East Siberian brown bear Russian: Восто́чно-Сиби́рский бурый медведь
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)[1] (Altai Mountains and Kazakhstan)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Genus:	Ursus
Species:	U. arctos
Subspecies:	U. a. collaris
Trinomial name
Ursus arctos collaris F. G. Cuvier, 1824
Synonyms
jeniseensis Ognev, 1924 sibiricus J. E. Gray, 1864

The East Siberian brown bear (Ursus arctos collaris) is a population or subspecies of brown bear which ranges from eastern Siberia, beginning at the Yenisei river, north to the Arctic Circle, as far as Trans-Baikaliya, the Stanovoy Range, the Lena River, Kolyma and generally throughout Yakutia and the Altai Mountains. The subspecies is also present in northern Mongolia, northern Xinjiang, and eastern Kazakhstan.^[2]

Size

Brown bear with slaty-backed gulls at Magadan Nature Reserve, Russia

East Siberian bears are intermediate in size to Eurasian brown bears and Kamchatka brown bears, though large individuals can attain the size of the latter. Their skulls are invariably larger than those of Eurasian brown bears and are apparently larger than those of Kamchatka brown bears.^[3]

Adult males have skulls measuring 32.6–43.1 cm (12.8–17.0 in) in length, and 31.2–38.5 cm (12.3–15.2 in) wide at the zygomatic arches. They have long, dense and soft fur which is similar in colour to that of Eurasian brown bears, though darker coloured individuals predominate.

A sketch of an East Siberian brown bear

Taxonomic history

Originally, Cuvier's trinomial definition for this subspecies was limited to brown bear populations in the upper Yenisei river, in response to bears there sporting well-developed white collars. The subspecies has since been reclassified as encompassing populations formerly classed as jeniseensis and sibiricus, though the latter two lack the collar.^[3]

Behaviour and ecology

Bear at a campsite in the Sakha Republic

Siberian bears tend to be much bolder toward humans than their shyer, more persecuted European counterparts. They regularly destroy hunters' storages and huts where there is food.^[4] They are also more carnivorous than their European counterparts^[4] and do not seem to like honey. Like other brown bears, their diet includes fish, berries, roots and tubers, small mammals such as hares, and larger mammals such as caribou and elk.^[2]

References