Details About Bears

Wildlife research

Utah researchers are busting myths about black bears as they reach the halfway point of a 10-year study.

The number of nasty rebuffs from denning female bears has confirmed that black bears do not go into deep hibernation. They refer to the winter retreat of bears as “inactivity and restful state.”

They also consider a growling, snapping reaction to their entry in a den as a sign of good health.

Other information found or confirmed in the study so far includes:

About 50 percent of cubs die within three years. Females breed every other year and raise cubs through the next winter.

When populations escalate, cannibalism - mainly of cubs - is common.

When food is scarce, territories shrink and the bears become more tolerant of each other.

Females don’t reproduce until their fourth or fifth year.

Bears are omnivores and scavengers. A stomachcontent analysis of a nuisance male bear that had been killed found 5 pounds of food. Of that, 4.1 pounds was ants or ant larvae. About 90 percent of a bear’s diet is vegetation.

Bears up to 25 years old have been found in Utah.

Black bears don’t reuse den sites. Dens range from dug-out earthen holes to hollow trees.

Males are the first to emerge from the dens, usually from late March to mid-April. Females with yearling offspring exit next. Females with cubs will hang around the den site until the young are strong enough to climb trees to escape danger. They usually leave the site around the first of May.