Re: Bear Activity

Bears are not hibernating yet, and are still active. This week two garage doors were broken into by a bear. Please make sure that all of your food is in a bear-proof locaion. A freezer in a garage can often be accessed by a determined bear. A bear also has been checking dumpsters around the Valley so please make sure that dumpsters are clipped. For the past three weeks we have seen an increased number of vehicles being broken into by bears. Multiple vehicles have been broken into at the Ahwahnee, and Camp 4. Additionally there have been car break-ins at Yosemite Lodge, Camp 6 parking, and in residential areas. Please be sure not to leave any food in your car.

P.S. Bears do not hibernate. They just get kinda sleepy.

<<P.S. Bears do not hibernate. They just get kinda sleepy.>>

Not sure what you mean here. Hibernation is not sleep physiologically. There is special brown fat metabolism, heart rate and metabolic changes, urea recycling, urine and feces elimination changes, etc.

FF

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Frank Furter wrote:

>
>
> <<P.S. Bears do not hibernate. They just get kinda sleepy.>>
>
> Not sure what you mean here. Hibernation is not sleep
> physiologically. There is special brown fat metabolism, heart
> rate and metabolic changes, urea recycling, urine and feces
> elimination changes, etc.

From Wikipedia:

Many bears of northern regions are assumed to hibernate in the winter. While many bear species do go into a physiological state called hibernation or winter sleep, it is not true hibernation. In true hibernators, body temperatures drop to near ambient and heart rate slows drastically, but the animals periodically rouse themselves to urinate or defecate and to eat from stored food. The body temperature of bears, on the other hand, drops only a few degrees from normal and heart rate slows only slightly. They normally do not wake during this "hibernation", and therefore do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate the entire period. Higher body heat and being easily roused may be adaptations, because females give birth to their cubs during this winter sleep. It can therefore be considered a more efficient form of hibernation because they need not awake through the entire period, but they are more quickly and easily awakened at the end of their hibernation. They have to stay in a den for the whole hibernation.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear#Winter_dormancy>;

Higher body heat and being easily
> roused may be adaptations, because females give birth to their
> cubs during this winter sleep.

Maybe that's why they quit hibernating...
"Last time I hibernated, I woke up, and, whoa...! I'm stayin' up this winter."
8^)

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Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

>the animals periodically rouse themselves to urinate or defecate and to eat from stored food

Hmm... Guess I need to change to bill-e-bear

This sounds like me.

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Old Dude

<<P.S. Bears do not hibernate. They just get kinda sleepy.>>
This appears to be a sweeping, generic statement. Is it scientifically supported (wikipedia not withstanding) that the all Yosemite bears do not hibernate? I do not doubt that some fraction of bears have dormancy that is not true hibernation; not aware that all bears in Yosemites do not hibernate. Clarify.

FF

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Bears do not hibernate. They just get kinda sleepy.

Ever stay at the Cedar Lodge? They warn you not to leave stuff in your car. The bears are restless year-around.

http://video.dot.ca.gov/asx/Kingvale-eb-80.asx

I'm going to go up there ^^^

>> Bears do not hibernate. They just get kinda sleepy.
Ever stay at the Cedar Lodge? They warn you not to leave stuff in your car. The bears are restless year-around.<<

If you are describing Cedar Lodge in El Portel, that is at about 2000 ft elevation, even the valley is higher than that. I am dubious that backcountry bears at elevations greater than 8000ft do not hibernate. But I am willing to be educated.
FF

Is bear pepper spray likely to be needed this time of year? I know when I wake up, the first thing I want is something to eat. The pepper spray weighs 290 gms., and it would be nice to replace that weight with some added fleece.

>Is bear pepper spray likely to be needed this time of year
The short answer is no. The long answer is "helllll no".

