Agent Bible
Wild Animals: Bears
Habitat:
These bears maintain large territories of hundreds of square miles, although they may even migrate at certain times of year to other areas for a particular food source - such as spawning fish. Home ranges overlap and there is generally little aggression between bears when they meet - if they are gathered around a food source, many bears will tolerate each other. Traditionally they prefer open places and are often seen ranging out over the steppe and rocky slopes above it. Brown bears are primarily vegetarian, despite their fierce appearance. They search out fruit and nut trees and can strip a bush of berries within minutes. Their diet is varied, but also includes fish, small mammals such as pika and eggs which they love. Honey from wild bees also seems to be a favourite and is frequently used to bait traps for them. These are the largest of the bears (up to 8 feet tall when standing) and there is little size difference between males and females. They hibernate between November and March/May. Although they may use the same den for hibernating more than once, they generally dig a new one each year. Excellent sense of smell and good hearing, but poor eyesight as with the black bear. Again, taste is important and items will be sampled in the mouth first. Vision tends to fixate on moving objects, so detection of non-moving objects is by smell usually.
Habitat:
Red pandas are slightly less secretive than giant pandas, but also live largely in tropical or temperate bamboo forests. They are generally found in the foothills of the Himalayas close to the Chinese border. Like the giant panda, a large part of the diet of red pandas consists of bamboo. However, they cannot digest the tough parts of the plant, and so either have to eat huge amounts of bamboo, or more usually diversify their diet by including eggs, small mammals and baby birds, insects, fruit, roots and other plants. They are excellent climbers, spending a lot of their time in trees. Being mostly nocturnal, they are most often spotted sprawled across a tree branch during the day, dangling their feet and snoring. They are solitary creatures, coming together only for the mating season. One to four young are usually born per litter, and the mother is their sole carer. They may leave the parent after they are weaned, but often stay behind for a year before dispersing. Reds are very cat-like; they may drink by dipping a paw into water and sucking it, and frequently stop what they are doing to wash themselves with their tongue like a cat. Excellent sense of smell and good night vision.
30
Habitat:
Giant pandas live at an altitude of between 1,200 and 3,500 meters (4,000 and 11,500 feet) in mountain forests that are characterized by dense stands of bamboo. Home ranges average 8.5 square kilometers (3.3 square miles) for males and 4.6 square kilometers (1.8 square miles) for females. More than 99 percent of the food consumed by giant pandas consists of the branches, stems, and leaves of at least 30 species of bamboo, the species eaten varying from region to region. Although the proportion is small, pandas also feed to a limited degree on other plants and a small amount of meat. They feed mainly on the ground but are capable of climbing trees as well. They are active mainly at twilight and at night. Except for females accompanied by cubs, giant pandas live a solitary existence. During the breeding season, several males may compete for access to a female. Home ranges of females are usually mutually exclusive, although they overlap occasionally, while the home range of each male may overlap those of several females. Pandas communicate by rubbing an acetic-smelling substance that is secreted by glands surrounding the anogenital area, onto tree trunks and stones. They also scratch trees. Most territorial marking is thought to be done by males. Pandas are quite vocal and eleven distinct calls have been identified in the wild, although the function of each is not understood. Good night vision and sense of smell.
Habitat:
Black bears are far more at home in forested areas, although they do also venture out onto the steppe in search of fruit and carcasses to scavenge. They are now thought to be territorial in as much as they protect their feeding areas as food is scarce this high up. They also have a cave or den that they use throughout their life as their hibernating den and take great care to keep other bears away from this. Territories tend to be small, often only a few square miles in size. Although they prefer forests, they have been spotted as high as 11,000 feet up mountains. Although black bears are opportunistic when it comes to food - frequently taking crops from fields or rummaging through dustbins - they remain carnivores at heart. They will take anything from marmot size up to argali sheep and may even take smaller yaks. Bears are largely solitary apart from females raising cubs. They do hibernate in winter - usually from November to April, and the cubs are born at some point during this time. It is thought that some kind of delayed implantation occurs as a fail-safe in case the mother is underweight before hibernation. Females are much smaller than males. The bears are largely nocturnal and tend to laze around in sunny patches during the day. Excellent sense of smell and can detect carrion from miles away. Vision poor. Hearing good. Taste also very important - everything is sampled in the mouth to asses it (just like babies) probably because of poor eyesight. Eyes fix on moving objects - if prey remain still, bear may ignore them.
4
