That’s a deep sleep!
How (and why) wildlife staff moved a sleeping bear
Have you ever slept so deep that you woke up confused as to where you were and what day it was? That may have been the case for one black bear in Eastern Washington that went into hibernation in one place and woke up in another.
Recently, residents of Hunters in southwest Stevens County, noticed that a large male black bear had taken up residence under an abandoned house in the community. It had found a hole in the side of the home’s foundation and was accessing the space through it. When neighbors spotted the bear bringing foliage and other materials into the structure to make a bed on which to sleep away the winter, they became understandably concerned with its’ proximity to other homes and families in the area and contacted the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
Part of WDFW wildlife conflict technician Jared Keeling’s job is to manage and mitigate interactions between humans and wild species using preventative and non-lethal methods when possible, for the safety of both the public and wildlife. He’s a member of the team in northeast Washington that gets the call when a moose or bear hangs around someone’s yard too long, when turkeys destroy people’s gardens, when raccoons move in under your home, or any number of other issues involving people and wild animals inhabiting the same space.
When notified about the Hunters bear, Keeling checked it out and determined next steps.
“The availability of food from humans and human activities may have encouraged the bear to stay in the community,” said Keeling. “Finding easy food sources can cause wildlife to stay in an area, which can lead to conflict with humans or with pets and small livestock, such as domestic dogs or chickens. Our team decided that a relocation effort was the best option.”
Often, as humans, we unintentionally provide food to wild animals and don’t even realize it. Food sources could include bird seed from bird feeders, pet food from people feeding cats and dogs outside, beehives, household garbage in outside cans, and more.
Ongoing and easily accessible food sources can cause bears to become habituated to humans, making them a pest at the least and dangerous at the worst. In many cases, habituated bears end up being lethally removed when they become aggressive in an effort to get more food. The saying “A fed bear is a dead bear” could have come true in this case, but Keeling drafted a plan to keep that from happening.
He organized a team made up of a WDFW bear specialist, WDFW Police officer, WDFW biologists from the area, and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee to physically carry the bear out of the crawl space and move it to a new den.
The first challenge was finding a place to move this bear. Locating a den site and preparing it were key steps in moving forward with a relocation effort. There isn’t an abundance of caves or holes in the ground from rotted out stumps in northeast Washington, so the crew had to get creative. Keeling and a wildlife biologist familiar with the area put a lot of effort into scouting remote areas looking for possible den sites. An ideal den would be a small cave, a large log, beneath a root wad of a partially fallen tree, or even an abandoned former den site. Unable to locate any of these, the two came up with an innovative approach using a large natural depression left by a root wad and nearby natural materials to prepare an artificial den resembling a lean-to. Branches were cut to length and stored on site for rapid assembly around the bear once positioned in the ‘den.’ Once the pair received the green light from Dr. Lindsay Welfelt, a statewide bear specialist with WDFW, it was time to safely extract the bear from the foundation and transport it to the new site.
“Bears move around in their den throughout the winter and sometimes come out if food is still available,” said Welfelt. “Bears don’t put themselves to sleep because it’s cold but because food is in short supply. They can become alert very quickly once disturbed, so darting and anesthetizing the bear was necessary for the safety of the bear and everyone involved.”
Once the bear was anesthetized, the crew worked in the tight confines of the crawl space to get the large bear out from under the house and into a bear trap — basically a culvert sealed on both ends on wheels that can be pulled behind a truck.
They took the bear to a very remote area of Stevens County, placed it in the depression in the ground, and constructed the lean-to part of the den around it. Staff monitored the bear continually throughout; watching body position, breathing, and temperature to ensure its’ health and safety.
To avoid the bear feeling the new den site was compromised, staff could not remain nearby to monitor while the drugs wore off. Instead, they took one last set of vitals and left a game camera at the site to provide a view of what happens with the bear.
“We hope it decides to stay but sometimes bears do change dens in winter, particularly if disturbed by humans, weather, or if the den becomes unsuitable,” said Welfelt.
While bears can generally find a new den pretty quickly, it can be costly as far as burning through their energy reserves and can be stressful.
“All we can hope for is that we see a healthy bear emerge sometime between now and next spring when we retrieve the game camera,” Keeling said. “We’ve done what we can this far to set him up for success. The rest will be up to him.”
In Washington, both black bears and grizzly bears typically hibernate between five to seven months starting in October or November until around March or April. During this time, a bear’s metabolism, heartbeat, and respiration rate drop dramatically. They don’t go to the bathroom or eat (making their dens surprisingly clean) but survive off fat reserves built up before going into the den for the winter. Hibernating female bears give birth while sleeping.
Once bears emerge in the spring, the work starts to rebuild fat reserves used while hibernating. They are extremely hungry and can again be attracted to easy sources of food either intentionally or unintentionally provided by humans. If you live in bear country, there are ways to prevent them from becoming too comfortable around your property.
“Putting away bird feeders in the spring and fall, closing up areas under decks or foundations (this also prevents smaller species like skunks and racoons from moving in), feeding pets inside or moving their bowls in after they eat and cleaning up leftovers on the ground, storing garbage cans in a garage or shed if possible, cleaning up fruit that has fallen from trees, and fencing in gardens will reduce the chances that you will be visiting with me about your human-wildlife conflict issue in the future,” said Keeling.
These measures also work for other wild species such as moose, cougars, and more. And remember that any wildlife feeding that attracts deer, elk, moose, or large carnivores is illegal in Washington.
