That bear winter paw sucks, heard it all. It is believed that it helps him to survive the lack of food in winter, as the paw of a lot of fat. This version of many centuries. But current technology allows it to penetrate into the den, and "spy" for the behavior of bears during winter hibernation. Zoologists believe that the bears paw do not suck. Scientists have their own explanation for this amusing fiction. Sleeping bears, with their hind legs, and the front covering the face. This could mislead the hunters, who found the bears sleeping in this position. In addition, the paws of bears cover very thick layers of the skin. During hibernation under the old layer of rough skin grows new. And to relieve the itching, flaking bears gnaw the crust. When the spring is toed out of the den, the soles of their paws covered the rags of the skin. During hibernation the bear is almost no traffic. His body temperature varies from 29 to 34 degrees, breathing is intermittent, with a delay of up to 4 minutes. All activity of the body slows down, which makes it very slow and efficient use of accumulated over the period of abundant feed reserves of fat.Sucking his paw the bear cubs raised in captivity. The cubs are born in winter, and the only source of power and heat provides them the Mama bear. Nipples of females are not located along the line of the abdomen, as in most animals, and in the groin and armpits. Bear keeps the nipple in his mouth and spends the entire winter on mother's warm skin. Bears in captivity are fed from a nipple. In order to compensate for the lack of Mama bear, they start between feedings to suck a paw. In animal psychology this is called behavioral pathology. Today almost no secrets of the animal world. And as shown by the observation and study of the bears, they suck in the winter, paw of hunger. May lick or bite, but it happens for another reason.