The Bare Necessities Of Bears
In the movie “The Jungle Book,” Balloo the bear spends his days singing and dancing and munching paw-paws.
Actually, this is a pretty accurate picture of real bears, except for the singing and dancing. North American bears also spend the summer foraging for food.
Even cartoon bears like Yogi and Balloo know that eating is serious business. Bears must acquire enough fat over the rich summer months to last through their winter sleep, when stored fat is the bear’s main source of energy.
Black bears and grizzly bears are omnivorous, and eat both meat and vegetation. The average bear eats mostly nuts, berries and veggies, although bears also enjoy delicacies like insects, fish and small mammals.
Female bears have yet another reason for chowing down during the summertime. Although bears mate in the spring, the fertilized eggs don’t begin to develop until the females return to the den for the winter. The females must have stored up enough fat over the summer to support themselves and their developing cubs over the long winter. If not enough fat is stored, the embryos won’t develop at all, and the female bear won’t produce any cubs that year.
Like Yogi Bear, real bears also seek out humans who might be carrying a snack, and many bears look for garbage, pet food, livestock, and campers for an easy supply of food.
Contrary to popular belief, bears don’t eat humans. Unless humans surprise the bear or threaten the cubs, bears will avoid human contact. They really are more interested in your picnic basket.
熊的真實(shí)生活是怎樣的
在電影“森林王子”中,熊巴魯整天都在唱歌、跳舞和咀嚼番木瓜。
實(shí)際上,除了唱歌和跳舞的部分,這是對(duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)中的熊最真實(shí)的寫(xiě)照。北美熊也會(huì)用一整個(gè)夏天來(lái)覓食。
甚至像Yogi和Balloo這樣的卡通熊都知道,吃是件很重要的事情。熊必須要在食物充沛的夏季攝取足夠的脂肪來(lái)度過(guò)冬眠期,那時(shí),儲(chǔ)存的脂肪將是熊獲得能量的主要來(lái)源。
黑熊和灰熊屬于雜食動(dòng)物,既吃肉也吃素。一般的熊多食堅(jiān)果、漿果及蔬菜類(lèi)食物,但它們也愛(ài)吃昆蟲(chóng)、魚(yú)和小型哺乳動(dòng)物。
雌雄在夏天覓食還有另一個(gè)原因。雖然熊在夏天交配,但受精卵要等到冬天雌熊回到洞穴才會(huì)開(kāi)始發(fā)育。雌熊必須要在夏季儲(chǔ)存足夠的脂肪來(lái)幫助自己和正在發(fā)育的幼仔度過(guò)冬天。如果儲(chǔ)存的脂肪不夠多,胚胎就不會(huì)發(fā)育完全,雌熊當(dāng)年將不會(huì)產(chǎn)下任何幼仔。
現(xiàn)實(shí)中的熊像Yogi一樣也會(huì)去尋找攜帶零食的人類(lèi)。很多熊為了覓食更加容易,它們會(huì)去尋找垃圾、寵物糧、家畜和野營(yíng)者來(lái)獲取食物。
熊其實(shí)并不會(huì)像一般人所想的那樣會(huì)吃人。它們會(huì)盡量避免和人類(lèi)接觸,除非是受到驚嚇或者幼仔受到威脅。事實(shí)上,它們對(duì)你的野餐籃更有興趣。