About Bears...

Two questions came up recently about Bears. The first was about bears hibernating. My brother and I were pondering how such huge animals can hibernate the way we imagined hibernation to go. We found it unbelievable and even got to the point where we questioned our life-long notions of bears hibernating. Later that day, I read a status from my friend Tai on Facebook where she said she saw some bear prints in the middle of winter. That was the last straw, I had to do some research. 


Here are some things I learned from the North American Bear Center:

Before Hibernation bears enter a prep period where they rest up to 22 hours a day. They make dens, purge waste from their bodies through drinking lots of water, and eat a lot. We are talking up to 20,000 calories and 2 gallons of water a day. 


During hibernation bears "do not eat, drink, urinate, or defecate. They can reduce oxygen consumption and metabolic rate by half and breathe only once every 45 seconds. Heart rate can drop periodically to 8-21 beats per minute."


Now to solve Tai's question about her bear prints I found this tidbit....

"The activity schedule is very different in eastern North America where acorns, hickory nuts, beech nuts, and other foods become available in fall and some foods remain available all winter. Bears there are genetically programmed to delay hibernation until late November or December... hibernation there is typically not as deep, and some bears emerge to forage during winter thaws. Food sometimes remains available throughout winter there, and some bears continue foraging throughout winter." (emphasis added)

Now for the second Bear question, my brother was wondering about Bear Grylls (Man vs. Wild). Is Bear his real name, or is that a nick name? If it is a nick name, we wondered if he got it from being an adventurer or if he had it before. 


The Answer (according to Wikipedia): It is a nickname; his real name is Edward Michael Grylls, but there is an interesting twist. He got the nickname when he was a week old from his big sister (which is funny cause we started calling my niece bear when she was a baby also). So the name came before he became an outdoor adventure extraordinaire. 


Pictures Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons