Nov 14, 2005, 11:08 GMT
Vienna - Normally monogamous, female brown bears go promiscuous to save their babies from marauding males, says an Austrian wildlife researcher.
In some bear communities it was a common occurrence for males to kill 'strange' litters of cubs. The reason was the all-powerful instinct to spread their own genes. If a mother's cubs were killed, she was ready to mate again sooner. The new choice of mate might well be the killer.
But the females had developed a counter-strategy, said Andreas Zedrosser of Vienna Agriculture University's Institute of Wildlife Biology after extensive research in Scandinavia.
The method was simple but effective. Instead of following their normal instinct and mating with only one male, they did so with all in sight. 'Then later on, everyone thinks they're the father and leave the litter alone,' said Zedrosser.
In an interview with the Austria Press Agency, he said that 54 female bears had been observed in Scandinavia behaving in this manner.
But there was a trick beyond that - the female could apparently choose the father of her cubs and it was by no means always the first bear she mated with.
The study suggested that the female had the ability to control her ovulation. That gave them the power to select the father. In choosing him, she seemed to go for such factors as size, apparent health and quality of fur.
Zedrosser said that male beauty could also play a role, if for instance a female chose a partner with particularly symmetrical features.
Your Talkback on this Story