The year of a Finnish Brown Bear in Karelia

There are three themes in the life of northern brown bears: fattening up for winter, hibernation and reproduction. The complete life during the year revolves around these three themes. In midsummer it never gets completely dark. If the weather conditions are good, it is possible to observe, and photograph bears all night long and into the early morning. Since most of our guiding work in Finland is done during midsummer, we take this moment to start the overview of the year of a Karelian brown bear outlined in this news item.

 Once June 20th has passed, the mating season normally comes to an end despite the fact the males and females still might follow each other to play and frolic. A mother bear with cubs spends time within a rather small area; especially compared to bigger, adult males. Using such a smaller core area in her territory has the advantage of less confrontation with large males. After all, the safety of her young is the only thing that worries her as a male still might kill cubs of which he is not the father; a natural phenomenon known as infanticide. Reason for this killing behavior is to make the female sexually receptive so the male can mate with her. This is with the goal of producing young, from the aggressive male himself, rather than those from another’s bloodline.

In 2023, in Spain, we saw a Cantabrian brown bear who, a few days after we saw her together with her cub during an EB5 trip, fell victim to, let’s say this ‘ugly side of nature’. You can read the news item about that remarkable story here:

https://europesbig5.com/news/infanticide-an-ugly-side-of-nature/

About two weeks after midsummer, bears switch to insatiable feeding behavior. This continuous foraging during the remaining summertime and early autumn, results in the accumulation of a layer of storing fat in the bears’ body to carry it through the winter. In late autumn, the bear focuses mainly on berries.  Staple food that is high in carbohydrates. In Finland these are first blueberries and, once ripe, later cloudberries.

Artificial made baiting areas for ecotourism, act as a magnet for bears resident around no man’s land. Many locally dominant male bears adapt their foraging behavior completely and remain permanently present in the immediate vicinity of such a baiting area. This for many years in a row. It results in the same bears that, because of their continuous appearance, get many nicknames, such as Priest, the Boss, Breadhead, Micky etc.

Bear hunting starts from the 20th August until 31st October. The total population of brown bears in Finland is around 1200 to 1500 individuals. However, the correct number is anyone’s guess. There might be many more. Though, it is hard to tell exactly how many animals there are out in the wild. In any case, the eastern part of Finland away from the reindeer farming in the north, is the best area to see, and unfortunately also to hunt, bears.

However, once the last bear hunting permit has reached the yearly quota in each province, the hunting season stops with immediate effect. In the well-known area of Kuhmo, where all the famous baiting sites are situated, the official bear shooting quotas of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, vary around 5 to 10 permits on an annual basis. Many hunters from southern Finland head towards the Russian border to hunt bears. Simply because bears occur in higher numbers there. But many of the resident adult bears are smart as they know exactly what the borderline means. Once the hunting season begins, this leads to unnatural disturbance and they disappear into Russia.

By the end of October, brown bears look for a protected spot to make their den. Wilderness lacking roads, especially on the Russian side of the border, are favourite areas. Often, they like to dig a denning area under an old anthill, or at the simplest, just a place under a fallen spruce with dense branches covered by snow. In the beginning, the bears are not actually hibernating. Instead, they stay inactive and only rest with the purpose of checking the vicinity is safe and peaceful. If the denning area doesn’t meet this minimum requirement, the bear leaves the den and looks for another location to hibernate. Human disturbance often appears to be the cause here. A healthy, well-fed brown bear that enters its winter den normally has several centimeters thick layer of fat between its muscles and skin. This is life insurance for the next five – six months.

In December most of the dens are completely covered by a pile of snow. One might see warm air coming out from an opening at the top of the den. It is the only sign revealing these kings of the forest resides in the vast taiga habitat characteristic of Finland. The bear’s body temperature drops to 33°C, the same as its heart rate: as low as ten beats per minute. The metabolism turns the fat accumulating into water. Approx. a milliliter of water is produced for each gram of fat and thus the bear does not suffer from dehydration. Despite the water party turning into urine, the bear doesn’t pee. Instead, the body system can degrade the urine and transform it into useful substances.

Both first months of the new year, January and February, are an important momentum of the bear’s life as they all celebrate midwinter. Even more important is the fact that females give birth to one – four cubs while they hibernate. Despite the body temperature of males have dropped to 33°C, remarkable, it is the body temperature of a pregnant female that remains at 37°C. It starts to drop to 33°C once the cubs have been born and begin suckling their mother’s milk. These bear cubs weigh only 0.5 kilos at birth and are born naked, blind and deaf. After birth, they immediately sit on their mother’s chest, near the nipples so that they can drink regularly. For the rest, the cubs remain in sleep mode during the first months of their young bear life. Only when the cubs have grown considerably in the spring, they do start moving. The first bears might come out of their den at the end of March, but most bears do not emerge from hibernation before the tenth of April as they have no reason to leave too early. In deep snow and cold weather, the bears would die of starvation.

Riverbeds and hilly slopes are important routes for bears that just awoke. Particularly because forests still have a thick layer of snow cover and encrusted snow does not always support the weight of the bears. Instead, snow on sunny southern slopes melts early and provides the bears with the easiest routes to move around.Once they leave their den, activating their digestion is a primary concern. The bears do this by defecating an anal plug that formed naturally as it consists of waste matter accumulated during the long winter while hibernating in their den. Berries of the previous autumn are revealed from under the snow.

Bears feed on them to stimulate their digestion after fasting for almost six months. Their digestive system reacts in the same way as humans who have fasted by avoiding fat. Instead, you must switch to it gradually. Once the stomach has swollen, large male bears especially, start scavenging as they feed on carrion that they find; often ungulates being unfortunate with the harsh conditions of winter. They also might kill wild forest reindeer or an elk. Smaller bears also look for carrion but also dig up roots and the first green shoots that are starting to emerge in spring. More proof, if more was needed, that brown bears are omnivores.

A mother bear with cubs often leaves the den as late as early May; much later than solitary bears do. With the small cubs being totally helpless in the snow, the mother stays in the den until almost all snow has melted. In early May adult male brown bars consume massive amounts of food so they can manage the approaching mating season; a period in which they show no interest in food at all. This is because, from the 20th of May onwards, their life changes drastically. They forget to eat and are only interested in females in heat.

Moreover, they must solve hierarchical disputes with direct rivals. The larger the male in size, the more it must fight to retain its position. It is the reason why numerous old males are riddled with scars. However, females in uterus are by no means faithful to the dominant male. Instead, she seeks to collect a wide range of genes as possible by courting with several males. This could result in one litter that consists of offspring of various males.

Sincere thanks to John Wright for his amendments and edits regarding the grammatical content of this news item. A professional contribution that is warmly appreciated by EB5! Also thanks to Pasi Parkkinen for the use of one of his photos from his impressive image archive https://ratmakka.fi/