Do black bears hibernate in the winter?
Several terms have been used for winter dormancy in black bears, including “hibernation”, “winter sleep”, “torpor”, or “carnivorean lethargy”. The confusion arises because biologists may use the same term in different ways. “Hibernation” has sometimes been defined based upon body temperature and the animal’s ability to react to external stimuli. Ground squirrels and other so-called “true hibernators” have hibernating body temperatures approaching 32ยบ F. The animals take many minutes to rouse but waken periodically to feed and excrete. Bears show several differences from these species, including a near-continuous dormant period of up to several months, a lesser drop in body temperature, rapid arousal, lack of excretion, and normal bone activity. Most bears awake from hibernation with only a loss in body fat. Some biologists have broadly proposed that hibernation in mammals represents a specialized seasonal reduction in metabolism, resulting from decreases in food availability and ambien
