Can Bears Be Domesticated? [Answered & Explained]

In the movies and tv shows, we saw bears friendly and honest with humans. Sometimes, they look charming in the pictures. We also saw them sometimes with humans as pet animals. But bears are wild animals and very dangerous. So, can bears be domesticated? Let’s find the answer.

First, you should know the meaning of domesticated animals. Domesticated animals are animals that can live with humans. So, the truth is bears are shy animals but also wild animals. 

So bears are not domesticated animals because they are very dangerous. Although bears can be trained and live with humans, we cannot say they are entirely domesticated animals. The main reason that they are not fully domesticated animals is that they are wild animals by nature. Bears are solitary animals that need a lot of food; when they are hungry, they will hunt for it. This means they are wild creatures and can target humans because of their predatory instincts. 

Can Bears Be Domesticated?

Although some people think bears as cute animals and they can be friendly with humans, some are against them because of their predatory nature. So, let’s discuss why domesticating bears is a challenging task.

Bear Aggressiveness and Behaviour:

Bears are large and top-listed dangerous predators. These giant wild animals are famous for slaughtering and eating large animals such as deer. 

Bears are one of the strongest mammals in the world, and they have the strength to down any animal with their one-paw strike. However, every species of bear do not show aggression toward humans. 

Some experts have trained wild animals and reduced their aggressive behavior, but the aggressive behavior of bears is also a primary object that comes on the road of domestication.

Bears are unpredictable wild creatures, and we hardly anticipate their actions. Bears are also known for changing their behavior within a second. So, they can show wild behavior towards humans at any time. For example, one moment, they are very friendly with you, and the other moment, they might attack you.

Expert trainers carefully train the bear so they can live around people for years. But, their behavior is unpredictable and can change at any time. 

Bears Solitary Nature:

Another critical point that creates a hurdle in the domestication of bears is their tendency to be alone. Bears come at the top list of solitary animals. But bear mothers and cubs are more relaxed during mating season. According to some research, bears are the one that comes in the least social animals of all Carnivores.

But, you must think about that why solitary nature makes a hurdle in domestication. Here is the answer, the less social animals are more challenging to train because they do not adapt themselves to recognize the hierarchy.

For example, wolves have been tame because they live in the pack life and can understand the hierarchy.

There is also another fact that causes trouble with the domestication of bears. The bears also kill their kind, and sometimes they kill their cubs. So, the animals that are not honest and kind to their kind, then how can they live with the humans and not attack them?

That’s why bears will never accept humans as their friends. So, always think hundreds of times before adopting bears as your pet.

Bears Food:

The amount of food for every bear’s species, age, and gender are different. Bears are large wild animals that need a considerable amount of meat to complete their daily diet. 

Adult brown bears’ daily diet is approximately 90 pounds of food before they go into hibernation. The other captivate bears do not adapt to hibernation and need almost 20 to 30 pounds of food daily.

After that, most species of bears are omnivores, so their most of diet consists of diverse food such as fish, meat, grass, larvae, roots, and other food. 

Simply put, raising a bear is very expensive and challenging. It is also a time taking process. If you want to adopt a bear, remember to feed the bear because hungry bears are dangerous.

Bears Docility:

Docility is another thing that has not to found in bears. Bears do not possess docility naturally.

 

Bears are very dangerous predators, which means they were born to kill. But their cubs are very charming and look very good when they play. But always remember they have both qualities of aggression and territorial. 

Bears That Kept As Pets:

Throughout history, many people have tried many different things on bear domestication. For example, the dancing bear was presented in history. 

Humans captured the cubs, gave them dancing training, and presented them on the streets for money. In the 1990s, this activity was viral in India, but now countries banned this. 

Now come back to the main point, people keep some bears as pets worldwide. In Russia, there is a grizzly bear whose name is Stepan that lives life as a pet. The owner of this bear is Yury and Svetlana Panteleyenko. They bought Stepan when he was a beautiful little cub. 

A circus sold the Stepan because they did not have enough resources for its care. Stepan has lived happily for 28 years under such caring owners. 

A man named Jeff Watson raised a bear. Now, the bear age is 29 years old. Jeff is a professional bear trainer, and according to his ideology, people can train bears but cannot tame them. Jeff also gives the taring lessons on how you can train a bear.  

Final Words:

Bears are wild creatures, and violence is in their nature. So, bears cannot be domesticated. Although some trainers somewhat train the bears, we cannot fully tame or domesticate them. 

Bears are natural predators, and we cannot estimate their instincts. So, they can change their behavior at any time, which can be very dangerous for humans. 

Besides all these things, domesticating wild bears are also against the law of nature because we cannot handle or tame any wild animals. So, we should not try to domesticate any wild animals. 

FAQs:

Can bears be trained to be friendly with Humans?

Some trainers can train the bears, but we cannot completely domesticate them. They are wild creatures, and we cannot tame them.

Can we keep bears as Pets?

Some bears live their lives as a pet. But, domesticating a bear process is costly and dangerous. So, finally, don’t keep bears as pets.