[10] Unlike more social species bears, being solitary mammals, have wide-ranging habitats to locate potential mates.

[10] Majority of dominance hierarchies are found at food congregations in which population density is high and individuals are ranked based on size, mass, aggressiveness and willingness to fight.

[13] During the breeding season, both males and females expand their home ranges to help increase the likelihood of finding potential mates.

[12][14] Males, especially, adapt a roaming strategy, covering a large geographic range to find receptive females and tracking them via chemoreceptors.

[12] The pre-copulatory mechanisms, including contest and scramble competition, are conditional mating tactics that are used based on an individual's phenotype.

[11] Observations of broken canines, cuts, wounds and scars demonstrate the costs associated with contests and the importance of physical intra-sexual conflict within polygamous mating systems.

[13] This can directly influence their success by mating with the female when she re-enters oestrus or indirectly by lowering intra-sexual competition with other males and resources.

[10][11][14] Within Ursus, there may be a high variation within the mating strategies observed by both females and males, demonstrating overall plasticity depending on external factors.