Talk about perfect camera placement.
Trail cameras have been a great evolution in monitoring wild animals. Nowadays, we get to see the actions and antics of the Animal Kingdom like we’ve never seen before. There’s even a reality TV series about moose shot entirely with remote cameras that’s been sweeping the globe in the past couple of years.
This clip below of a female bear emerging from hibernation was taken with a remote camera set up by Wyoming’s Game and Fish Department. They set the camera in place to monitor the sow – or to put things more precisely, where the sow had set up shop to hibernate through the winter.
If you were wondering how long bears hibernate for, that actually depends on the climate of the region they call home. For bears in more colder, northern climates, their hibernation period might last up to seven months, while bears that live in warmer, southern climates may only hibernate for two to five months.
These animals have the ability to lower their nutritional needs, and though they sleep for a lot of their hibernation, bears are really just going through a period where they don’t intake any food or water, thus not needing to excrete any… you know.
This might sound silly, but hibernation sounds like a great idea. Why couldn’t humans have evolved to need a hibernation period? Could you imagine? Oh, you are going to turn the clocks back an hour so it gets dark at 4 o’clock? Well if that’s the case, I’m gonna go to sleep for 5 months. I’d really only be upset about missing out on Christmas.
But getting back to the bears, this one in particular was waking up in the colder climate of Wyoming, so it had been in hibernation for quite some time. The sow in the footage had made itself home for the winter in a den in the Sierra Madre mountain range, and the remote camera was able to capture the exact moment the bear began to emerge from its slumber to take in the warm sun of Spring.
In order to come out of hibernation, the bear had to dig its way through a couple of feet of snow, and it looked like it was a struggle. Understandably so, considering that the female bear had been lying dormant for months on end.
Once it was able to break through the packed snow, it first popped its head and assessed the situation. Seeing that spring had sprung (besides the snow part of course), it dug the rest of the way out of its winter den to officially exit its hibernation period.
It’s truly remarkable footage, and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department did an excellent job coming up with a caption to match the video (that also warned residents to stay bear aware):
“Alright, WHO WOKE UP THE BEAR? The answer is Mother Nature. Spring has arrived, and bears are starting to wake up for the season. Stay bear-aware while recreating in bear country, especially this time of year, as mama bears with cubs may be protective.”
