# Hibernating Bears **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683 "2005-03-22T04:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HugoRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@HugoRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HugoRed)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/1 "2005-03-22T04:13:47Z")
All Cheechakos & sourdoughs please ring in. A friend who has been in Alaska for about 6 years returned last week for some I&I. He tells us, that just prior to hibernating brown bears (maybe Grizzlies) tear off some of their own fur to swallow. This is said to impact them so they won’t wake up to take an early dump. I’ve googled, snoped, etc and have run out of ways to query google. Is this true or a blooming Unban Legend? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/2 "2005-03-22T08:54:41Z")
> [@HugoRed](#): > > All Cheechakos & sourdoughs please ring in. > A friend who has been in Alaska for about 6 years returned last week for some I&I. > He tells us, that just prior to hibernating brown bears (maybe Grizzlies) tear off some of their own fur to swallow. This is said to impact them so they won’t wake up to take an early dump. > I’ve googled, snoped, etc and have run out of ways to query google. > Is this true or a blooming Unban Legend? I’ve done a fair amount of reading (and a little personal contact) with bears, and I’ve never heard of this. I’m not going to go so far as to call it BS, but I’ll note that there are a lot of myths about what bears do, and this sounds like one of them. Bears do, by the way, wake up and forage around sometimes during their period of hibernation, causing some ursine zoologists to question the use of the term “hibernation” as applicable to the habits of bears. Some black bears (_Ursus americanus_ that reside in warmer climates (their habitat extends all the way down into Mexico) don’t hibernate at all; others do so as appropriate to their climate and terrain. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/3 "2005-03-22T13:30:27Z")
[From this](http://www.bearcountryusa.com/information.asp?ID=7): > [@](#): > > Bears do not hibernate, but rather fall into a deep sleep from which they can awaken quickly. When food is abundant, they will eat up to 45 lbs. a day and put on 5 lbs. per day in preparation for winter. During “hibernation”, the bear may only eat once a week, or if it is very cold he will not eat for a month. While “hibernating”, the black bear does not urinate or defecate. However, what the bears do is clearly a form of hibernation; they just happen to be light sleepers and can wake up during the period. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/4 "2005-03-22T15:05:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > However, what the bears do is clearly a form of hibernation; they just happen to be light sleepers and can wake up during the period. We went through a discussion of this a few months ago. It depends on how you define hibernation. Some mammalogists don’t consider what bears do “true” hibernation, but use another term for it (“torpor,” etc.). Others use a broader definition of hiberation which includes bears’ winter dormancy. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/5 "2005-03-22T16:35:01Z")
Facts: 1. Bears are mammals. 2. Bears fight ALL the time. 3. The purpose of the bear is to flip out and kill people. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/6 "2005-03-22T20:36:36Z")
On a side note, the spot a bear hibernates in is called a “hibernaculum.” Just a great word I thought I’d share. Alright, back to “work.” ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/7 "2005-03-22T20:56:40Z")
From here:[http://www.yellowstone-reservations.com/hibernation\_denning.htm](http://www.yellowstone-reservations.com/hibernation_denning.htm) > [@](#): > > It was once thought that bears ate roughage prior to den entrance to scour their digestive tract and form a plug in the anus to prevent them from eating any more food that fall. Actually, the plug, made up of feces, dead intestinal cells, hair, and bedding material, forms during hibernation and not before (Rogers 1981). Bears continue to produce some feces during hibernation yet they do not defecate (Rogers 1981). It is possible this plug may keep the bear from defecating inside the den during hibernation as fecal plugs are found just inside or outside the dens of bears that have just emerged (Rogers 1981). Believe me, Mammalogy is not nearly as interesting a class as you’d think it would be. Although it gives me the opportunity to use the phrase, “This one time, at the deer station…” with great frequency. -Lil ---
**Author:** ![spotmaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spotmaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spotmaker)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/8 "2005-03-23T00:22:58Z")
> [@HugoRed](#): > > just prior to hibernating brown bears (maybe Grizzlies) tear off some of their own fur to swallow. This is said to impact them so they won’t wake up to take an early dump.? Eddy Murphy tells the bear to eat twigs and leaves for that purpose in Dr Doolittle 2. So it’s true. ---
**Author:** ![HugoRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@HugoRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HugoRed)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hibernating-bears/295683/9 "2005-03-23T17:48:54Z")
Thanx all. Especially the anecdote about Doctor Doolittle. I read all the original Doctor Doolittle books as a kid and don’t recall anything about Bears.