Bear hibernation dates/zones/beta

[Chip]

has anyone seen anything re. when bears should be inactive in the northeast ?

on a separate note; front page of todays Wall Street Journal is an article about the increase in attacks by wild turkey against people, half tongue-in-cheek because of tomorrow. The Tom's can be aggressive if you stumble into a flock, which is MUCH easier than you might think. I found myself in the middle of a flock of about 60 treed and feeding birds last year, before I realized they were there, then they flew & ran and were gone just as quickly.

 

[lumberzac]

I’m not exactly sure there is a date that you can point at and say bears will start hibernating then. The bear canister regulation in the Adirondack High Peaks runs from April 1 – November 30, so I would assume that most years, bears become inactive by the end of November there. I think it has more to do with the temperatures and availability of food than anything else. Something to keep in mind is that bears don’t hibernate fully and do sometimes come out of their dens in the middle of winter, generally during a thaw.

 

[Rugger]

A few years ago, there were 3-4 turkeys that hung out in the parking lot where I worked. When it rained, they would huddle under the roof by the employee entrance, not letting anyone in or out. We would have to walk around the building to the main entrance. This was just outside the city of Lowell, MA. There was another large one that would be sitting on the power line in front of the police station in Tyngsboro, MA every morning - a very funny sight as the wire would sag considerably.

 

[Waumbek]

has anyone seen anything re. when bears should be inactive in the northeast ?

As of last week, bears were still out & about in the eastern and western Whites. There was a car-bear collision on Rt 2 in Randolph (bear made it OK, apparently, car had front window smashed), and someone in Franconia who put up a birdfeeder found out the hard way that the bears weren't under yet.
Heavy snowfall this week may change all that fast.

 

[chinooktrail]

I just went to a talk last Saturday with Ben Killham at the Great Glen. He raises orphaned bears and returns them to the wilderness, pretty amazing job, and a good speaker. He said that mother bears with cubs and ones giving birth this year are in their dens now, but the males and unbread females are still out and about for now. He had one story about a hiker who was snow shoeing and fell into a bear den, man, that would be pretty bad for everyone, human and bruin alike! I guess the bear woke up and jumped out of the den past him. Might have been different if it had been a momma bear. He also said that there has not been death from a black bear in NH for over 20 years, good to know. If you are interested in bears, I would highly reccomend his book, and if you ever hear he is giving a talk it was worth it.

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

has anyone seen anything re. when bears should be inactive in the northeast ?

Scroll down to *BEARS

 

[Chip]

"Autumns with a lack of nuts and other foods, as we experienced in New Hampshire in 2003, can send some bears into their dens as early as September. During falls with an abundance of nuts, especially beechnuts or acorns, bears often will stay active into December."

We saw bear tracks (small) in the snow (as well as Moose, fox and rabbit) at the bottom of Jewell 11/12. The above quote from NH Mtn Hiker's link would indicate they will be more active longer this year due to the bumper nut crop (due to the dry summer). It seems backwards, though; I'd assume the bears would stay active longer if there was less forage.

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

"Autumns with a lack of nuts and other foods, as we experienced in New Hampshire in 2003, can send some bears into their dens as early as September. During falls with an abundance of nuts, especially beechnuts or acorns, bears often will stay active into December."

We saw bear tracks (small) in the snow (as well as Moose, fox and rabbit) at the bottom of Jewell 11/12. The above quote from NH Mtn Hiker's link would indicate they will be more active longer this year due to the bumper nut crop (due to the dry summer). It seems backwards, though; I'd assume the bears would stay active longer if there was less forage.

Bears can hibernate up to 7 months...they'd rather not though. In the deep South black bears frequently don't hibernate at all due to food being available year round.

In the North, the snow depth generally determines when the bears turn-in for the winter.

In other words, bears don't hibernate because they can, they hibernate because they have to to conserve food.

 

[forestgnome]

Excellent thread! (time for me to figure out how to award those green squares)

Does anyone know how to identify a bear den in the forest? I almost stepped on what I believe was a den while snowshoeing last year on the northern slopes of Mt. Passaconaway. Snow was mounded up a bit around a large blowdown. There was a round hole, about a foot in diameter, that appeared to have slightly melted snow around it, as if warm air was rising through the hole.