Polar bears near a whale carcass. Why doesn't the polar bear eat penguins? What do bears eat in different regions?

VLADIVOSTOK, January 17 - RIA Novosti. National Park"Beringia" on Wednesday celebrates the five-year anniversary of its creation, its employees today not only protect the inhabitants protected area, but also “extremely” explore whales, which are not at all afraid of people, and encounter inquisitive polar bears.

Beringia National Park was established by decree of the Russian government on January 17, 2013. According to the director of the institution, Vladimir Bychkov, before this, the need to create a specially protected area in this region had been discussed for about 20 years. natural area, first a regional natural Park, and in 2013 - a federal structure.

Conservation and research

"The park's territory is significant - 1.8 million hectares. This is not a single territory, the national park consists of five sections, five clusters. Beringia is the most northeastern natural protected area of ​​Russia. The national park is washed by two oceans - the Arctic and the Pacific. We We are in a unique region of the Bering Strait and densely populated by indigenous local residents- Eskimos,” said Bychkov.

Today, 49 people work in the national park, 16 of them are inspectors. Since the territory of Beringia is vast, a significant part of them live in eight national villages on the coast of the Arctic Ocean up to southern borders Anadyr Bay, as well as in the village of Provideniya.

Bychkov notes that over the five years of the national park’s existence, it was possible to form a qualified staff, which was not easy, since there are few residents here. Today in Beringia the territory is being developed, infrastructure is being created, passable equipment and boats are being purchased, cordons and strongholds are being built. Also, over the past two years, the park has been intensively developing regulated tourism. It is planned to install a guest house in 2018.

The Beringia Science Department conducts field research annually. Scientists from other regions are also involved, including in order to more effectively study the microfauna and botanical diversity of the territory.

“Chukotka is difficult to access for researchers, the infrastructure is not developed here, and scientists can work here only in the warm season. Therefore, the national park also plays the role of a guide for researchers: we ensure the work of scientists, creating cordons, organizing transport. We guarantee the work of specialists in hard-to-reach areas.” , - Deputy Director of the National Park for Science Maxim Antipin told RIA Novosti.

Close to the whales

In 2017, joint research of cetaceans by Kamchatka and Moscow scientists was carried out in the national park. They will continue in 2018. Here, they mainly study humpback whales, which in the last five years have been approaching the area of ​​the Senyavin Strait and the Bering Strait in large herds, says Bychkov.

Antipin took part in the research. He says that the whales were a few meters from the scientists' boats.

“For me, such an approach to whales was the first time - so extreme. Humpback whales enter the Senyavin Strait in groups of up to 100 individuals. They behave carelessly, are not afraid of people or ships. It is forbidden to hunt them here, so they behave calmly. They have everything their food resources are in order, they lead a relaxed lifestyle and you need to approach them carefully - the engine must be turned on all the time,” explains Antipin.

“But due to the fact that we hired cameramen who were filming a documentary, we had to turn off the engine. In this case, we become “invisible” to the humpback whales, because their acoustics are not developed, and they can “pass” through the boat or jump out and lie down on it, so the work was extreme. But the humpback whales hung out by the boat, they were interested, and they did not show aggression,” he adds.

Photos and videos that scientists collected during these studies are used to identify whales. For them, coloring is like fingerprints for a person, says Antipin. Soon the national park will receive a catalog of humpback whales from Moscow State University specialists. With its help, park staff will track the number of individuals entering the strait, mark “newcomers,” compare groups and draw appropriate conclusions.

“We also observed gray whales when we were filming along the coast. We observed quite careless behavior from them - at Cape Chaplin they “rubbed” against the shore, foraged for food in soft soil at a distance of about five meters from the shore, and allowed themselves to be filmed by a quadcopter,” - the interlocutor noted.

“This is due to the ice situation - the sea is clear, there is little ice, the whales can afford to feed longer. They hardly feed in the south, where they winter - off the coast of Mexico, California, there is not enough food there. But they actually come to Chukotka to eat. Then “The longer they stay in the north, the more likely it is that they will survive and feel comfortable in the south,” Antipin explained.

But not all animals benefit from the reduction in ice. For polar bears and walruses, on the contrary, negative factor. It is critical for walruses that they cannot rest on the ice; they have to return to the shore and then swim again up to 80 kilometers from the shore to eat.

