As Winter Warms, Bears Can’t Sleep. And They’re Getting Into Trouble
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/climate/bears-not-hibernating.html
Source: By Kendra Pierre-Louis, The New York Times.
Excerpt: ...as climate change leads to warmer winters, later falls and earlier springs — which can disrupt both food supplies and biological rhythms — American black bears are changing their hibernation routines, scientists say. In some cases, bears are not hibernating at all, staying awake all winter. In others, bears are waking from their slumber too early. For every one degree Celsius that minimum temperatures increase in winter, bears hibernate for six fewer days, a study found last fall. As global temperatures continue to rise, by the middle of the century black bears may stay awake between 15 and 39 more days per year, the study said. ...“Over the years we’ve had reports of bears hibernating under people’s decks and in their garages and stuff, so we would have to wake them up in order to get them out,” Dr. Wynn-Grant said. “But until this year, I had never known about awake bears.” ...Warmer winters deprive bears of a key signal they need to hibernate: cold weather. ...But higher temperatures are not the only reason they may fail to fall asleep. Dr. Johnson’s study, in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found that both higher temperatures and increased food supplies decreased the amount of time bears spent hibernating....
Source: By Kendra Pierre-Louis, The New York Times.
Excerpt: ...as climate change leads to warmer winters, later falls and earlier springs — which can disrupt both food supplies and biological rhythms — American black bears are changing their hibernation routines, scientists say. In some cases, bears are not hibernating at all, staying awake all winter. In others, bears are waking from their slumber too early. For every one degree Celsius that minimum temperatures increase in winter, bears hibernate for six fewer days, a study found last fall. As global temperatures continue to rise, by the middle of the century black bears may stay awake between 15 and 39 more days per year, the study said. ...“Over the years we’ve had reports of bears hibernating under people’s decks and in their garages and stuff, so we would have to wake them up in order to get them out,” Dr. Wynn-Grant said. “But until this year, I had never known about awake bears.” ...Warmer winters deprive bears of a key signal they need to hibernate: cold weather. ...But higher temperatures are not the only reason they may fail to fall asleep. Dr. Johnson’s study, in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found that both higher temperatures and increased food supplies decreased the amount of time bears spent hibernating....