Sexually selected infanticide or predation? Killing and consumption of a female brown bear in a male infanticide attempt

Sexually selected infanticides (SSI) committed by male bears during the mating season has attracted a great research attention, although this type of behavior has been rarely observed in the wild. Here, we document a bear infanticide attempt in the Cantabrian Mountains in which the male killed the a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of wildlife research 2021-04, Vol.67 (2), Article 17
Main Authors: Ballesteros, F., Palomero, G., Blanco, J. C., López-Bao, J. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bears
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Carcasses
Ecology
Females
Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management
Infanticide
Life Sciences
Mountains
Predation
Short Communication
Zoology
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Summary:Sexually selected infanticides (SSI) committed by male bears during the mating season has attracted a great research attention, although this type of behavior has been rarely observed in the wild. Here, we document a bear infanticide attempt in the Cantabrian Mountains in which the male killed the adult female during the fight and, subsequently, consumed the carcass for several days. Interestingly, in this case, the bear male tried to reach the cub with the apparent intention of killing it, even though the female was already dead. We complement this observation with data on documented cases of SSI events between 1996 and 2020 in the Cantabrian Mountains. We hypothesize that when females are unintentionally killed while defending their cubs in SSI events, males can benefit by feeding on the carcasses.
ISSN:1612-4642
1439-0574
DOI:10.1007/s10344-021-01466-6