Originally Posted by wet dog
Q: Why are there no bears in Africa?
A: Bears are Omnivores. They can do well eating either berries, herbs, friut or meat, small to large games. Bears can out dig the best badger, skunk or hog. In north America, they can take down large game - they hunt elk, deer, moose, mountain lion, and feed seasonally on fatty fish. They can run in burst of speed equal to a horse, damn near a quarter mile.
(Note to self: do not try to out run a bear uphill or down - on horse back or otherwise. Better to dismount, take careful aim, do not miss).
But I digress...
CA. OR, WA, NV, CO, WY, ID, UT, MT, AK, Russia - big food source, big bears.
In Africa, they could not compete with lions, hyenas and such as carnivores, nor could they compete with elephants, hippos, giraffes as herbivores. They lost on both accounts. Bears must be the dominate consumer of energy in either herb or meat. They never do well in second place. When you see bears, you are in wild places, unless of course, they are in your dumpster, which brings us to coyotes. When you have wolves around, coyotes populations stay manageable. In Wyoming, we lose maybe 1 piece of livestock to a wolf, we lose 10-12 by coyote. We like wolves.
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