Ok, I lied... I'm gonna babble some more...
Store your food properly and don't worry. That's it.
You NEVER need pepper spray in the Sierras.
Leave the bear bells at home too. This is NOT Grizzly bear country.
We killed them off in Calif. even though they are on our flag.
You will find out as you go backpacking more that the wild bears
in Yosemite will barrell arse away from you as soon as they hear you.
For me this is 99% of the bears I see.
The habituated bears are still getting food rewards so they continue
their ways. The 3 big places are LYV, Lyell Canyon, Glen Aulin.
Don't even think of going there and not having a bear can.
Anyway, don't worry about the bears, take the fleece.

Here's a discussion on this from this forum:
http://yosemitenews.info/forum/read.php?f=1&i=4017&t=4017

This I don't believe:
http://www.backpacking.net/featured1.html

Another link cause football hasn't started and I'm not in the park...
http://www.national-anthems.net/forum/article/rec.travel.usa-canada/320681



Post Edited (12-14-08 09:04)

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Everything I know I learned from

bill-e-g wrote:

> This I don't believe:
> http://www.backpacking.net/featured1.html

I wonder how old that story is? Canisters have been required in Yosemite for a long time, but this guy says he had the food hanging. Considering how commonly it's known that this is not OK, and that bear canisters are required, maybe it's a really old tale. The part about all the bears hanging around makes me think a lot of this is imagination at work.

But first, no bear canister where it's a known requirement; second, throwing rocks when the bear's up in the tree? You'd think he'd have the sense to let things take their course at that point. IF there's any truth to it, the bear probably would have thought he/she was the one being attacked, some idiot is throwing rocks like that. It's one thing to throw rocks if you're being attacked, quite another to do it to save your food, when you stupidly made it available to begin with. And of course the followup about the pack being stolen...leave a pack with food unattended, that's likely to happen, and it's your own fault.

Not to mention how it "saved his life". Wonder if occurred to him that if it indeed had been the end of his life, it would have been the first documented human death from a black bear in Yosemite? That alone should make him wonder if it's not something incredibly stupid on his part.

I go up to the valley regularly in very early spring and have never had any need, even remotely imagined, for bear spray. I'd go for the extra warmth too.

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Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

Yeah Bill,

It was the second post you listed about the guy who was attacked by the black bear near LYV that I read that got me nervous about black bears. Than of course one thing led to another, and I chekced a site listing bear fatalities in north america since 1900, and close to half of those were black bears, and most of those in canada. But I agree, the two times I saw bear out there, once out near hetch hetchy, and once near a tent cabin in curry village, only ten feet away from me, they looked at me like I was the boogey-man or something and bolted. I was impressed with their quickness. Thank god they don't know that they probably could easily kick my butt. At the time in curry village I was surprised by him, and just kind of stunned that he was right there. I was standing there with a glass of cabernet sauvingnon in my hand. I attributed his flight to the fact that they might not like cabs, and that if instead I had a glass of chardonney, I might have been in serious trouble.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'm going to leave the rather heavy pepper spray canister home. Stupid of me to buy it without checking some of these forums first.

A bear entered a resident garage on January 7th and obtained food from a freezer.

eeek wrote:

> A bear entered a resident garage on January 7th and obtained
> food from a freezer.
>

Not only that, but since they were frozen enchiladas, he heated them in the microwave for 2 minutes, and sprayed them with a can of bear pepper spray he found nearby. He's going to recommend the place to his friends...
8^)

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Gary
Yosemite Photo Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/roberthouse/yo

Gary,

Thank you for submitting some sanity to this discussion. I was getting a bit concerned. Way to go!

Jim

Pepper Spray Scot is probably an owner of a bear pepper spray franchise or something. These kinds of sales pitch posts are on all kinds of forums.

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Old Dude

I was up in the Sierras (or Sierra, or Sierra Nevadas..!) Today, and the temperatures were a balmy 45-50 degrees! The snow was melting at an alarming rate; a stark difference in one week was noticeable.

Do you suppose that these springlike day temps have anything to do with the increased bear activity?

DB