Edgar (the raven) supervises, Lucky rakes and Tasha watches.
Bear Weights:
Lucky 491 lbs. • Holly 313 lbs. • Tasha 387 lbs.
Bear News – October 7, 2023
Bear bedding – each of our bears design their bedding just a little differently. For instance, Holly chews logs into small pieces and accepts that as her den floor bedding. Tasha likes to rake grasses and whatever comes along with it and incorporate them into her den. She has also torn pieces of bark from the cedar trees for her bedding. Lucky bear has always used what we have given him, which has been a combination of leaves and straw.
This year we are going natural and using only ground coverings such as leaves, grasses, cedar scales, white pine needles and some cedar bark. Lucky raked a couple of bags of leaves into Den 2. Tasha moved a pile into Den 1. We are still waiting to see if Holly bothers with the work.
In the wild, black bears in northern Minnesota use mostly leaf matter, cedar, balsam boughs, cedar scales, wood chips, twigs and ground matter.
Hibernation is just a few short weeks away and as we prepare the dens with the same materials; I am curious as to where each bear will den. The denning and weight guessing contest will be interesting to see who chose correctly. The dens are currently numbered 1-5.
If you’d like to read more about hibernation, please check out these Hibernation articles.
This week Tasha spent much of her time marking not only in the viewing area, but also around the pond. She rubbed, stomp-walked and urinated over the areas traversed by Holly. In the same manner when Holly approached the area, she urinated also. Holly is a confident bear. She, as the matriarch, marks the 2.5 acres she knows as her territory by rubbing her back and the crown of her head on the trees, urinating and stomp-walking. All of these actions mark her territory. In the wild, female black bears (in northern Minnesota) have an area or territory of 2 to 6 miles depending on the age of the female.
Dr. Rogers noted in a portion of our bear education clips how bears mark their territories.
“Bears often follow deer trails and forest roads, but some trails are used mainly by bears. These consist of a series of depressions created by multiple bears placing their feet in the same footsteps year after year. Bear trails can be seen where bears approach their favorite marking trees. These trails are often especially distinctive because bears frequently stomp-walk as they approach such trees. Stomp-walking is a form of scent-marking in which bears stomp, twist, and slide each footstep.”
Lucky has been yawning and has low interest in eating and is resting more. It takes him longer to move and eat. Now that I’ve said that; on Wednesday we received a hornet’s nest and gave it to Lucky. He was immediately interested. He put his nose to the air in its direction before he entered the den area. He walked up to it and smelled it then assumed a laying down position to rip at it and eat the contents. At a later time Holly also enjoyed the contents of dead pupae and eggs. Here is a video of Lucky and the Hornet’s Nest. (link)
Our website bear.org is a rich tool for information on all aspects of a black bear’s life.
Please remember to vote for your favorite jack-o’-lantern, the bears are going to really enjoy the contents of each one. We will be giving the bears their pumpkins, based on votes received on Saturday, October 7 at 3 pm CT.
Place your votes asap on our Facebook page.
Thank you for all you do and please visit our Amazon Wish List, new items have been added.
Thank you,
Sr. Bear Keeper, Sharon Herrell
