Brodie Farquhar muses about hibernation and and two recent stories about it.
Nap Time For Yellowstone Bears, But Others Still Awake. New West
He wishes he could talk to Yellowstone grizzly biologists to see if warming is causing the bears to hibernate for shorter periods. I don’t know, but I do know that the availability of wolf kills of winter weakened bison in the Pelican has resulted in the bears coming out early to share and often take the kills from Mollies Pack.
We helped fund the Pelican late winter study for a couple years.
If the availability of food wakes them up, then I would think that warming will have, and probably has had, the same effect.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is President of the Western Watersheds Project.
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