Collar bear

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Collar bear
Ursus thibetanus 3 (Wroclaw zoo) .JPG

Collar bear ( Ursus thibetanus )

Systematics
Order : Predators (Carnivora)
Subordination : Canine (Caniformia)
Family : Bears (Ursidae)
Subfamily : Ursinae
Genre : Ursus
Type : Collar bear
Scientific name
Ursus thibetanus
Cuvier , 1823

The collar bear , Asiatic black bear , moon bear or Tibetan bear ( Ursus thibetanus ) is a species of predator from the bear family (Ursidae). It is native to Asia and is a close relative of the American black bear .

features

In contrast to the American black bear, which can often be colored in different shades of brown, the Asiatic black bear is mostly black; brownish specimens are very rare. A conspicuous characteristic is a sickle-shaped, white fur color on the chest, which gives it the name moon bear. It owes its name to the long hair in the neck area. These animals have the usual strong physique of the bears, the head is large and round with small eyes. The ears are large and relatively far apart. The almost equally long limbs are strong, all feet have five claws. Like all bears, the Asiatic black bear is a sole walker . The head body length of these animals is 120 to 180 centimeters, the tail is a 6 to 10 centimeter long stub. Males and females differ significantly in weight. While males reach 110 to 150 kilograms, females weigh only 65 to 90 kilograms.

distribution and habitat

Distribution area of ​​the Asiatic black bear; brown: recent , black: historical, dark gray: unsecured

The Asiatic black bear has a wide distribution area across South and East Asia . In the west, its distribution area extends to Afghanistan and southwestern Iran , it also inhabits the Himalayan region and large parts of Southeast Asia , large parts of China including the offshore island of Hainan , Taiwan , the extreme southeast of Siberia , Korea and Japan with the exception of the island of Hokkaidō . Its habitat is predominantly forests, both temperate deciduous forests and tropical rainforests . In summer they live at altitudes of up to 3600 meters, in winter they migrate to lower-lying areas with a height of up to 1500 meters.

Way of life

Activity times and social behavior

Female collarbear suckling (Taiwanese subspecies)

Asiatic black bears can be diurnal as well as nocturnal. You are more likely to be out at night, and during the day when you need more food. They usually move on all fours on the ground, but can stand up on their hind legs to get food. They are good at climbing and swimming.

In the major part of their range, but not in the south, they hibernate . To do this, in late summer and autumn they eat a supply of fat and retreat into a burrow. While breathing rate and heartbeat decrease significantly, the body temperature drops only slightly, so that one does not speak of real hibernation , but only of hibernation. In addition, they are easy to wake up and occasionally search for food during warmer periods.

Asiatic black bears are solitary animals outside of the mating season. Their territory size varies greatly depending on the food available, but is significantly smaller than that of the brown bears .

nutrition

Collared bears are omnivores , but they mainly feed on plants. You are looking for nuts, acorns, berries and fruits. In addition, they eat insects and their larvae and smaller vertebrates. Sometimes they also eat carrion. Only in exceptional cases do they hunt larger mammals such as deer, sheep or even water buffalo.

Reproduction

Young collar bear in a tree

The mating season differs significantly depending on the region, in Siberia it takes place in June or July, in Pakistan in October. Nevertheless, births fall everywhere in the months February to March. The reason for the apparently longer gestation period in the north is the delayed implantation, which can also be observed in other bears : the fertilized egg cell often stays in the uterus for months before it implants. The litter size is usually two young animals, these are, as with all bears, extremely small and only weigh around 300 to 450 grams. After a week they open their eyes and after around three months they are weaned, but stay with their mother for another two to three years. They reach sexual maturity at around three years of age. Little is known about life expectancy, the maximum age of an animal in human care was 43 years.

Human and Asiatic Black Bear

Bear bile (bile)

Many black bears are disasted by the fact that Chinese folk medicine has ascribed a healing effect to their bile ( bear bile ) for 3000 years . The active ingredient is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). Although it has also been made in the laboratory since 1955, there have been bear farms in China , Vietnam and Korea since around 1970, where the bears are locked in cramped cages and unable to move. Up to 100 ml of bile is withdrawn from them every day via a catheter . Around 10,000 collar bears are said to be kept in this way, some have been locked in the cages for more than 20 years. Over $ 100 costs a few grams of bear bile. The bile obtained is mixed with Baijiu to make a wine , the Chinese Xiongdan jiu ( Chinese  熊膽 酒  /  熊胆 酒 , English bear gall wine ).

This practice has been particularly attacked by animal rights activists . There are now organizations in China such as the Animals Asia Foundation that have set themselves the task of freeing the collar bears. Over 200 collar bears have been freed in recent years. However, after such an exemption you will need intensive medical care, as the muscles atrophy due to the lack of exercise and behavior is disturbed. Many bears are limb missing, and some are brain damaged. Most of the freed bears die sooner or later of liver cancer, caused by the long-term biliary drainage.

Threat in the wild

In the wild, the destruction of their habitat and hunting are among the main dangers. Reasons for hunting are, on the one hand, the sport of hunting and, on the other hand, the view of the collar bear as a food competitor who kills grazing animals and sometimes attacks people. Many animals are also caught in order to keep them on bear farms and to get their bile .

In parts of their range ( Pakistan , Bangladesh , Korea ) they are on the verge of extinction. Overall, the IUCN lists the Asiatic black bear as endangered ( vulnerable ). There are several bear protection facilities in Asia where freed bile bears are kept in a more appropriate way.

Endangering people

Attacks on people occur, sometimes with fatal results. However, Asian black bears are considered less aggressive than brown bears, for example .

Systematics

Sister taxon of the Asian black bear is the American black bear , which shows great parallels to it in its appearance and way of life. Together with some other species such as the brown and polar bear, they form the genus Ursus within the bears (Ursidae).

Subspecies

Ussurian collarbear ( U. t. Ussuricus )

The following subspecies of the Asiatic black bear are distinguished:

Two other subspecies were common in Europe and Western Asia until the late Pleistocene . These were Ursus thibetanus mediterraneus in Western Europe and the Caucasus and Ursus thibetanus permjak in Eastern Europe, especially the Ural Mountains . Fossil finds of the collar bear are also known from southern Siberia ( Lake Baikal area ).

literature

  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 (English).

Web links

Commons : Ruffed Bear  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ^ Asiatic black bear . In: Encyclopædia Britannica .
  2. ↑ Article about the collar bear on Tierlexikon.ch, accessed on April 14, 2019
  3. ↑ Elderly collarbear died in human care
  4. ↑ Baryshnikow, G., F. (2010). Middle Pleistocene Ursus thibetanus (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Kudaro Caves in the Caucasus. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS, Vol. 314, No. 1, pp. 67-79.