Humans love to impart animals with our characteristics, otherwise known as anthropomorphism. One of the most anthropomorphic behaviors bears exhibit is rubbing, where they stand with their backs to a tree and begin doing a hilarious-looking jig as they rub against the tree for relief.
It was long thought that bears were rubbing to get rid of itchy bugs in their fur, while another hypothesis was to work insect-repelling sap onto themselves. Finally, an ecologist in British Columbia got down to the answer after ten years of research on grizzly bears.
Communication is Key
So much of animal behavior, including human behavior, revolves around resource display and getting a quality mate. Resource display means showing all your best successful survival game to the potential mates in your area. Sound familiar?
Before you can show your best game to your potential mate you’ve got to make a connection. Good communication is just as crucial with bears as it is with humans. The main reason we’ve uncovered in regard to why (mainly male) bears rub is that it is used for communication with other male bears. When bears are ready to mate, they let their competition know about it.
Researchers have gathered information that indicating that the better a male communicates his location and intent to other nearby males, the fewer fights occur between them over the females. Thus, the bear community survives and thrives as less fatal confrontations take place.
Seeing the Signs
Signs of bear rub include marks on trees or poles that lean slightly in along trails. The hair will be snagged into the wood a few feet up and bite marks up further. Grizzly, black, and brown bears have all been noted to exhibit this behavior.
Bears have their favorite rub trees, and we’ve long supposed the reason why bears rub in the same areas for generations. Since collecting more complete information about how bears communicate, especially in less impacted environments, we have a clearer picture of their optimum habitat needs. This data has now informed better conservation, management of populations, and decisions about our human activities around bears.
Check out this humorous video presented by BBC to get a look at why bears rub and how truly entertaining it is when they do!
Images via GlacierNPS, Tambako the Jaguar
