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In May the heat period of female bears starts and so the ”ladies” get suitors trailing after them. The year-and-a-half old bear youths whom the mother bear has been moving around with up to now fear a large male, with reason: they run away from mother and somehow try to start an independent life – in May and June temporary groups of juveniles evolve that later fall apart. Such creatures can be seen near villages and elsewhere playing silly tricks. Brown bears are polygamous animals - one big male bear tries to fertilize several different females, and this is the only period when we can see adult animals together.

 

Females become sexually mature generally at an age of four and a half and it is two years until the next heat period. The lifetime of bears in the forest is over 25 years and even more, so that everybody can easily calculate how many litters a female bear can bring forth.

 

The body length of an adult female bear may be around 170 cm, height at withers 90 cm and weight 170 kg. Males are larger, body length 2 metres, height at withers more than a metre and weight certainly more than a couple of hundred kilos.

 

The period of love is sweet.

 

A dark-coated female is escorted by the lighter and larger male until he is accepted as suitable. Familiar paths are used but the purpose is not to find food but to announce one’s doings by smells.