question is how to deal with these new residents. In Canada, both the polar and grizzly bear are federally listed as species of special concern. In Manitoba, the polar bear is provincially listed as threatened while the prairie population of the grizzly bear is listed as extirpated."

www.seeker.com/grizzly-bears-enter-polar-bear-territory-1765029304.html

[oldindigosilverback]

[oldindigosilverback]

books.google.com.au/books?id=UxVQ6I8JjjQC&pg=PA178&dq=Barren+ground+grizzly+kills+polar+bear&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y

[oldindigosilverback]

Two polar bears killed a brown bear. Two against one so the fight is not fair. One day, a barren ground grizzly bear might push a male polar bear to the edge and become a meal probably.

[oldindigosilverback]

Journal Reference:



Susanne Miller, James Wilder, Ryan R. Wilson, Polar bear–grizzly bear interactions during the autumn open-water period in Alaska, Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 96, Issue 6, 24 November 2015, Pages 1317–1325, doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv140







Abstract



Reduction of summer sea ice extent has led some polar bear (Ursus maritimus) populations to increase their use of land during the summer/autumn open-water period. While terrestrial food resources are generally not sufficient to compensate for lost hunting opportunities on the sea ice, marine mammal carcasses, where available, could help reduce the energetic cost of longer periods of land use. Subsistence-harvested bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) remains are available annually near local communities along the Alaskan portion of the Beaufort Sea coast to bears that come to shore. Relatively large numbers of polar bears and some grizzly bears (U. arctos) use these resources, creating a competitive environment among species and social classes. We documented competitive interactions among polar bears and between polar and grizzly bears for bowhead whale remains adjacent to a small community in northeastern Alaska in September 2005–2007. We observed temporal partitioning of the resource by bears, with lone adult polar bears and grizzly bears primarily feeding at night, and higher use by polar bear family groups and subadults during dawn and dusk. Interspecific interactions were less frequently aggressive than intraspecific interactions, but polar bears were more likely to be displaced from the feeding site by grizzly bears than by conspecifics. Female polar bears with cubs were more likely to display aggressive behavior than other social classes during intra- and interspecific aggressive interactions. Our results indicate that grizzly bears are socially dominant during interspecific competition with polar bears for marine mammal carcasses during autumn.





academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/96/6/1317/1174934





carnivora.net/showthread.php?tid=6657



Credited to Taipan from Carnivora.

[oldindigosilverback]

Arctic Grizzlies Bully Polar Bears



It isn't the size of the bear in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the bear, according to a recent study.







BY KIERAN MULVANEY PUBLISHED ON 12/17/2015 4:38 PM EST







Polar bears are the largest of all bear species, while the grizzlies that live on Alaska's North Slope are the smallest brown bears in that state - some no bigger than the black bears that try to break into garbage cans on the hillsides around Anchorage. So should the two ever encounter each other, the seal-eating denizens of Arctic ice might be expected to have the advantage, right? Actually, not so much. In fact, according to a recent study, not at all.







In an article for Alaska Dispatch News, Yereth Rosen spoke with Susanne Miller of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who explained that diminishing amounts of summer and fall sea ice in the southern Beaufort Sea off the North Slope have forced polar bears to spend more time ashore, grabbing whatever food they can on land. Among their targets are bowhead whale scraps left by Inupiat whalers on the shore by villages such as Kaktovik.







Miller and colleagues resolved to study the polar bears that visited these "bone piles" to see if they could ascertain any behavioral changes as a result of not being on the sea ice; but, she told Rosen, they soon found they had a problem: Grizzly bears got in the way.







"Brown bears just showed up and polar bears left," she said.







The North Slope is not an area of high brown bear concentration, and the grizzlies that do live there tend to be smaller than those farther south; conditions are much harsher and food rarer than in many other parts of the species' range, and the bears generally depend on plants and a smattering of mostly lean prey animals.







So a concentration of fatty whale remnants is a welcome indulgence that naturally attracts grizzlies in the area as it does polar bears. But because the arrival of the former frequently meant the departure of the latter, Miller and her colleagues switched the focus of their study to the interspecies interactions around the bone pile.







The scientists observed a total of 137 encounters between the two bear species, polar bears reacted submissively, even though the grizzlies did not obviously act aggressively toward them; in roughly 50 percent of the encounters, grizzlies displaced the polar bears completely, writes Rosen, even though, in Miller's words, "they look like they're about half the size of the polar bears."







The reason why can perhaps be determined from differences in the two species' behavior and ecology. Brown bears are naturally territorial, fiercely defending areas that have food and females from interlopers whose areas have less of either. Polar bears are not, given that they inhabit a constantly shifting mosaic of ice floes. Indeed, although polar bear males will occasionally cannibalize cubs, and older males will display dominance over younger ones should they converge at a kill, instances of intraspecific aggression in polar bears are rare - outside of mating season, when males will fight ferociously over females.







One of the study's co-authors, Richard Shideler of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told Rosen that, "I think it's attitude ... (Grizzlies are) more aggressive in terms of bear-bear interaction." Scent, however, may also play a role, with Miller noting that even a brown bear carcass on the bone pile was enough to spook some polar bears.







As well as being an intriguing insight into bear behavior, the study is particularly relevant given that decreasing sea ice means that polar bears are likely to spend greater time ashore along the North Slope and to come into greater contact with grizzlies, and perhaps into competition with them, in the future.







It isn't the size of the bear in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the bear, according to a recent study.



www.seeker.com/arctic-grizzlies-bully-polar-bears-1770629298.html





carnivora.net/showthread.php?tid=6657



Credited to Taipan from Carnivora.

