Still Hungry, Bearly Full

Time for a look at one of America’s most charismatic critters, the bear. We have three bear species (not Papa, Mama, and Baby). They are the black bear, which is the most wide-ranging, the grizzly, and the polar bear.

Grizzly bear (UNAGB)

Polar bear (Scientific American)

Black bear (ABC News)

Bears are omnivores, meaning the eat plant and animal products. Always the opportunists, they won’t hesitate to raid a dumpster or campsite. One of the reasons wildlife managers discourage you from feeding the bears is because they will learn to equate people with food. Once bears start looking for people, problems arise.

Processed bear food

Bears are very large, so it takes quite a bit of food to keep them going. Grizzlies and black bears sleep through most of the winter (called torpor- not all of them hibernate all the way through) and that helps them by not eating when food sources are most scarce. The rest of the year, they are eating to make up for their long winter’s nap. Sometimes bears will strip the bark from a tree and power up with sugary sap when they first emerge from torpor.

Tree sap breakfast nook

From then on, they are pretty much fattening up for the winter. In the Northwest (including Alaska and Pacific Canada), bears get a big boost of tasty fat in the form of salmon, which return to spawn just before bear bedtime. In the Rockies, an infusion of migratory moths makes an easy treat for the bears that know where to look. The salmon and moths giving the bears a goodnight kiss is another example of nature’s perfect timing.

Photo credits: 

Grizzly: United Nations Association of Great Boston https://unagb.wordpress.com/tag/grizzly-bears/

Polar bear: Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/polar-bears-diverged-from-brown-bears-fairly-recently/

Black Bear: ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-black-bear-takes-break-rests-hammock/story?id=23940797