The national animal of Russia is the Eurasian brown bear. This is an important national symbol and among the most representative members of the country’s broad wildlife. They embody many aspects of the Russian spirit and are seen as important symbols of strength and power. They have been important symbols in Russia for millennia.
It may not come as a surprise to many that the vast, rugged wilderness that makes up the nation of Russia should have chosen the brown bear as its national animal.
Few symbols are as important to the Russian people and no doubt will continue to be long into the future.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Russia?
The national animal of Russia is the Eurasian brown bear.
These are a subspecies of brown bear, indeed among the most common of all brown bear subspecies.
They are also known as common brown bear or just common bear.
They have brown fur though it can range fairly widely in exact hue; sometimes it is yellowish-brown, sometimes dark or red brown and they in some cases are even almost completely black.
They have dense fur, though again the density can vary depending on the population; broadly speaking, the colder the climate the population inhabits, the denser their fur will be.
They have a round head with small ears, 42 teeth in their mouths, and a wide skull.
Their paws are large and powerful, sometimes growing as long as 2.9 inches.
Again, weight can vary a great deal, but they are a large species of bear; a full grown male, at the height of its weight before it goes into hibernation, can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds.
On average, they will weigh around 500 to 600 pounds.
They can be as long as 8 feet, and females usually weigh around 550 pounds.
They are extraordinarily long lived and can be known to live as long as 30 years in the wild.
The oldest brown bear fossils come to us from China and date to around half a million years ago.
During the Pleistocene, Europe was too cold for the brown bear except in a handful of areas including parts of Russia.
Eurasian brown bears separated, evolutionarily speaking, around 850,000 years ago, with two branches in Europe and Asia.
There are thought to be five major clades of Eurasian brown bear today; as they have been such a successful species, they are to be found over a very wide range.
Why is the brown bear the national animal of Russia?
The Eurasian brown bear is the national animal of Russia for a great variety of reasons.
On the one hand, they are seen to be the perfect embodiment of strength, power, courage and boldness; apex predators as they are, they are rivalled by nothing in their environment in terms of strength and size.
They are fearsome, powerful beasts, and yet at the same time they generally do not prefer to get into conflict where they might otherwise avoid it.
So, though powerful as they are, they are also spirits of grace and humility.
On the other hand, they are more literally seen as the vital embodiment of Russian natural beauty. Most of us will certainly associate with Russia the brown bear and the Siberian wilderness; alpine forests, semi-arctic tundra, and an all-round very unforgiving environment.
The bear is the single best embodiment of that natural landscape which is so important to the more literal, geographical makeup of Russia.
Bears have been important symbols to Russia at all its stages; ancient inhabitants would see them as totems, they were often used in Soviet symbolism, and so ultimately they may mean many different things to different people.
Where do Eurasian brown bears live?
Eurasian brown bears still naturally have a very wide range, though it is certainly limited compared to its former glory.
Today, they are found across Russia and the more northern reaches of Europe such as Sweden and Finland, with smaller populations found further south.
Russia today is where the largest population of brown bear is to be found.
They tend to inhabit forests and prefer to live near rivers as they often hunt fish.
They can live at very high elevations down to sea level, so plainly they are well adapted to a variety of environments.
What do Eurasian brown bears eat?
Many are often surprised to learn that brown bears are in fact omnivorous.
They eat a great variety of thigns like fruits, seeds, roots, insects, fish, mammals and carrion.
Though they are very powerful animals, they are not equipped to fast chases and so they don’t tend to hunt large prey very often; though this is not to say they are not fast runners.
They often eat fish where they can get them and are famously very fond of salmon.
They will also catch small mammals like squirrels and rabbits, though some species of brown bear will even hunt moose and caribou.
The brown bear is simply the most iconic member of Russia’s wildlife to many people in Russia.
The forests that make up so much of Russia’s natural landscape are, in some ways, ruled by the brown bear; nothing there can threaten them except perhaps the relentless advance of man.
Since long before the nation of Russia existed, the people living in this part of the world considered them sacred symbols and totems.