[Gorilla king]

Sept 11, 2021 9:34:59 GMT -5 oldindigosilverback said:

Still no record of a grizzly killing a mature male polar bear as the latter is obviously too big. I wonder if a polar bear will kill a grizzly someday.

The polar bear is more than double the size of those grizzlies. The grizzy basically stands no chance if they were to have a serious fight.

[arctozilla]

I remember to having found somewhere an account of a polar bear killing a brown bear in a circus and one about a Kodiak killing a polar bear in a zoo. Also brown bears are as matter of fact stronger physically than polar bears and both are physically stronger than cats.

[arctozilla]

Togni Circus, Polar Bear kills a Brown Bear out of envy.


This is written in Italian (my language) .

It says
“ad un tratto un orso bianco, Narvik, aggrediva, si crede per gelosia, un orso bruno.”
“Nonostante il pronto intervento del domatore, Narvik azzannava alla gola del rivale uccidendolo.”

Here's the translation.
“suddenly a white bear, Narvik, threatened, maybe out of envy, a brown bear.”
“Although the interference of the trainer, Narvik bit his rival's throat killing him.”

[arctozilla]

Here's an account of a Kodiak killing a polar bear in a zoo.
m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?isHttpsRedirect=true&blogId=00jihoon009&logNo=220899932355

[Gorilla king]

arctozilla

Holy cow, where did those 2 accounts came out of? Never seen them before bro, awesome.

Reply #12, Togni Circus, Polar Bear kills a Brown Bear out of envy, do you have the source for that? Is it a book or a newspaper? This would be a weak/sick polar bear that killed a brown bear.

[Gorilla king]

Reply #13, Kodiak killing a polar bear in a zoo, this is the first time i see an account where they actually say its a Kodiak bear, there are other accounts that just say "brown bear" so we dont know. It was a half hour battle, nice. And again, we have to mention that the polar was weak/sick. 

[oldindigosilverback]

/\ I am also not surprise if the Kodiak bear is heavier. Polar bears in captivity do not grow as large as the captive brown bears.

I still believe a brown bear is pound to pound stronger than a wild polar bear.

[Gorilla king]

Orphaned polar, grizzly bears now playful companions at Michigan zoo




ROYAL OAK, MI – Two orphaned bears can now be seen playing, wrestling and romping together at the Detroit Zoo.

Jebbie, an orphaned grizzly bear from Tok, Alaska, was recently relocated to Michigan to be a companion for the Detroit Zoo’s hand-reared polar bear cub Laerke who was rejected by her mother after a medical emergency.


Grizzly bear cub Jebbie was found wandering alone in Alaska during June 2021. Polar bear cub Laerke was rejected by her mother after a medical emergency in November 2020. Now the young bears are playful companions at the Detroit Zoo.

“There are no other polar bear cubs who we can bring here to live with her, so we reached out to state agencies that frequently must find homes for orphaned grizzly bear cubs,” said Scott Carter, chief life sciences officer for the Detroit Zoological Society. “We’re thrilled that we are able to give Jebbie sanctuary and provide a much-needed companion for Laerke. This social development is critically important for both Laerke and Jebbie.”


Grizzly bear cub Jebbie was found wandering alone in Alaska during June 2021. Polar bear cub Laerke was rejected by her mother after a medical emergency in November 2020. Now the young bears are playful companions at the Detroit Zoo.

In June, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game received reports of a grizzly bear cub wandering alone near a neighborhood. He was much too young to be away from his mother. The agency moved him to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage for immediate care. Jebbie was later transferred to the Detroit Zoo. He arrived weighing 76 pounds; he has since grown to 180 pounds.

Polar bear cubs Laerke and Astra were born at the Detroit Zoo in November 2020 to 8-year-old mother Suka and 16-year-old father Nuka. Two days after birth, Laerke appeared weak and stopped moving. She was taken to the Ruth Roby Glancy Animal Health Complex for emergency care. After that, Suka no longer recognized Laerke as her cub.

“Suka is a great mother and very protective of Laerke’s sister, Astra, but it’s clear that she no longer recognizes Laerke as her cub,” Carter said. “Returning Laerke to her mother and sister is not an option for us.”

Jebbie had to undergo a quarantine period and pass an health exam before meeting Laerke.

Now Jebbie and Laerke live in the Arctic Ring of Life polar bear building where they have been getting to know each other. As of today, Sept. 23, visitors can watch the two young bears wrestle, play with toys and spend their days together.


Grizzly bear cub Jebbie was found wandering alone in Alaska during June 2021. Polar bear cub Laerke was rejected by her mother after a medical emergency in November 2020. Now the young bears are playful companions at the Detroit Zoo.

The Arctic Ring of Life is one of the largest zoo polar bear habitats in the world. It includes a grassy tundra, a freshwater pool, a “pack ice” area and a 190,000-gallon saltwater pool. This facility encompasses more than four acres of outdoor and indoor habitats and was recognized by The Intrepid Traveler’s guide to “America’s Best Zoos” as one of the finest zoo habitats in America.


www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlive.com/news/2021/09/orphaned-polar-grizzly-bears-now-playful-companions-at-michigan-zoo.html%3foutputType=amp

[oldindigosilverback]

I believe the brown bear cub in the picture above will be the one to grow larger.

[Gorilla king]

Sept 24, 2021 9:59:31 GMT -5 oldindigosilverback said:

I believe the brown bear cub in the picture above will be the one to grow larger.

Yeah most likely. The grizzly cub is a male and the polar cub is a female. I see a Grolar bear in the future if they keep them together.