GRAND RAPIDS — Bears have been showing up in yards and on trail cams across Northern Minnesota this fall, rooting around bird feeders, knocking over garbage cans and being their curious selves.
Staff Phenologist John Latimer wondered about this and thought, "Shouldn't they be asleep? Does the warmer fall weather have an effect?"
We wanted to find out, so we invited Andy Tri to join us on the KAXE Morning Show. He is the bear project leader with the Forest Wildlife Populations and Research Group at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Tri gave the classic biologist response: "It depends."
He continued, "It depends how far north you are as to when winter hits, and it depends if you've got little ones in tow or are with cub. And so what we find is in general, the pregnant females up in, at least the Grand Rapids latitudes and farther north, start to den sometime around the first week of October."
Tri explained the average date for heading to a den isn't the same for every bear. The average is Oct. 3, but females who had cubs last spring may den up with the cubs between 10-15 days later. Males and solo females can delay denning even later.
"We'll get reports of bears out and about during hunting season, munching on gut piles and that sort of thing, sometimes into the second weekend of deer season," Tri said.
Have you seen any bears? Let us know!
What is a bear den and how do bears prepare for winter?
According to Tri, bears in mid-August almost "flip a switch" and beginning devouring as much food as they can.
"They have to eat like a Michael Phelps training diet," he explained. "Twenty-some thousand calories a day just to put on fat for the winter."
This may be due to changes in daylight or when migration begins. "We don't know the exact mechanism why they do this or what they choose," Tri said.
Females, if they have migrated, tend to come home to where they have hibernated before. Males, according to Tri, will often look for a nice place of solitude to den up, generally close to where they have wintered before. Bears dig a new den each year, because those made of dirt most likely collapsed from the year before.
Younger or less experienced bears will stay above ground, in brush piles or cattails or in mounds of sphagnum moss. During periods of deep cold, a den below ground can be 10-15 degrees warmer than the outside air. On warm, sunny days, however, it can be warmer above ground.
Listener questions
During our conversation several listeners texted in about bears, including Mark from Goodland who wrote, "We have a small bear about 50 pounds hanging around under our oak tree eating acorns. It is by itself. Will it survive the winter?"
Tri answered, "Because we hunt bears in Minnesota, sometimes cubs get orphaned. Similarly, sometimes yearling bears — so 1-year-old to 2-year-old bears — they are just by themselves inherently."
Tri said the best thing to do is just let the bear eat the acorns, put your birdseed away and make sure your trash is secured. He expects it will then move off on its own.
Bear cubs who have been orphaned at 5 or 6 months are old enough to survive on their own, unless they are really small.
"Like you could fit multiple in a 5-gallon pail," Tri said. "That's when it's time to give your wildlife manager a call and we can figure out if it's worth intervening."
There is only one rehab place in the state of Minnesota working with bears: Wild and Free in Garrison. But generally if a bear is about 50 pounds or the size of a small Labrador retriever, they will make it through the winter, Tri said.
"The best thing you can do is let them munch."
A listener submitted another question about a young bear coming on to her deck and almost knocking on the door. She was terrified by this, and felt it was aggressive behavior.
Tri responded, "Probably if it's a pretty young bear, it's just curious. It may have gotten a food reward from a person in the past or near a house."
Generally, if a bear doesn't get a food reward, they will move on.
The listener had mentioned she was thinking of using firecrackers to scare the bear away. Because of dry weather, Tri doesn't recommend this method.
"You don't want to use firecrackers, which I generally wouldn't recommend because you don't want to hurt the animal, or start the woods on fire," Tri said. "Boat or air horns work really well. Or you can go out on your porch and bang pots and pans."
Tri said it's less effective if you stay in your house and make noise. Once a bear views a human, they will tend to flee.
He added, "When people are out and about and they'll see a bear rear up on its back legs, it's not an aggressive posture. They are just trying to smell and see you and figure out if you're a threat to them."
Tri explained how black bears are not inherently dangerous but large critters to be respected. His best advice is to give bears their space and a wide berth.
