The brown bear, which lives in central Russia, usually lays down in its den in early November. Having settled down for the winter, the bear does not immediately fall asleep. In the first days, he sleeps mainly at night and for several hours during the day, in the morning and in the evening he is awake. But the harder the frosts, the longer and deeper the sleep. By December, he hibernates. In extreme cold, you can come close to the animal, without disturbing him at all. During the thaw or if the female is expecting replenishment, it is better not to approach the sleeping animal.
If you wish, you can even wake up a soundly sleeping bear, and even more so a puppy (pregnant) bear, but if you are an inexperienced hunter, then this is not recommended.
In the first minutes, a disturbed bear is so angry and aggressive that it is capable of attacking a person. There have been cases when an animal inflicted mortal wounds on a hunter.
A bear soaked in a den, awakened by an animal or a person, simply disturbed by something, will never lie down in its old den. He, angry, aggressive and irritable, will stagger through the forest, spending the fat accumulated over the summer for a safe wintering.
The bear's traditional diet is predominantly plant-based food: mushrooms, berries, herbs, and fish. However, all this is absent or inaccessible in winter (fish is under a thick layer of ice, and herbs and roots will appear only in summer). At the same time, the energy consumption of a waking animal increases due to the very low temperature. Therefore, animal food alone will not be enough for a brown bear to feed. The awakened hungry predator will wander around the neighborhood in search of food, attack livestock, show aggression towards people, going out to human housing.
Sleepless bears are called "cranks". Such animals quickly weaken, lose weight and may not even survive until spring, especially if they are young, immature bears. However, there are times when a bear, after waking up, builds another den for itself and safely waits for spring, but if he was awakened close to spring (in 1 month), then the den is chosen by him rather conditional and often such a weakened and "uncovered" bear again becomes easy prey for wild animals and hunters. If you disturb a pregnant bear in winter, premature cubs born prematurely have every chance of not surviving until spring.
