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Post by Admin on Sept 3, 2013 11:59:58 GMT
The Bear Almanac - Second Edition:
Wolf-bear relationships have been considered neutral, with only occasional conflicts that are based on defense of home site, food, or young by each species. A wolf and a grizzly bear have fed side by side on a caribou carcass, while at other times a grizzly has fought off a pack of wolves to defend its food, and they each have killed the other.
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Post by Admin on Sept 13, 2013 17:46:07 GMT
The Grizzly Almanac:
In their endless pursuit of food, grizzlies often compete with the only other widely ranging carnivores on the continent, the wolf and the cougar.
Interesting observations on this topic have been recorded by Steve French. While French was a surgical resident at the University of Utah in the late 1970s, he participated in the surgical work on a biologist who had been mauled by a grizzly at Yellowstone. The incident ignited his interest, and French has been researching the big bear ever since. He once monitored 113 cougar kills in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks and found that grizzlies visited about a quarter of the cougar kills, robbing cougars of up to 26% of their food.
There are also many reports of grizzlies stealing food from wolf packs and of single grizzlies successfully defending their own food from a pack of wolves. In 1996, French watched one 350 pound ( 159 kg ) grizzly chase nine wolves off an elk carcass and take possession of the prize.
Sometimes, however, the relationship between the two species is more amicable. French once watched two yearling grizzly cubs and three yearling wolf cubs playing together while the parents watched, with no aggression from any party. Two of the young wolves even traveled and hunted with the bears for two days, proving that tolerance between species is possible, even in the vicious world of the predator.
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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2013 18:40:01 GMT
Bears by Richard Perry:
At some time in the distant past, however, bears must have been preyed upon by some dog-like carnivore, for all bears are inherently afraid of dogs, and a couple of terriers will put a grizzly to flight. It is significant that when a grizzly is travelling he still has the habit of circling back off the trail at intervals, in order to get to windward of his own back tracks. He may indeed make a detour of as much as a mile, and then stand quietly for some time, taking stock. But few bears have any present cause to fear dogs or wolves, though no doubt that scourge of Asian jungles, the hunting pack of wild dogs, occasionally tear sloth bears and sun bears to pieces, as they do tigers. Russian brown bears are occasionally attacked by wolves ( and are also driven from carrion by that ferocious killer whom the largest carnivores fear, the wolverine. )One of the large polar wolves may kill a polar bear cub when its mother is away hunting, and a small pack of them may harry a he-bear into abandoning his seal kill. But, There are no records of adult polar bears or grizzlies being killed by wolves, though a hunter described to Dufresne a unique encounter between wolves and grizzlies he witnessed at Mt. McKinley National Park, when he was watching a den where a small grey she-wolf had her cubs. The wolves had buried a number of game carcasses near the den, and the smell of these attracted a she-bear and her three hundred pound yearlings. One of the latter sniffed to within thirty feet of the den, outside which the she-wolf and three cubs of the previous year's litter were crouched, and seizing the carcass of a caribou, began dragging it down the hill. At this, all four wolves set upon the young bear, and subsequently upon the she-bear when she came roaring to the defense of her cub. The bears eventually fought their way clear to a nearby knoll, and that might have been the end of the affair, had not another of the yearlings smelled out a second buried carcass. In the meantime the large black male wolf had returned from hunting; and he, after touching noses briefly with his mate, launched himself against the she-bear, while the other wolves renewed their attacks on the young bears, particularly on the smallest, who was weakening. On becoming aware of the plight of the latter, the she-bear broke away from the male wolf and, roaring hideously and laying about her with swinging paws and snapping fangs, drove the three cubs down into a patch of thick brush and through it into a glacial stream. There the small one, lame and dripping blood, lay down up to its neck, while the other three backed into the water until the wolves were out of their depth and broke off the engagement.
Spotlight = There are no records of adult polar bears or grizzlies being killed by wolves.
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