Bears and other animals

You can see bears, but also other animals, such as wild boars, foxes, deer and bucks from our wildlife watching hide. Rarely, one can also see wildcats, wolves and lynxes.

Below, we will present our more frequent visitors:

The appearance and lifestyle of the brown bear

Its body is 1-2.8 meters long, its weight, accordingly, is of 80-680 kg.

Brown bears are typical omnivores; they will eat virtually anything, whether grass, mushrooms, roots, forest fruit, insects, small mammals or deer. In the summer, they mainly consume plants, fruit and bulbs. When searching for food, they like to dig out hole-dwellers, such as mice, marmots.

Arthropods, such as the larvae of moths, have a prominent place in their diet, and their preference for honey is already proverbial. These protein and fat sources are particularly important in the fall, prior to the winter rest period, when bears accumulate reserves in their bodies in the form of fat, for the hard months. They even scavenge carcases.

The reproduction of brown bears

Female bears can mate with several males during the mating period of 10 to 30 days (oestrum). Males fight each other for the right of mating and the winner will try to protect the chosen female for 1-3 weeks.

Usually, they mate between May and June, but the impregnation of the fertilized egg is usually delayed about 5 months, that is until the beginning of the winter rest period; the gestation then lasts for 6-8 weeks, which means that the helpless, bare and blind cubs (usually 2-3) are born in the winter. Bear cubs, initially weighing only 340-680 grams, develop really fast: at 3 months they already weigh 15 kg, and at 6 months of age they reach 25 kg. They nurse until they are 18 to 30 months of age, but after 5 months they do not live exclusively on their mother's milk anymore. Cubs stay with their mothers at least until the second spring, but they usually live together for 3-4 years. Male bears do not take part in the care of the offspring; in fact, they even pose danger to them. No wonder that mothers are extremely aggressive toward any suspected and real attacker (in this period they can be particularly dangerous to humans, as well). The female will only be fertile again if the cubs leave her or die ahead of time, which explains the murderous intentions of males.

Cubs reach maturity at 4-6 years of age, but they continue to grow until the age of 10 to 11. They live about 25 years in nature, but at the zoo they can live up to 50 years.

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