Look who’s up.
Bears are being spotted in Jasper a bit earlier than usual this year. Prints have been spotted on the Pyramid Bench.
But how do bears know when it’s time to wake up from their long winter’s nap?
Unlike teenage humans, it’s not the smell of bacon and eggs that gets those big boys and girls out of bed in the spring. According to experts, it’s a combination of temperature, solar radiation, daylight…and whether or not their dens are getting flooded out.
“If the solar rays are strong enough to melt the snow their den is basically like living in a shower stall…and no one wants to do that,” said Gord Stenhouse, Alberta’s former top grizzly bear expert who now carries on his research through the Foothills Research Institute (fRi).
Bears hibernate in the fall—pregnant females den first, followed by non-pregnant females, followed by the males. When nap time’s over, the pattern reverses: boar grizzlies are first out of bed, while females with cubs remain curled up the longest. Researchers suspect this is nature’s way of increasing energy efficiency for needy bears-to-be.
“We can suggest adult females are trying to minimize the energy they expend during hibernation because they put that into reproduction and nursing,” Stenhouse said.
Most females have twins; bears with a single cub are usually first-time moms. But whether or not both babies emerge in the spring depends on how the birthing, and the nursing, went. Sometimes bears emerge without any cubs at all.
“If they’re in poor physical condition when they go in they can use up all their energy just in hibernation. We’ll go back to the den to see if we can find some clues.”
In the near future, Stenhouse and his colleagues won’t have to rely on such sleuthing to find out if a cub was delivered but failed to survive. New sensory instruments are being fitted on bears which already wear research collars (there are approximately 10 such bears in JNP). The devices record minute movements, such as those consistent with the birthing process. This will be the first time this type of data is gathered in the wild. The sensors have already been combined with video footage of captive bears to corroborate slight movements consistent with birthing patterns.
Similarly, the sensors could also help tell scientists what bears are feeding on, without researchers being present. Bursts of speed observed by the monitors would be more consistent with swift movements necessary to take down an ungulates rather than, say, the slow-gorge of a buffalo berry buffet.
Berries are a fall menu item, however; right now bears in Jasper are dining on golf course salads and leafy dandelions à la grassy ditch. The next course, if they’re lucky, will be elk calf with aroma of campfire, then in the summer it’s up to the high country for wildflower-garnished filet of marmot.
The challenges for bears, of course, come in the way of humans. Conflicts arise when people feed animals, don’t dispose of their garbage properly, spill grain from train cars and let their pets wander in bear country while off-leash.
“We spend a lot of time chasing bears out of areas where the potential risk for human conflict is high,” Jasper National Park wildlife specialist, Mark Bradley, has told The Jasper Local in the past.
For that reason, at this time of year officials advise the same thing they do with cranky teenagers who’ve just woken up and are looking to stuff their face: stay out of their way.
“Otherwise, it could end badly,” Bradley says.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