Thus, in the national park there was a walrus rookery, which was abandoned long ago. Also this season, the Red Book Steller sea lions stayed in Beringia for a long time; they were observed as early as December 26 - this is a very late date for the meeting. Antipin says that scientists from the United States also observe late encounters with sea lions on St. Lawrence Island.

According to him, an autonomous weather station in the village of Provideniya shows that December 2016 was cooler than in 2017. The later establishment of ice cover also creates difficulties for scientists and park inspectors - all crossings pass through bays that have not yet frozen.

Without people the bear will feel bad

Polar bears suffer the most from the lack of ice - the hunting area for the predator is reduced. Researcher national park"Beringia", specialist marine mammals Arctic Anatoly Kochnev told RIA Novosti that there is no stable population in the national park - all the bears here are “passing”.

The exact size of the Chukotka-Alaskan polar bear population has never been calculated - it is very expensive. It decreased in the 90s of the last century, but several years ago, during Russian-American work on counting seals, scientists received data that there are at least more bears here than previously thought. Now there may be about three thousand individuals.

"I would say cautiously that at least there is no sharp decline in the population. Their living conditions, of course, have now worsened. The bear is an animal whose life depends on ice. And now for the second year the Chukchi Sea still does not freeze. For polar bears it must be stressful situation“Their habitats are shrinking,” he said.

"The conditions for hunting and food are bad. Another thing is that maybe polar bear manages to somehow adapt to this. At this level it is still possible, but if there is further loss of ice, then the polar bear will feel bad,” Kochnev added.

According to him, earlier, when there was more ice, there were areas in the park where pregnant polar bears regularly lay in dens. But now the bear does not reach here and breeds in more northern areas. There is one site here - on Kolyuchin Island - where dens are recorded annually - about five to seven on an island four kilometers long, and this is not a bad figure, the scientist believes.

“Every year it happens that bears come to the coast in the national park and in large groups gather in places where there is a lot of food. Due to a lack of ice, walruses come to the coast and crush each other in rookeries, where mortality is high. But for the bears, the moment of feasting comes: hundreds of them gather, they feed on dead walruses thrown up by whales,” says Kochnev.

He clarifies that in 2016, bears appeared en masse on the coast in the national park in February, in 2017 - in March.

“I think that this year in March they will come to the coast again. Judging by the fact that the sea is freezing even more slowly than last year, they will definitely come there to feed,” Kochnev said.

How to escape from a polar bear

Kochnev has been studying polar bears for about 30 years, and during this time he has developed tactics for behavior when encountering them. The polar bear is a specialized predator: it hunts, eats meat, but does not eat berries, and does not fish like the brown bear. This animal preys on warm-blooded animals, so people think that it is more dangerous to humans, but this is not the case, the scientist says.

“Specialized predators are very afraid of any injury - any injury can prevent them from hunting, and then the bear is doomed to death. They are afraid of conflicts and clashes, even when they fight among themselves, they do without serious bites and injuries, they conduct more demonstration battles for prey: pushing, fighting,” explains the agency’s interlocutor.

He emphasizes that “the beast tries not to lead the situation to a serious conflict.”

"And he will also be afraid of getting injured from a person, so he needs to behave aggressively. They used to write that you need to fall to the ground and pretend to be dead - I think this is The best way to be eaten,” says the interlocutor.

He notes that if a polar bear sees that a person is aggressive and can cause harm to him, then he will try to avoid conflict.

“At least, this is how I behave, and I have had many encounters with them. The brown bear is more dangerous for humans because it is not afraid of getting injured. It is not a specialized predator, and if injured, it can “sit out” on a berry. Therefore he is less “complexed” in this sense and more dangerous for humans,” adds Kochnev.

"Polar bears have this thing called curiosity - they come right up to you to sniff you. And Brown bear in Chukotka avoids a person because he is familiar to him. This white man lives somewhere in the ice, doesn’t see people, then comes to the coast, to a village where everything is interesting to him. He walks everywhere, sniffs, and then they say: “An aggressive bear has appeared.” Polar bears, if they appear, can go to the house. Of course, it is unpleasant when a bear approaches you, even unpleasant when a cow approaches you. It's better not to let this happen. If I don’t have a goal for the bears to approach, I try to show my presence in advance and from afar - there are a lot of methods,” says Kochnev.

Stress for the British

It’s another matter when an encounter with a polar bear is needed for research or filming. In 2017, the scientist worked as a scientific consultant and guide during the filming of polar bears by a BBC group at Cape Schmidt - outside the Beringia National Park. At that time, 24 bears lived there, and they reacted to people completely “normally,” says Kochnev.

