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King Page 2 of 3
King had really chosen a beauty to follow through the meadows. She was already quite fat for June, with long, fluffy, healthy hair and a round head with a mane of golden hair framing a sweet face. She grazed and grazed and munched on grass, while King settled down on his belly to wait. Resting his head on his paw, he stared at her. After five minutes or so, we noticed his eyes become very, very sleepy. King’s eyes slowly fell shut and he nodded off to sleep. Every couple of minutes he would come to, raise his head up to make sure the female was still there, and gaze around a few times. Then his eyes would droop shut and his heavy head would plunk back down onto his arm where he appeared to instantly fall back asleep. He repeated this procedure, of raising his head in a quick scan, and then immediately fallingback asleep – for fifteen to twenty minutes.
The female stopped eating and sat down. She began glancing over her shoulder in King’s direction, looking at him in short glances for several minutes. It was the first time she acknowledged his presence and she seemed mildly interested. But she decided not to get any closer to him, and eventually started eating again. It seemed like a good deal for the female. She had the largest male in the meadows watching her back, but she appeared to be calling any and all of the shots. King was eventually overcome with tiredness. We couldn’t help but laugh out loud when he sprawled out on his belly, with his legs stretched out behind him. He seemed too tired to even hold up his head, and he plunked down with his face smashed flat into the grass. He looked ridiculous!
We quietly crept away, leaving King napping and the female grazing. The sun was starting to fall below the mountains (about 11 pm), and it was time to cut across the meadows towards the beach, and head towards camp. We walked for a good fifteen minutes to get to the center of the meadows closer to the sea shore. When we arrived, there seemed to be a flurry of bear activity and we saw a handful of bears in all directions. Suddenly, we spot the female that King had just been pursuing. And now she’s with a tiny male bear smaller than she is. It’s a tiny male bear that we had inadvertently spooked earlier in the day as we walked around the back meadows. He approaches that same female, and immediately mounts her from behind. He fumbles and slides off to one side down her back. He looks totally inept, and like he’s just too small to physically copulate. The female turns her head and snaps her jaws once up at him as he bungles his way back on top of her. He clings, ineffectually to her wide girth, hanging on for dear life lest he slide off again. She finally seems exasperated and sits down, glancing across her shoulder at him.
It definitely goes to show you that size isn’t everything, and apparently neither is persistence. Poor King had followed this female around for a good while. We watched them together for at least an hour, and who knows how long he had been pursuing her before we bumped into them. Then this small male, who looks like a sub-adult, walks right up to the female for the first time and she immediately decides to let him mount her. Mating behavior in animals is extremely complex, and I look forward to continuing to make my own observations about bears and mating. Mating in animals is usually described in scientific literature as a battle between males for “control” over the female with the assumption that the largest, strongest male will win the right to mate. The female is usually seen as a passive participant in the whole affair. Or, as one biologist told me this summer, bear mating can be broken down into “Romeo and Juliet, or rape”. (The funny part is he said this while trying to argue against my assertion that biologists carry a lot of gender bias in regards to mating behavior in animals.) It seemed pretty clear while watching King and this female that the female was calling the shots. King was following her around, obviously interested in mating, yet waiting for her to decide if mating would actually occur. He didn’t display any type of physical domination over her and if anything, exhibited a gentle patience.
Expert bear guide Brad Josephs, while we were watching this bit of mating, brought up a study on caribou mating (I later read about this study in a book on caribou). In this study, researchers found that smaller, juvenile male caribou actually mate more often than the larger, full grown, strongest males. While the older males are fighting in vagrant displays of antler butting, the juvenile males are busy mating with the females! Brad mentioned this in relation to bears and we discussed that perhaps young, small bears are as successful at mating, or even more successful, than the massive, full grown males. It sounds like an interesting question to try and answer in the future. Despite his size, King proved to be a bear who we would feel extremely comfortable being around and he proved to be much more cute than scary. For one thing, he looks like he is always smiling! His mouth is usually a quarter of the way open with his lips curling up in a big grin. He couldn’t have been any cuter, and reminded me of our dog Venus who is constantly laughing with her mouth open in the same gesture.
© 2008 Jessica Teel |
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