Courtship and Copulation of a Pair of Grizzly Bears, with Comments on Reproductive Plasticity and Strategy

Copulation of wild European brown bears (Ursus arctos), with comments on the breeding behaviour of the one adult male

“…The following day we discovered two sets of two daybeds 11 m apart ; one pair was 7 m apart while the other two were side by side. This behaviour during breeding has been observed by Herrero and Hamer (1977) in Banff National Park, Canada. With this information we strongly believed that during at least the previous two days the marked bear was travelling with another bear, which we suspected was a female.…”

“…Mundy and Flook (1964) and Hamer (1977) both noted the presence of a second male in the vicinity of a mated pair in Glacier and Banff National Parks, Canada, respectively. Bears engaged in many forms of non-aggressive physical contact while paired (Hornocker 1962, Hamer and Herrero 1977, Egbert 1978, Murie 1981, Schleyer 1983, Phillips 1986) and several noted that females controlled its occurrence and the course of the courtship activity (Herrero and Hamer 1977, Egbert 1978, Murie 1981. Herding behaviour exhibited by males (Herrero andHamer 1977, Murie 1981), however, was not seen in our area.…”

“…In North America, several accounts have been published of copulation of wild brown (grizzly) bears and courtship behaviour. This information has normally been extrapolated for wild European bears (Hornocker 1962, Mundy and Flook 1964, Hensel et al 1969, Craighead et al 1969, Dean 1976, Herrero and Hamer 1977, Stelmock 1981, Ballard et al 1982, Craighead and Mitchell 1982, Schleyer 1983, and Phillips 1986.…”

Courtship of brown bears Ursus arctos in northern Spain: phenology, weather, habitat and durable mating areas

“…Plasticity has been considered one characteristic of brown bear mating behaviour (Herrero & Hamer 1977, LeFranc et al 1987. However, there are few published reports on courtship and mating activities of freeranging brown bears and most of them are based on observations of grizzly bears in North America (Herrero & Hamer 1977, Brady & Hamer 1992, Hamer & Herrero 1990, Murie 1985, Craighead & Mitchell 1982, Craighead et al 1995. The only instances in Eurasia originate from the former Soviet Union (Vaisfeld & Chestin 1993) and one record originates from the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain (Clevenger et al 1992).…”

Prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in North Carolina Eastern Black Bears (Ursus americanus)

“…Rather they establish their home range adjacent to or within their mother's home range (Alt 1978, Rogers 1987, Schwartz and Franzmann 1992, Lee 2003 (Beeman 1975, Amstrup and Beecham 1976, Lindzey and Meslow 1977, Reynolds and Beecham 1980, Alt et al 1980, Garshelis and Pelton 1981, Hugie 1982, Young and Ruff 1982, Carr 1983, Hellgren 1988, Smith and Pelton 1990, Fuller 1993, VanManen 1994. Male home range size may be function of larger male body size (Harestad andBunnell 1979, Quigley 1982), breeding behavior (Rogers 1977, Herrero andHamer 1977), and site fidelity exhibited by females (i.e. females stay in one area, thus males must travel to encounter them; Clark 1991).…”