“The British got stressed then... A female and a one-and-a-half-year-old bear cub were “chasing” walruses. Although they were well-fed, they went on an “excursion” to see the walruses, had fun, scared them so that they would run away in panic. When they saw us, they became interested: they from one attraction - the walruses - they went to another - to the British and did not react to the rocket launcher,” says the scientist.

“The animals are well-fed, but how will the bear cub behave? Usually the cubs provoke, and the mother will protect the cub when it seems that there is a threat. But I managed to hit the bear well with a stone, and she realized that I could “bite” her even at a distance.” “I decided it was time to leave, because it was dangerous for the British - they even went for vodka. But then they thanked me - they needed it, and after that meeting, they immediately stopped filming,” she laughs. Kochnev.

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The natural world is rich in both patterns and mysteries. A simple man in the street who has forgotten his school course in geography and zoology has a humorous question: Why don't polar bears eat penguins?, - can be confusing. A predator can't catch its prey? Not tasty ?

Young animal lovers, brought up on cartoon characters and videos on the Internet, where characters in the form of little animals sing, dance, and play, naively assume that bears do not eat because they are friends. Is it possible to eat a friend?

It would seem that a lot is known about famous inhabitants harsh climatic zones. The mystery of why polar bears don't eat penguins remarkable in that you can remember the characteristics and habitat of each animal. They deserve it.

Polar bear

Marine (polar) - one of largest representatives mammals on the planet, second in size only to the elephant among land inhabitants and the whale in underwater world. The length of the predator is about 3 meters, height is approximately 130-150 cm, weight reaches 1 ton.

Not everyone knows an interesting detail - the skin of a polar bear is painted black. This helps keep you warm sun rays in the bitter cold. The fur coat is devoid of pigment and sometimes turns yellow from dazzling light.

The structure of the hairs of the wool is such that they only allow ultra-violet rays, thereby ensuring the thermal insulation qualities of fur. Interestingly, a bear can turn green in a zoo during hot weather - microscopic algae appear inside the fur hairs.

White lives in the polar regions, zones arctic deserts, tundra areas only in the northern hemisphere of the Earth.

The prey of the mighty predator are ringed fish, sea ​​hares and other animals. The bear hunts everywhere: on snowy plains, in water, on drifting sea ​​ice. Dexterity, strength and dexterity even allow him to catch fish, although it does not predominate in his diet.

It is selective in food: it prefers the skin and fat of large animals, the rest is used as food for birds and scavengers. It feasts on berries, moss, eggs and chicks from nests.

In changed climatic conditions, it can be difficult for a bear to find “delicacies”, then land animals appear in the diet - deer, geese, lemmings. Warehouses and garbage dumps also attract bears when they are very hungry.

Seasonal migrations depend on the boundaries of polar ice - in winter predators enter the mainland, and in summer they retreat to the pole. In the Arctic from severe frosts and the icy winds of the bear are saved by a layer of fat under the skin, the thickness of which is 10-12 cm. polar ice and snowdrifts are their natural element, despite the average temperature of minus 34°C.

Arctic and Antarctic, Antarctica

Often schoolchildren, and adults too, confuse these geographical concepts. It is noteworthy that the name Arctic, literally translated from Greek, means “bear”. The secret lies in the location of the territory under the constellations Great and Ursa Minor, the main landmarks of the northern Pole Star. The Arctic unites the coast of the North Arctic Ocean with islands, part of Asia, America, Europe. Bear country is approaching north pole.

Antarctica literally means “opposite to the Arctic.” This is a huge territory of the southern polar region, including the continent of Antarctica, coastal areas with islands of three oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian. Climatic conditions in Antarctic latitudes it is harsher. average temperature is minus 49°C.

If we assume that polar bears would move to the other pole of the planet, then their fate would be unenviable. Survive in extreme low temperatures, where the favorite hunting of polar bears near the polynya is excluded, is almost impossible. The ice thickness in Antarctica is hundreds of meters, in the Arctic it is only about a meter.

Animal world the south pole is not adapted to the neighborhood with large predator. Many species would be completely destroyed. Among the first to suffer such a fate would be the penguins inhabiting the Antarctic latitudes.

The diversity of fauna at the South Pole is richer than at northern latitudes. There is a ban on hunting, fishing and any economic activity.

