Bear skull diversity

[Nambaster]

I am blown away at how many variables each bear demonstrates just in skull configuration. My last bear has rough growths all over making the skull rough to the touch. All of his front teeth on his upper lid are missing with the exception of his canines. Most of your bigger boars have a ridgeline flange to support their jaw muscles. Some have short snouts and some have exaggerated long snouts. With trapping foxes,coyotes,skunks,mink and raccoons I feel like the variance between those species is mostly “size”. The identifiable characteristics between bear skulls is significant. The skull is not always consistent with body size.

 

[Nambaster]

Here is an image with the bear flesh on...If it weren’t for the canines it would be safe to say his ability to hunt would be compromised.

 

[Nambaster]

It’s interesting to see how the teeth start cupping. With cavities like that, I wonder if the pain receptors of the bear are constantly firing off to remind him that he should have brushed and flossed.

 

[Nambaster]

Without the front teeth this skull will stand up.

 

[prongbuck]

Has that bear been aged? It’s a very old bear. My guess is somewhere between 15 and 20 years old.

 

[SaskHunter]

That bear is probably ancient! Congrats

That or he enjoyed chewing on rocks...

 

[Nambaster]

They took a tooth from him for aging but it will take a year or 2 before I get any results. Even though he is old he isn’t too big. Here is an image of him next to one of my thug bears that has almost 2” in snout length on him with the same width. It’s crazy how different they are. The old bear is on the bottom. He has such a short pudgy snout and his bone structure is thick and rough. The bear in the middle is my other bear from this year and he had the longest snout that I have seen on a bear. Then the bear on top was wide long and old.

 

[elkrchr]

That old bear has a much more pronounced ridge on the top of his skull indicating he is quite old.

 

[kansasdad]

Loss of teeth in humans after maturity is more often due to periodontal (gum) disease than decay or trauma. When you are a bear, you use your front teeth to tear off grass, scrape berry bushes, tear meat and grip prey. Those teeth are undergoing tremendous physical momentary forces.

My father the veterinarian said he could age a horse within half a year of its age by examining its teeth. One aging consideration would be where the horse lived. Drier climates have rougher forage and dustier conditions. That dust adds to the abrasiveness of the food. The old school farmer on an open air tractor seat, styling across the field with a sun umbrella if he was doing well.......all those old guys had really advanced wear on their tooth surfaces. All that dust would accelerate enamel erosion.

In humans sleep apnea is also associated with bruxing and accelerated tooth wear/loss. Acid regurgitation adds to the wear of (mostly front) teeth.

This skull you’ve shared here is amazing to look at and ponder the life he lived. I can see where his nerves used to live in what used to be the center of his incisors. Hopefully for his sake those pulp spaces sclerosed down so they weren’t sensitive to hot/cold/touch. I suppose bears that aren’t hitting the twinkies at a bait site aren’t going to have to deal with sweet sensitivity as much as my patients do. High fructose corn syrup is a dental professional‘s best friend.

 

[Nambaster]

Kansasdad,

You are a dentist? It’s pretty amazing to get your input. This bear is in fact the vomit bear. I wonder if he just had acid reflux and it ate at his teeth. If I could have magically returned that bear back to life and forgone the experience of skinning and quartering out the meat of a vomit soaked bear, I definitely would have granted that bear safe passage.