Black bear. Photo by Sergey Pesterev, Unsplash.
By Jennifer Devine
Black bears are the only bear species found in Michigan. According to the MDNR, Michigan has around 12,000 bears, with approximately 2,000 in the Lower Peninsula and 10,000 residing in the Upper Peninsula.
The North American Bear Center of Ely, Minnesota ⸺ found online at bear.org ⸺ identifies five annual stages of activity and hibernation for our region’s bears.
Hibernation, as most refer to the black bear’s state of torpor, begins close to or in December in Michigan.
During this time, the black bear’s heart rate and metabolic rate decreases. They don’t eat, drink, urinate or defecate. They mainly use body fat stored from summer and fall foraging for energy.
Mothers, known as sows, maintain near-normal body temperature and give birth in January to an average of two cubs. (Cubs live with and learn from her for about one-and-a-half years.) Sows will take up the cubs’ urine and feces and also lick drops of meltwater, eat snow and icicles, urinate and defecate.
Walking hibernation.
This stage of activity occurs when a bear’s body processes start returning to normal. During this two- to three-week period, they consume plants such as ferns, clovers and grass, but they eat and drink less and excrete less nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium than in later stages. If they can’t find their normal food source, bears will resort to the ever-present and easily accessible bird feeder, trash can and outdoor pet food source.
Normal activity begins in spring.
Bears eat 5,000-8,000 calories per day. Their foraging picks up. Besides grasses, their buffet includes fresh berries, fruits and insects such as ants, worms, larvae, moths, wasps and bees. They need water or they can become dehydrated, utilizing muscle for energy and accumulating nitrogen waste in the blood, which can be fatal.
Excessive eating begins in fall. This stage is called hyperphagia.
Black bears forage soft and hard mast (the edible vegetative or reproductive parts of plants) almost nonstop, up to 20 hours per day, to build up fat reserves for hibernation. Being omnivores, they will also eat dead animals, small young mammals, chickens, wild birds, mice, reptiles and amphibians.
After hyperphagia is fall transition.
Bears eat less but continue drinking to purge waste. They become increasingly lethargic and slow, resting ⸺ usually near water ⸺ an average of 22 or more hours per day. Their active and sleeping heart rates start to fall.
Working at the local hardware, I’ve learned the residents of our area make sure birds are kept in seed and suet all year. Black bears can smell suet more than a mile away. Suet contains a high concentration of fat and protein, just what the bears crave. While they like to stick to their home area and are normally shy toward humans, bears will return to a yard offering an easy food source.
What can you do to help manage a safe bear or wildlife habitat?
According to the MDNR, you should help maintain diverse forests and woodland clearings. Keep the downed logs and trees to support the ecosystem and woodland inhabitants. Keep native mast plants going and encourage more. Wildlife depends on, and humans can consume, these wild edible foods. Have you ever eaten a hazelnut or a cherry? Then you’ve eaten both soft and hard mast!
Soft mast refers to plants that produce fruits and berries and contain sugars and carbohydrates. These include dogwood, blueberry, elderberry, blackberry, juneberry, staghorn sumac, black cherry, crab apple, pokeberry, wild grape, chokecherry, pawpaw, persimmon, plum, raspberry, and mulberry trees and bushes plus ferns, clovers and grasses.
Hard mast refers to high-protein, high-fat seeds and nuts from trees such as pine, maple, hickory, oak, hazelnut, walnut and beech.
Bear encounters are rare, but here’s some simple advice from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, (fs.usda.gov):
DO NOT RUN. Remain calm. Always face the bear and back up slowly, talking calm and low. If the bear continues to approach, try to scare it away by making yourself large, stretching your arms overhead and making loud noises. Keep bear spray on you to deter a charging bear. Last resort: use your hands to try to fight one off. Remember: It’s illegal to kill (poach) a bear unless in self-defense or during the designated hunting season, with a license.
MDNR offers its bear SMART advice online at: http://www.michigan.gov/Wildlife
Jennifer Devine is a homesteader living on 20 acres. She and her husband are licensed to sell black cherry, white oak and white pine trees. They and their children live off grid and have chickens, ducks and rabbits, a large garden and a lot of woods.