Interestingly, Antarctica does not belong to any state, unlike the Arctic, divided between Norway, Denmark, the USA, Canada and Russia. It can be considered that South Pole- This is the “kingdom” of penguins, the diversity of which is fully represented.

Penguins

Habitat flightless birds– the coast of Antarctica, the territory of the extreme south of the Earth, with large ice floes and islands. Lovely creatures of nature swim beautifully, vision under water becomes sharper than on land, and their wings seem to turn into flippers.

During the swim, they rotate like screws thanks to the shoulder joints. Swimmers' speed is approximately 10 km/h. Dives under water of several hundred meters last up to 18 minutes. They are capable of jumping above the surface like dolphins. This ability sometimes saves their lives.

On land, penguins waddle, deftly move on their bellies after pushing off with their wings and legs, and glide across ice floes.

Birds are protected from the cold by three layers of waterproof feathers and an air layer between them. In addition, a 3 cm fat layer also serves as protection from frost.

The diet of penguins is dominated by fish: sardines, anchovies, horse mackerel. Need in the right amount food forces them to constantly dive under water. During the day, hunting swims occur from 300 to 900 times.

Birds have enough enemies as in sea ​​depths, and on the surface of eternal ice. While underwater penguins can even escape sharks, on land it is difficult for them to escape from foxes, jackals, hyenas, and other predators.

Many predators dream of feasting on penguins, but polar bears are not on the list. They simply won't be able to do it. Animals are separated by a huge distance between different hemispheres of the Earth - here Why doesn't the polar bear eat penguins?

Habitat does not pit birds against the mighty rulers of the snowy deserts. They can look at each other only in the zoo, but not in the wild.

What separates and brings together bears and penguins

Eternal ice, icebergs, snow, severe frosts polar places unite in the minds of people those amazing animals that are able to live in this beautiful and harsh world. No one is surprised when cartoons and pictures in children's books depict polar bears and penguins together among snow-covered plains. They retain the warmth and energy of life in silent and endless places.

No one knows how their relationship would have developed if they had been in the same territory. But for now, polar bears reign only in the northern hemisphere, and penguins, accordingly, exclusively in the southern hemisphere. It's great that polar bears don't eat penguins!

Somehow it turned out strange that a ferocious predator bear people find it very cute. Honey, raspberries, “bears were riding a bicycle,” gypsies with a bear, Masha and the bear - these are the associations with the formidable owner of the taiga and nightmare geologists and polar explorers. So who is he more: a lazybones with a sweet tooth or scary beast? It turns out that it’s both. Although the bear is a predator, 70% of his diet is plant food .

What do bears eat in different regions?

Bears truly eat “what God sent.” Everything that is in the area - vegetation, fish, eggs, various living creatures are used. Still would! To a huge beast mass from 300 to 700 kg(depending on the type) it is necessary not only to maintain the normal functioning of the body, but also to accumulate fat. By winter it should be at least 50 kilograms.

The “menu” of bears living in different areas has its own differences.

• A significant part in the diet Siberian bears occupy pine nuts, acorns, hazel, chestnuts. During a season, one animal can eat up to half a ton of nuts.
• Kamchatka bears prefer fish. Avid fishermen, they patiently wait on the shore for salmon to spawn.
• Inhabitants of the Arctic - polar bears are meat eaters. They give preference seals and ringed seals . In a year, an adult male can eat up to 50 individuals. They also love fish. But land animals - walruses, belugas, narwhals - become the last object of hunting for a polar bear.

And a few more facts “for starters”.

• It’s bad if, in lean years, the clubfoot goes into hibernation without the necessary reserves of fat. Then there is a high probability of waking up from hunger in the middle of winter. The connecting rod bear is extremely aggressive. He attacks animals and people, destroys barns, warehouses, and forest huts of hunters.
• Polar bears do not hesitate to eat carrion- dead fish, corpses brought by the sea. However, they do not touch the remains of their relatives.
• In the spring, after waking up, bears do not eat anything for 2-3 weeks, until the body recovers after a long “fast”.
• The cubs leave the den weighing about 5 kilograms, although their birth weight is only about 500 grams. Babies gain more than 4 kilograms on breast milk.
• Bears are known to have a sweet tooth. In a year one clubfoot eats about 700 kilograms of berries.

In general, clubfoot eats according to the principle of “everything and more!”, as our childhood friend Winnie the Pooh said.