Cold winters are a serious challenge for bears. Animals should be well prepared for it: "work up" a sufficient supply of fat and arrange a place for winter sleep. A bear not hibernating is usually doomed to die from hunger and cold, and becomes an easy prey for hunters.
Preparing the bear for hibernation
For a good winter sleep, a bear needs to accumulate essential nutrients, so food plays an especially important role. Most of the omnivore's diet consists of plant foods. Small rodents, bird eggs, fish, ant larvae, the remains of ungulates killed by other predators are also food for the bear. The cedar cones he loves help the taiga owner to stock up on fat for the winter. The timing of the animal's lodging in the den is delayed if the year was lean and the bear did not have time to stock up on a sufficient amount of fat during the summer and autumn periods.
It is very important for a clubfoot forest owner to find a remote place for a winter refuge in order to hide safely during hibernation. The bear is cunning, going to the den: he confuses the tracks, even moves backwards, makes his way through the heaped trees. The outskirts of impenetrable swamps blocking the path of windbreaks, the banks of forest rivers and lakes are the places where the bear den is most often settled. The brown owner of the forest can choose holes for her under upturned trees, a bunch of brushwood. Self-dug deep earthen dens or caves also become a winter rookery of the animal.
The most important thing for a restful sleep is the silence around, the dryness of the nest. Unexpected guests can disturb the hibernation, then the bear will have to look for a new place for a den. But most often birds and wild animals bypass it, feeling the presence of the owner. Usually the person is the cause.
Winter bear dwelling
Anticipating a cold winter, bears try to lie down for the winter in a deeper den, to warm it well. Spruce branches become necessary here. Layers of moss and grasses that sometimes reach half a meter in height represent the bedding in a spacious winter rookery. The amount of material and the thickness of the litter depend on the moisture content: more is required in a swamp than in dry places. And in spring, a thick layer of moss and hay saves from melting snow.
The reliability of the bear den is given by a narrow manhole, which only an experienced hunter can find in the snowy winter. In addition, it is often hidden in dense thickets, and it is possible to reach it only with an ax and a knife.
Hunters sometimes came across quite interesting dens. For example, presenting the correct shape of the nest, arranged on hillocks protected from moisture. Finely torn bark and a small number of spruce branches formed the basis of the dwelling. The bottom of the lounger was covered with moss and spruce bark. A bear who has not had time to prepare a place for hibernation is able to lie down even in a haystack left in a forest glade.
The bear sleeps in a den in a different position: curled up in a ball, on its side or on its back, even sometimes sitting with its head lowered between its paws. The body temperature of the animal during hibernation decreases slightly, breathing and heart rate slow down. It often happens that a clubfoot sucks its paw in a dream. In fact, he licks them during the discomfort on the skin of his paws in the middle of winter.
In their den, brown bears usually hibernate alone. Occasionally, a she-bear can be in it together with last year's bear cub, so a more spacious nest is arranged. At the very beginning of winter, a bear has two to four completely blind cubs, which weigh about half a kilogram, have no hair and teeth. They stay with their mother bear all winter, feeding on her milk, and emerge from the den as nimble and hairy, but dependent cubs.
During long thaws, animals are able to wake up and leave the rookery, and return back with the onset of cold weather. It happens that the den becomes "hereditary": several generations of bears use it as a shelter during hibernation.
