A bear with a bear cub got into the frame of an automatic camera installed in the northern part of the Nizhnesvirsky Nature Reserve on the border with Karelia. Severe owners of the forest are walking through their reserved kingdom - and it is better not to meet them for a person on the way!
"They look very threatening and resemble bears from the Bear Island of the House of the Mormonts from "Game of Thrones", commented Dmitry Starikov, an employee of the reserve.
It should be noted that the number of brown bears, permanently living or visiting the Nizhnesvirsky Nature Reserve, is about thirteen to fifteen individuals on the average. Of these, usually are two or three females with cubs under the age of two years. The bear is omnivorous animal. All encountered animal food, that can be easily harvested, is used: beetles and their larvae in the soil, mouse-like's nest and sometimes birds, caterpillars of large butterflies, carrion, hare. Various berries, as they ripen, are immediately included in the diet. Bears sleep from November to March. It arranges a lair in a dry place, not particularly hiding.
Bear cubs are born in the winter and grow up more than two months in a lair, wrapping themselves in the warm mother's wool. A family leaves a lair in April. Bear cubs live next to their mother, who cares about them for three years. Older cubs help to care for the younger ones. Usually a bear gives birth to brood once every two years. The father is not engaged in raising a brood and, moreover, it can be dangerous for the cubs.
A bear is a cautious beast and usually avoids people. When meeting with bears, you should behave very calmly, you do not shout, make no noise or do not run away. The view of the running away can provoke a predator to attack, and a voice can provoke aggression. It is best to quietly retreat and walk around the bear with the cubs on the leeward side, so as not to irritate a bear with your smell.
The Nizhnesvirsky Nature Reserve was established in June 1980. It is located on the southeast coast of Europe’s largest freshwater reservoir, Lake Ladoga. It is in Lodeynopolsky district of the Leningrad region, on the border with Karelia. The reserve area is about 42 thousand hectares.
The landscape of the protected area is unique: it is represented by about 20 sandy coastal ramparts, repeating the contours of the Lake Ladoga's coast. Geographically, the reserve is located in the taiga zone. The vegetation is dark coniferous forests, lichenous and cowberry pine forests, small-leaved forests. About a third of the total area of the reserve is covered with the swamps. The territory of the reserve is one of the wetlands protected by the International Ramsar Convention.
The reserve has recorded more than 1970 species of invertebrates and 355 species of vertebrates. Among mammals are white hare, red squirrel, beaver, wolf, fox, raccoon dog, brown bear, ermine, bobcat, boar, elk and others. 244 species of birds are noted in the protected area and 139 species nest in the area. Rare animals is the Ladoga seal; rare birds are white-tailed eagle, osprey, serpent eagle, golden eagle, gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, white-tailed brant, pycidrusta and tundra swan.
The Ladoga ornithological station is located at the Gumbaritsa eco-station, on the shores of Lake Ladoga, where ornithologists have been observing migratory birds for almost half a century.