Yesterday I saw a micro-headline, saying that "the traffic police in the South Fork Forest District of Yichun City encountered a black bear of about 400 kilograms", and then the author also popularized the black bear in the northeast commonly known as "black blind"▼ ▼
In fact, I have not clicked into it, just from the picture on the cover, I know that he must have recognized the mistake, this is not a black bear, but a brown bear, is an "authentic" Ussuri brown bear, the country is generally called the northeast brown bear. In addition, this brown bear is not 400 kilograms by eye, and the black bear is even less likely to grow to 400 kilograms.
▲ This is the first picture in his micro-headline, which is a frontal photo. Although this guy is dark, he does not have the iconic "V" white spots on his chest, and the hair on his cheeks and neck is not long, and his posture is very different from that of Asian black bears.
▲ This is the second picture in his micro-headline, the appearance features are very obvious, high shoulders, long snout, rounded figure, neck neat and shorter hair, but also enough to prove that it is a Ussuri brown bear.
▲ This is the real Asian black bear, commonly known as the bear, bear blind, black blind is it. A large white spot on the chest (some individuals are yellow), appearing "V" or crescent-shaped, also known as a moon bear. The hairs behind the cheeks and on the sides of the neck are long, forming two semicircular tufts of hair, like wearing a bib.
Among the eight existing bears, in addition to the highly recognizable giant panda, polar bear and spectacled bear, the remaining 5 kinds of bears are often mistaken, especially the Asian black bear and the American black bear, we generally call the black bear refers to the Asian black bear.
On the left is the Asian black bear, and on the right is the American black bear
I often see on the Internet that some of the articles about Asian black bears are equipped with pictures of American black bears, which is not entirely strange to them, because searching for pictures of "black bears" on the Internet, the results of the american black bears are mostly pictures, I have written articles before about the simple way to distinguish between these two kinds of bears These two kinds of bears look like twins, making people confused? It can actually be distinguished at a glance.
Ordinary brown bears are also highly recognizable, but ussuri brown bears and Hokkaido brown bears are exceptions (many biologists believe that these two subspecies should be merged into one), many of them have dark black coat color, people who do not understand see such a big black bear, the first reaction is "look so black, it must be a black bear!" ”
One of the characteristics of the Ussuri brown bear is black, which can be called the blackest brown bear subspecies.
Wikipedia Description: The Northeast Brown Bear, also known as the Ussuri Brown Bear and the Northeast Horse Bear, is a subspecies of brown bear, distributed in Siberia, the Korean Peninsula, northeast China and Hokkaido, similar to the Kamchatka brown bear, but with darker coats and longer skulls.
"Zoology of China" describes: (Northeast brown bear) is a large individual, male adult skull base length of an average of more than 350 mm. The coat color varies, most individuals are brownish black, about one-third of the individuals have grayish-white hairs on the back, making the coat pale brown, and the limbs are brownish black, which hunters call "sharigan".
The Handbook of Chinese Mammals in the Wild describes that brown bears are the most widely distributed terrestrial mammals. Different species of groups vary greatly and depend on the availability of food and habitat. The largest variation in color and body size exhibited in bears — from dark yellow to black to red — has led to more than 200 synonyms in the species.
The distribution range of brown bears spans three continents in Asia, Europe, and North America, with a large number of subspecies, nearly 20 subspecies, with great geographical differences, in addition to body size, but also in the color of the coat.
The brown bear in the general impression is like this, and the coat color is standard brown. ▼
But there is also this kind of golden hair▼
Brown bears with this coat color are more common in Europe
Individuals of this coat color are more common in Syrian brown bears
Individuals with brownish black hair are common among ussuri brown bears
This Ussuri brown bear is so black, coupled with a circle of protruding hairs on the neck, it is easy to mistake it for a black bear
The mother and son of brown bears in the North Daxing'anling area are wandering on the path, the cubs are still normal, and the female bears are so black that they can't even see their eyes
Ussuri brown bear on Zhenb Island, fat and strong▼
Ussuri brown bear in the primitive forest area of the northern Daxing'anling Mountains (the original author also recognized it as a black bear).
Zhang Guangcailing's Ussuri brown bear▼
Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park
Jilin Wang Qing's ▼
Heilongjiang MuLing's ▼
The Ussuri brown bear on the Russian side is also very thoroughly black
As mentioned earlier, the Ussuri brown bear and the Hokkaido brown bear are closely related, and many people believe that they are the same subspecies, and there are also many individuals with brown and black hair in the Hokkaido brown bear.
Brown bears in Hokkaido ran off the city's roads and were later shot. In Japan, brown bears are basically shot when they enter the residential area, and there are about 2,000 wild brown bears in Hokkaido, which japanese may feel is too much, or the "Sanmaobei Incident" has left a psychological shadow▼
This is a brown bear that was shot in Japan a few years ago for breaking into a farm, and the news reported that it weighed 3 meters high and 400 kilograms, which looked too scary and oppressive
The other angle looks much more normal, but it's still big
Why are ussuri brown bears and Hokkaido brown bears so dark? My guess may have something to do with the living environment. They live in the dense forests of the Temperate Monsoon region of Asia, and their black fur is better at hiding themselves in the shade of dark trees, as well as hiding in hibernating bunkers, absorbing heat and preserving more heat (but brown bears that live at higher latitudes than ussuri bears are not as dark as they are, so this is not the main reason).
In short, the black-looking is not necessarily a black bear, and the brown bear also has a black-looking bear, but whether it is a black bear or a brown bear, it is a dangerous beast, do not provoke them.