The brown bear belongs to the species Ursus arctos, within which some biologists distinguish two different species, Ursus arctos arctos (L. 1758) (common brown bear) and Ursus arctos marsicanus (Altobello, 1921), commonly known as the Marsican brown bear...
a name used to distinguish the species found in Northern Europe from the species native to the central Apennines, now reduced to a few individuals.
2007 was a year that marked a particularly difficult stage for the Marsican bear.
We cannot forget the news of the bears that died of poisoning in…
James Oliver Curwood writes: “I don't really know why, but there is something about bears that makes you love them.”
Yes, many of us are probably convinced that we share this feeling, really, so much so that we make soft toys in their likeness for our children. But Curwood's statement was just a poetic novelist's line, from the same novel that inspired the film by the famous J.J. Annaud: The Bear (1988), a nature film of a markedly Disney-like stamp that was criticised for the many inaccuracies pointed out by animal-rights activists and environmentalists.
In fact, in the light of the brown bear's risk of extinction, we cannot say that man has shown himself so loving towards it. In the days of Horace and Ovid the bear was common throughout the Italian peninsula, as far as the Vulture and beyond. Even in the Middle Ages you could meet it at the city gates, probably feeding, as it still does today, on the scraps left by human presence.
In our country there are currently just two small populations of brown bear. The first is in the western part of Trentino, the second in the mountain areas of the Abruzzo National Park and some surrounding areas.
“Bear” is the common name of the omnivorous plantigrades that make up the family Ursidae.
A large family that also includes the panda and the spectacled bear.
They usually have a massive, stocky body whose length can vary from one and a half metres up to three metres. They have thick fur whose colour varies with the species: black, grey, reddish, white, with or without markings. The head is generally broad and slightly flattened between the eyes and the ears, which are short and covered in thick hair. The muzzle is blunt. It generally has 40-42 teeth. The legs are sturdy, also stocky, and end in five toes with long claws. The tail is generally short. It can weigh up to 250-300 kg and, depending on the species, live up to 50 years. It lives in mountainous, rocky areas, always near watercourses and in any case in places little frequented by man.
Despite its clumsy and apparently inelegant gait, the bear can run and climb trees with ease.
The mating season runs from April to August, the period in which it mates. It gives birth to 4-5 cubs during the winter, the period of hibernation, which it spends mostly shut away in rocky hollows hidden among the mountains.
The brown bear belongs to the species Ursus arctos, within which some biologists distinguish two different species, Ursus arctos arctos (L. 1758) (common brown bear) and Ursus arctos marsicanus (Altobello, 1921), commonly known as the Marsican brown bear, a name used to distinguish the species found in Northern Europe from the species native to the central Apennines, now reduced to a few individuals. Unfortunately, given the brown bear's elusive behaviour, it is very difficult to carry out precise counts. It is currently estimated that there are no more than a hundred animals of the Marsican race left in the whole Apennine range, a sign of how much this race is at risk of extinction.
Generally the bear is a relatively nomadic, peaceful and elusive animal, which for this reason never attacks humans unless it is wounded or seriously disturbed. Usually, in fact, an encounter with them ends in both parties running off in opposite directions. Contrary to common belief, the brown bear is not a carnivore but an omnivore; it prefers a diet of fruit, roots and tubers, berries, mushrooms, acorns, larvae, insects, frogs, tadpoles and fish. Only in rare cases, when these foods are scarce, does it catch and eat live animals, especially sheep and young calves.
CURIOSITIES
In European culture and folklore the figure of the bear holds a contradictory symbolism, in some way a mirror of the human psyche, with its side of maternal and filial affection and its primitive anger and warrior strength. The bear is fierce, and yet it is likeable: and in its clumsy movements, and at times in its fits of rage, it can easily remind us of “man”.
Among the Native American tribes, on the other hand, the bear is the keeper of healing powers that shamans longed to take possession of. In Native American culture, in reality, no value judgement is attached to the bear (neither good nor bad): it is respected with fear and respect. When a Native American killed one by mistake he asked its forgiveness and lit the peace pipe to calm the animal's spirit.
FILM CURIOSITIES
Here is a list of films in which bears have taken part as “actors”:
- Bear's Kiss - by Sergei Bodrov (2002) 1h32min
- Grizzly - by William Girdler (1976) 1h31min
- Brother Bear - Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker (2003) 1h30min
- The Bear - Jean-Jacques Annaud – (1988) 1h33min
- Alaska - Fraser C. Heston – (1995) 1h50min
- King of the Grizzlies – Ron Kelly – (1970) 1h33min
- The Edge - Lee Tamahori – (1997) 1h55min
Not to mention all the cartoon series that have been made with a bear as the main character: Winnie The Pooh, Yogi Bear, L'orso Benjamin, Jacky the bear of Mount Tallac, Boog & Elliot, Brother Bear, Napo Orso Capo, Baloo from The Jungle Book and Paddington, the famous teddy bear from the Coccolino adverts.
Bibliographical notes:
- Volume IX (Neh-Pis), entry Orso - Enciclopedia Universo - Istituto Geografico DeAgostini (Novara) 1966
- Guida alla Natura d'Italia – G. Farneti, F. Pratesi, F. Tassi – A. Mondadori 1971
- Dizionario Universale dei Miti e delle Leggende.