Wild Black Bears' Seasonal Diet Recorded by CBCGDF Volunteer While Patrolling

What do wild black bears eat in Northeast China all year round? In order to find out the seasonal diet of black bears(Ursus thibetanus), volunteers from the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) conducted field visits and investigetions for more than a year in combination with daily patrols.

As we all know, the Northeast black bear is a subspecies of the Asian black bear, mainly distributed in Changbai Mountain, Greater Khingan Range, Lesser Khingan Range in my country, as well as the mountains of Russia and North Korea. Like other Asian black bear subspecies, the Northeast black bear is an omnivorous jungle wild animal and is a second-level key protected wild animal in my country. As the core link of black bear protection, it is necessary to do our utmost to protect the habitat of black bears and the food source on which black bears depend for survival. Therefore, understanding the seasonal diet of black bears is of great significance to black bear protection and biodiversity protection.

In September 2023, the CBCGDF established the CBCGDF Black Bear Communitiy Conservation Area(CCAfa) in Wuchang Phoenix Mountain in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province. Over the past year, volunteers of the CBCGDF CCAfa have repeatedly gone deep into the hinterland of the mountains, visited extensively, conducted field investigations, and made comprehensive assessments. Their footprints are all over the forest farms in Wuchang, Acheng, Shangzhi, Binxian, Bayan, and other places, and patrolled back and forth in the deep mountains and dense forests of Zhangguangcai Mountain and Xiaoxing'an Mountain, the remnants of Changbai Mountain. It was found that the four-season diet of Northeast black bears is quite interesting: black bears pick wild vegetables in spring, eat insects in summer, pick fruit mushrooms in autumn, and eat farmers’s harvest or foods in winter.

The mountains in the Northeast China are covered with black soil and have sufficient nutrients, which provides unique conditions for the growth of diverse plants. Here, the four seasons are distinct, and the seasonal local specialties that people love are also the favorite foods of Northeast black bears.

Picking wild vegetables in spring

In spring, black bears who wake up from hibernation are hungry and are attracted by wild vegetables in the mountains. They pick them in large quantities, as if sharing the joy of nature's gift with people, their main diets include fern, mountain celery, prickly ash, Acanthopanax, and motherwort.

Eating insects in summer

In summer, the forests and flowers are fragrant and insects are active. The black bear's diet changes from filling its stomach with wild vegetables to taking in animal protein. The main foods are wild Northeast black bee larvae and honey on trees, wild wasps and larvae on trees,, ants and larvae in dead wood stumps, spiders and longhorn beetle larvae under bark, frogs and wood frogs, fish in the river, etc. When volunteers went into the mountains for patrol, they found stumps cut by black bears, beehives dug, bark peeled off, etc. These are all traces left by black bears looking for insects.

Picking fruits and mushrooms in autumn

In autumn, black bears are busy picking wild fruits and mushrooms to store enough fat for hibernation. The main foods at this time are pecans, oak seeds, hazelnuts, mountain pears, and various edible mushrooms. The crops such as corn, soybeans, radishes and cabbages planted by villagers on the hillside are also readily available and very favorite foods for black bears. Plants and fungi alone cannot satisfy the black bears' need to gain weight, so mammals such as wild boars and roe deer are naturally included in the black bears' diet.

Winter food

Winter is here, the mountains are blocked by heavy snow, and food is in short supply. Affected by global climate change, the temperature is abnormal, and the hibernation time of black bears is constantly shortening. Some black bears even do not hibernate. Driven by hunger, the active black bears in winter instinctively go out to find food. The heavy snow covers the plants, and the crops are also stored by the villagers. So black bears go to farmers' houses to do some "stealing" activities, entering the pig-snouts to catch domestic pigs.

According to forestry workers, black bears are "scavengers" in the forest and also eat carrion, dead pigs, dead roe deer and other wild animal carcasses, including old, weak, sick and disabled wild animals are also the food source of black bears.

Original article:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eqcX5YX8ZsFeBX9RLFrJsg

Translator: Daisy

Reviewed by Sara

Editor: Daisy

Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776

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