Understanding animal behavior is essential for the conservation of endangered species. We document the case of a female brown bear (Ursus arctos) burying her 2 cubs-of-the-year, following their death in a car accident in May 2020 in the Prefecture of Kastoria, northern Greece. Both cubs were partially buried, half-covered with earth in an open field. We explore the circumstances and causes of this unusual behavior in relation to 2 potential explanations: caching of food and ‘grieving.’ Although the evidence collected is not conclusive enough to accept either of the 2 explanations, we report this observation to draw attention to this type of behavior in brown bears in the wild and hope that it will serve as a source for motivating future research.
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Ursus
Vol. 2021 • No. 32e7
January 2021
Vol. 2021 • No. 32e7
January 2021
