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Feeding Associations between the Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) and the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains

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Abstract

We observed 12 episodes when wild boars (single animals and groups) fed on oak acorns and pine nuts which were falling down from trees where Asiatic black bears of different sexes and ages were feeding at the same time. While searching for acorns and nuts, wild boars oriented by acoustic and olfactory signals produced by bears. Adult bears practically did not react to the presence of wild boars. Bear cubs, showing anxiety, remained in the trees until the boars departed. Unilateral commensalism and indirect competition are the specific forms of interactions between the Asiatic black bear and the wild boar during certain periods of the year.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author thanks A.S. Batalov, the head of the Durminskoe game preserve, for providing with a study territory, is grateful to Dr. V.A. Zaitsev and Dr. V.G. Yudin for valuable comments and editing the manuscript. Special thanks to M.D. Riley for the English proofreading. The orphaned bear cubs rehabilitation project was supported by the Terra Ursus (the Switzerland), the Alertis Fund for bear and nature conservation (the Netherlands) and the National Geographic Society Conservation Trust, grant no. C174–09 (the USA).

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  1. Institute of Water and Ecology Problems, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 680000, Khabarovsk, Russia

    S. A. Kolchin

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  1. S. A. Kolchin
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Correspondence to S. A. Kolchin.

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Kolchin, S.A. Feeding Associations between the Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) and the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 45, 751–755 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359018070087

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