MISSOULA — In the midst of changing seasons, the behavior of bears changes with the looming hibernation on the way.
That means consuming upwards of 20,000 calories a day in preparation for a long winter, which is known as hyperphagia.
Colby Anton — the black bear monitoring biologist for the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) in Missoula — says that the early onset of hyperphagia begins the moment bears emerge from hibernation.
“They’re coming out of the den having not fed on anything or drank any water for a long time. They come out pretty groggy, they start searching for food pretty immediately,” Anton said.
During that time, after emerging from hibernation, bears begin searching for herbivorous food sources such as berries throughout the summer months.
But berries can only sustain them for as long as they’re in season, forcing many to search for alternative food sources in the communities that coexist on the borders of modernization and the stark wilderness.
“Garbage is very nutrient-dense, apples are very nutrient-dense, and those things can be really attractive to a bear who is trying to put on as many calories as possible in a short amount of time,” Anton told MTN News
Chuck Bartlebaugh, the executive director of the national non-profit Be Bear Aware Campaign, which is dedicated to educating people about the human impacts on bears — says that searching for food and obtaining nutrients during hyperphagia is imperative for survival during hibernation, where food sources are severely limited.
“There is no natural food outside an occasional wolf kill or an animal who died in deep snow or something like that," Bartlebaugh said. "But all of its other food sources are gone.
This means that bears at the peak of hyperphagia — typically around September and October — are going to be more aggressive in their search for nutrient-rich food sources to build up the fat reserves necessary to sustain them during hibernation.
“They’re gonna be more protective of that food source and more likely than maybe challenge people who get too close during those times of year," Bartlebaugh said. "It means we need to be more cautious about how we handle our trash and not leaving food outside where a bear can get access to it.
The City of Missoula’s Bear Hazard Management Plan shows that from 2018 to 2021, 49% of recorded bear-human interactions centered around bears and garbage. This led to recent action being taken by the city to vote for an expansion of the bear buffer zone and implement it over the next three years, which includes new bear-safe containers.
“What we’re hoping with the buffer zone is if that we can secure garbage, secure these bear attractants on this urban-wildland interface where the buffer zones are largely put," Anton told MTN News. "This is going to allow bears to act more naturally in those areas, and that was going to push them back onto forest service land, protected areas, open space areas where conflicts are going to be less common.”
The final vote and public comment for the expanded bear buffer zone will take place at the Missoula City Council meeting on October 16, 2023.
FWP also offers up information about how people can be "bear aware" at https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear/be-bear-aware.
