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The webcam in the brown bear observation site will be working for one more week. From October feeding of animals is prohibited in Estonian forests, to limit the spread of the ASF disease

 

Although our bears shed their fur in spring, they have grown a dense undercoat  in the last one and a half month. In autumn brown bears have fattened themselves on plant food rich in carbohydrates. The females are generally smaller, weighing between sixty to two hundred kilos, and about one third of the weight of a well fed animal is winter fat. About one month before going into hibernation the bears start fasting to get the intestines properly empty.

 

In early November they quietly begin to pile up a winter nest so that they can go into hibernation when weather becomes worse. The cubs born last winter keep company with their mother but already next year they will be independent.