Bears don’t mate for life. Throughout their lifespan, females often have more than one mating partner and male bears tend to be quite promiscuous.
The bear breeding season starts in May and lasts until July, with most of the mating happening in June.
Bears are solitary animals by nature and they’re usually seen grouped when feeding, mating with a partner, or a mother is caring for her cubs.
Female bears may mate with several males during a short period of time and the cubs from the same litter may be from different fathers.
Male bears begin to court reproductively-mature female bears in spring so mother bears often have to break up with their cubs so that they’re safe from infanticide.
Prior to the actual mating, bears spend days courting each other. The male will follow a potential female bear by smelling her urine traces.
Do Polar Bears Mate for Life?
Polar bears don’t mate for life. They’re not monogamous animals. A male polar bear may impregnate several females in one breeding season.
Females are also known to have cubs with many different fathers.
A female polar bear will usually begin to mate successfully between the age of six and eight. During their lifespan, they’ll have approximately five litters.
Unfortunately, polar bears have the lowest reproduction rate among mammals.
The females mate only every few years and this requires the males to compete for a female. When male polar bears fight for a female polar bear, the challenger lowers his head, puts the ears back, and opens the mouth wide, bearing and roaring the teeth.
There’s rarely a fight to the death for the mating; the weaker male usually submits after he’s injured by the dominant male.
Read More: Nature’s Most Aggressive Bear Species
Female polar bears don’t go into heat as some other mammals do. They’re induced ovulators. This means that the intercourse causes the ovaries to release eggs.
However, ovulation doesn’t happen right away and it may require several tries before it’s successful. The female and male polar bears may remain together for up to a week before they go their separate ways as they’re solitary animals by nature.
This video shows courting polar bears:
Do Brown Bears Mate for Life?
Brown bears don’t mate for life. They’re polygamous animals and mate several times throughout their lifespan with different mates.
Being solitary by nature, after the mating, the female and male brown bears separate.
Their breeding season is between May and July. The fertilized egg floats in the uterus of the female brown bear for up to five months. It implants at the beginning of its hibernation and this is the moment from which the gestation period starts.
The females mate with most of the males in their range. Sometimes, the males may fight over the females and guard them for a week to three weeks.
The cubs are born in the den between January and March. They’re really small, hairless, and blind, but gain weight pretty quickly. They feed on the brown bear mother’s teats and emerge out into the world with their mother in spring.
Mother bears are highly aggressive and protective of their cubs. Sometimes, they may attack male bears who come too close to their cubs.
The mother and her cubs are together for up to two and half years before the mother is ready to mate again. Brown bear siblings live together for several months before they also go their separate ways.
Read More: How Many Cubs do Bears Have?
This video shows brown bear courtship during breeding season:
Do Black Bears Mate for Life?
Black bears don’t mate for life. They only come together during the breeding season which is between May and July.
Both females and males can have several mating partners throughout their lifespan, as explained by the American Bear Association.
Black bear females birth cubs every two years after they become reproductively mature. The fertilized eggs in the uterus develop into tiny balls of cells called blastocysts.
Their two-year cycle of reproduction is genetically set to fit into the annual growth cycle and the fruiting of plants in the region.
Delayed implantation happens in female black bears. The development of the blastocysts is postponed until they’re implanted into the uterine wall in November.
When this happens, these blastocysts develop quickly and become cubs that are born inside the den in late January or February.
The mom and cubs come out into the world in spring and they’ll stay together for 16 to 17 months or until the next breeding season when the mother is ready to mate again and they’ll each go their separate ways.
Black bears are also solitary animals by nature. Unlike polar bears, the population of black bears isn’t threatened and they’re classified as Least Concern. Their population is on the rise in North America.
Related Article: Bear vs Wolverine
Conclusion
Unlike some other species that mate for life, bears don’t. They’re solitary animals by nature and mate several times during their lifespan with different partners.
The males can impregnate several different females per breeding season and the female bears may even give birth to litters with cubs from different fathers.
Males court female bears during the breeding season and if the impregnation is successful, the female bear can have delayed implantation until November when she’s ready to enter hibernation.
The mom and cubs stay together until the next breeding season after which they part ways and continue a solitary life. Polar bears have the lowest reproduction rate among mammals whereas the population of black bears is on the rise.
Stuart is the editor of Fauna Facts. He edits our writers’ work as well as contributing his own content. Stuart is passionate about sustainable farming and animal welfare and has written extensively on cows and geese for the site.