looduskalender.ee

 Translation: Liis

At the end of May the mating period of Estonian brown bears starts. Usually our bears live on their own; in particular this is true of the big male bears. But towards the end of May,especially in the beginning of the heat period, the adult male bears start looking for mates. The one and a half year old cubs, who dread the nearness of large males, are forced to leave the mother. Occasionally siblings stay together for a time but sometimes they part company quickly. Evidently this depends on personalities and mutual likings. Such young bears don’t know yet quite how to behave as a true king of the forest should, and tumble around in the middle of the day, near villages and on forest roads. It seems that big male conspecifics are more feared than humans. Reports of straying brown "fur balls", the size of a big dog, who repeatedly stand up on two legs and check the surroundings are in fact a sign of the start of bear matings for people. Thus for instance newspaper Postimees a few days ago published a story about three teenage bears seen and photographed near Haljala.

At Alutaguse too the bear matings have started, and at the observation ground two large-sized "teddy bears" pose constantly. From time to time the bear camera is also visited by an adult male, but honeymooning couples have not yet been seen. On Friday I was with a group of interested observers in the bear hut, and the young animals arrived in place quite early. Photos made through the observation window point to differences in the bears’ looks as well as characters. One young bear was lighter-coloured than the others, bigger and more daring. It seemed that he was the initiator and decision-maker.

 

Photos HERE

 

Allegedly the females mate with several males during the heat period and so the cubs can have different fathers. In sight of the Alutaguse observation hut and in camera view we have established the presence of two large male bears,  Sven and Trulla. Sven is bigger and lighter-coloured, Trulla darker and smaller. However, with regard to character Sven seems calmer and gentler, Trulla in contrast more pushy and aggressive. Genetically these bears have not been studied, and so everyone can speculate on their own from here. Given the present facts one more interesting question is unresolved: last autumn we saw one female bear with four and another with three cubs at the hut: do the ones described above come from these litters? May do so, but need not, because as said in the beginning, siblings can behave differently. Bears are numerous at Alutaguse, and thus we can have to do with quite new visitors.

 

The Looduskalender bear webcam forum gives a good overview of the doings of the two young bears:

http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=558&sid=6bc4888997d544ed1c62e0b7da1b839b&start=660

 

The Alutaguse bear huts offer the chance to see and photograph bears in real life:

http://natourest.ee/