Lily T-Shirts are now available in our online Gift Shop!

These shirts are custom made to order and will be shipped directly to you. Others items from our gift shop will be shipped separately. Thank you for "bearing" with us while we fill your orders!

Update February 8, 2010 8:00 PM CST

More on misconceptions.  We often hear that bears hibernate for 5-7 months without eating, drinking, urinating, and defecating.  Some may do that, but the statement is a simplification.

It’s true most don’t eat.  In northeastern Minnesota, there’s nothing to eat except the pads of their feet.  In mid to late winter, they shed their calloused old pads and sometimes ingest them.  From that comes the Native American legend that bears crush berries into their foot pads all summer as they cruise their ranges, and then survive overwinter by sucking the essence of berries out of the pads, even consuming the pads themselves.  We do find pieces of foot pads in fecal plugs near dens, so who can say the legend is wrong?

What is a fecal plug?  Another legend written in supposedly scholarly books states that just before hibernation, bears eat roughage to make a fecal plug to prevent further feeding.  A fecal plug does form in the colon, but it’s at the wrong end to prevent feeding.  The fecal plug is nothing mysterious.  Just like starving people, bears continue to make feces even though they are not eating.  Where does the fecal plug come from?  Intestinal cells slough off during winter and accumulate as feces.  Roughage in the feces matches the bedding in the den and includes some hair.  They undoubtedly ingest some bedding accidentally as they rearrange it, as you have seen, or as they rake it into the den in fall (or in winter as we saw Lily bring in branches and bite them into smaller pieces for bedding).  They also groom in the den which would account for hair in the fecal plug.

Read more: Update February 8, 2010 8:00 PM CST

Bear Center Bears Begin Hibernation

Ted, Honey, and Lucky are hibernating. They should resume activity in late March or early April. Ted and Lucky are snuggled together. Honey is in a den with an opening against the viewing window where visitors can watch her from 2-3 feet away.

By next winter, we hope people will sponsor web cams in all the dens (about $4,000 per den) so visitors can watch the bears all winter on bear.org and on high definition monitors in the Bear Center.

This winter, White Wolf Entertainment is sponsoring a web cam in a wild den. In early January, we will install the camera in the den of a young female to see if she gives birth on her third birthday in mid-January. The state-of-the-art camera broadcasts color pictures by day and infrared by night. Activity triggers it to take video instead of still pictures. Cubs become quite active after their eyes open in early March. A second web cam may be placed outside the den so viewers can watch snow accumulate in the beautiful open setting in winter and watch the family spend time in and out of the den for a few days before leaving in mid-April.  —12/27/09

Why Do We Fear Bears?

Excessive Warnings About Attacks

Attacks are rare and excessive warnings about them create unnecessary fear.  

Balanced and factual information about bears is hard to find.  Providing that information is the main goal of the North American Bear Center where the bears themselves provide much of the information through video footage and research data.

Read more: Why Do We Fear Bears?

Vocalizations & Body Language

Black bears use sounds, body language, and scent-marking to express their emotions of the moment.

Amiable sounds are grunts and tongue clicks used by mothers concerned for their cubs and by bears approaching other bears to mate or play.  Cubs make a motor-like pulsing hum when they nurse or are especially comfortable. 

(hear sounds below) 

Read more: Vocalizations & Body Language