If you are planning to put up your bird feeders sometime in December, after black bears have gone into hibernation, you may need to rethink your plans. The black bears prowling central Massachusetts probably won’t go into full hibernation this winter, and they could be looking for snacks anytime, day or night.
That’s advice from author and wildlife tracker David Brown, who spoke on bears at the annual meeting of the Friends of the Oxbow last Sunday. He explained that, at this latitude, bears hibernate not because of cold, but because of a dwindling food supply. And this year, Brown said, nuts and seeds are plentiful, so many bears will stay active all winter. Only the pregnant females (sows) will den up to have their cubs.
Brown began his presentation by holding up the skull of a young bear to show its tooth pattern. But first he warned audience members not to pick up any wildlife bones or skulls they find in the woods. You have to have a license to do so, he said, because there is “a short and spectacular list of invariably fatal diseases” that a person might contract from handling such bones.
Bears’ teeth, Brown went on to explain, are designed for eating meat. They can’t grind their molars from side to side to crush seeds, nuts, and other plant-based foods. Nor do they have compartmented stomachs to help them digest vegetation efficiently, as deer and cattle do. Yet plant-based foods make up most of the bears’ diet—so they have to eat a lot to get the nutrition they need.
An increasing bear population
When Brown asked how many in the audience had seen a bear in Massachusetts, nearly everyone raised a hand. Twenty years ago, he said, such sightings were rare.
One reason the bear population has increased is lumbering patterns in northern New England. The paper industry has cut mostly spruce and fir in the north woods, Brown said, a practice that favors the growth of beech trees. More beechnuts lead to more bears. The number of cubs a sow has depends on nutrition. In a very food-rich area, she may have three, four, or even five cubs at one time, Brown noted.
When the cubs are in their second year, the sow divides her territory with her daughters. But she drives the yearling males away, and they move off to find a territory of their own—one that has not already been claimed by an older, larger male.
Even if you don’t see a bear, you may find plenty of signs of their presence, Brown said. Their tracks in snow or mud are about 7 inches long for the hind foot, and 3 or 4 inches long for the front foot. Bears have five toes, but often only four show in the prints.
Like humans, Brown said, bears are plantigrade walkers. That is, they walk on the whole sole of their foot, from heel to toe. Most animals walk only on their toes and balls of their feet, which is a speedier way of moving. Among North American animals, the only plantigrade walkers are bears, porcupines, and skunks—each of which can defend itself quite well without needing to run away.
Besides tracks, other signs of a bear’s presence are logs that have been smashed, torn apart, or rolled in a search for grubs and insects. Log rolling, Brown said, is a favorite pastime for bears in summer.
Smart, persistent, and always hungry
Bears have an incredible sense of smell. In one example, Brown said a wildlife observer saw a bear sniff the air and head off in a beeline across country to a grove of walnut trees 34 miles away.
Bears are also canny. Brown cited a case where bears in a farming area learned that if they went around the edges of a cornfield, humans would see them and chase them away. But if the bears went into the middle of the field, they could enjoy the corn without any pesky human interference. They’d just hollow out a cornfield, Brown said.
Bears are persistent, smart, and always hungry—so, besides your bird feeders, be careful where you put garbage cans, compost piles, and anything else where they might find something edible.
One audience member asked Brown what to do if she came “nose to nose” with a bear. Brown advised her to back up quietly, while keeping eye contact with the bear. If a bear coughs or snorts, he said, that’s a signal for cubs to go up a tree. A bear may also do a “bluff charge,” he added. He did not say how to tell a bluff from the real thing.
