Hungry bears in Russia began to exhume bodies from cemeteries

Hungry bears in Russia began to exhume bodies from cemeteries bear, russia, cemetery, scavenger

From a distance, people thought that it is a gravedigger wearing a fur coat to protect from temperatures extremely cold during this period. Only when they approached, the people of the village realized that Vezhnya Tchova is facing a gruesome picture, a huge brown bear unearthed a corpse to eat it, The Guardian quoting Russian press announced.

WWF announces that Russia is not the only case of its kind, especially the bears are opportunistic and learn very quickly. It was enough that one to discover this new food source for others to join him. The same experts claim that although feed the bears is shrinking by the day, there was still sufficient resources to sustain a population of 140,000 bears. However, the bodies are a convenient source of food, and this is the reason why more and more bears choose this solution.

The only way to defend cemeteries bears is to hire guards and ignite fires every night, say villagers Vezhnya Tchova, especially as Russian laws prohibit the hunting of bears in mating.

Source: TheGuardian

Arctodus or Arctotherium the largest bears that ever walked the Earth

The work of University of Adelaide researchers is shedding new light on the evolution of what are believed to be the largest bears that ever walked the Earth.

Dr Kieren Mitchell, from the University's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, has a new paper just published in Biology Letters.

He writes: "During the Pleistocene (2.5 million years ago -- 11 thousand years ago) giant bears weighing over 1,000kg roamed both North and South America. These giants belonged to a now practically extinct subfamily of bears -- Tremarctinae -- which is today only represented by the small, herbivorous Andean spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus).

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"The giant North American bears (Arctodus) and South American bears (Arctotherium) have long been believed to be each others' closest relative. However, by comparing ancient DNA data obtained from representatives of the two extinct genera and comparing them with the living species, we were able to show that Arctotherium is most closely related to Tremarctos and not Arctodus.

"The implication of this result is that these bears represent a remarkable instance of convergent evolution, as giant bears appear to have evolved independently in both North and South America.

"This convergent evolution would have arisen in response to similar environmental conditions on both continents, most likely an abundance of large herbivore carcasses (killed by smaller predators), which Arctodus and Arctotherium could effectively dominate, and a lack of competing scavengers."

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Adelaide. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.