Afarensis: Why Do Bears Rub Trees?

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Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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Why Do Bears Rub Trees?

Category: Biology
Posted on: September 9, 2007 11:38 PM, by afarensis, FCD

The BBC has an interesting article addressing that question. According to the article, it is primarily male bears who engage in tree rubbing behavior. New research suggests it is an indirect form of male-male competition:

Owen Nevin, a behavioural ecologist at Cumbria University, UK, who carried out the study, said: "A handful of trees ('rub trees') are used for years by different grizzlies who each approach the trees in exactly the same way.
"They will step into the footprints of other bears that have approached the trees, urinating as they approach.

"Then they rub their back on the tree, turn around and then bite the tree and claw it. Then they give it a 'bear hug' by rubbing their chest against it, and then they rub it with their back again."

*snip*

The cameras revealed that large adult male bears were marking and carefully inspecting the rub trees, but female bears were ignoring the trees. The satellite telemetry showed that the grizzlies were moving around the area in large loops, marking trees along the way, while looking for females.
Dr Owen said he thought the male bears were using the trees to communicate with other males in the area and that this could be a way of reducing fighting amongst them.

Interesting stuff...

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