Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

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IDENTIFICATION: A huge bear (7–10 feet tall) with dark brown, golden, cream, or black fur. DISTRIBUTION: Northern North America, Europe, central Asia, Middle East, north Africa. HABITAT: Tundra, forests. STUDY AREA: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; subspecies U.a. horribilis.

IDENTIFICATION: A smaller bear (4–6 feet) with coat color ranging from black to gray, brown, and even white. DISTRIBUTION: Canada and northern, eastern, and southwestern United States. HABITAT: Forest. STUDY AREA: Jasper National Park, Alberta; Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada; subspecies U.a. altifrontalis.

Grizzly Bears and Black Bears are largely solitary animals. Some Grizzly populations, however, tend to aggregate around abundant food sources such as salmon, marine mammals (stranded onshore), garbage dumps, and even insect swarms; fairly complex social interactions may develop in these contexts. The heterosexual mating system is polygamous, as both males and females generally mate with multiple partners; males do not contribute to parenting.

Behavioral Expression: Female Grizzly Bears sometimes bond with each other and raise their young together as a single family unit. The two mothers become inseparable companions, traveling and feeding together throughout the summer and fall seasons as they share in the parenting of their cubs. Female companions have not been observed interacting sexually with one another, however. A bonded pair jointly defends their food (such as Elk or Bison carcasses), and the two females also protect one another and their offspring (including defending them against attacks by Grizzly males). The cubs regard both females as their parents, following and responding to either mother equally; bonded females occasionally also nurse each other’s cubs. If one female dies, her companion usually adopts her cubs and looks after them along with her own.

As winter approaches and Grizzlies prepare for hibernation, female coparents often continue to associate with one another. Foraging together late into the fall, they are apparently reluctant to end their relationship and may even delay the onset of their own sleep. Although paired females do not hibernate together, they frequently visit each other (with their cubs) prior to hibernation, staying nearby while their partner prepares her den. They also sleep together outside their denning sites during this final preparatory period and only retreat to their separate dens once the snow gets too deep. Most Grizzlies seek solitude prior to hibernating and locate their winter dens miles away from each other (and with rugged terrain separating them), but bonded females often hibernate relatively close to one another. Such females have even been known to abandon their traditional denning locations to be nearer to their coparent. One female, for example, moved her usual den site more than 14 miles to be closer to her companion. Pair-bonds are not usually resumed after hibernation, although one female may adopt her companion’s yearling offspring the following season. The average age of a bonded female is about 11 years, although Grizzlies as young as 5 and as old as 19 have formed bonds with other females. Companions may be of the same age, or one female might be several years older than the other. Sometimes more than two females are involved: three Grizzlies may form a strongly bonded “triumvirate,” and groups of four or five females have even been known to associate (sometimes also forming pair- or trio-bonds within such a group).