Well, we do know that Europeans should pay attention, but I do wonder if bears in other areas respond similarly. It would be curious to get reports from other "bear countries" and if their bears are still happily engaged in fat storing, or they already went to hibernate.
Maybe we are going to have a bear market this Autumn, or we will need to ask around, because when one looks up the Wikis, can live in many places and hibernate in most.. However, the
Wiki on the polar bear explains that they do not hibernate, but hunts all year round, though it is capable of fasting for several months during the summer and autumn.
About
bears in general:
Ursus is a
genus in the family
Ursidae (
bears) that includes the widely distributed
brown bear,
[3] the
polar bear,
[4] the
American black bear, and the
Asian black bear. The name is derived from the
Latin ursus, meaning
bear.
[5][6]
T
he Wiki for the brown bear explains lists its many subspecies.
About the
Eurasian brown bear there is
The oldest fossils are from the
Choukoutien,
China, and date back about 500,000 years.
[13] It is known from
mtDNA studies that
during the Pleistocene ice age it was too cold for the brown bear to survive in Europe except in three places: Russia, Spain, and the Balkans.[14]
Bears could not survive because of the cold? If you look at where the brown bears can be found today, that is a bit surprising, or is there another explanation that has nothing to do with climate?
The diet of the bears shows amazing flexibility:
Brown bears were present in Britain until no later than AD 1000, when they had been exterminated through over-hunting.
[8]
[....]
In antiquity, the Eurasian brown bear was largely carnivorous, with 80% of its diet consisting of animal matter. However, as its habitat increasingly diminished, the portion of meat in its diet decreased with it until by the late
Middle Ages, meat consisted of only 40% of its dietary intake.
Today, meat makes up little more than 10–15% of its diet.[9] Whenever possible, the brown bear will consume sheep.[10]
Reading that the bears in some regions of Russia had already gone into winter sleep early, I wondered how long they can stay that way. If the data from North America is anything to go by, a brown bear can hibernate for up to eight months, so even if they begin early they may last until next Spring.
How Long Do Bears Hibernate
Different species of bears hibernate for slightly different lengths of time, based mostly on their climate.
Black bears can hibernate for up to seven and a half months without drinking water, eating food or defecating.
Grizzly bears typically hibernate between five to seven months.
Mexican Black Bears usually do not hibernate at all or will hibernate for just a few weeks out of the year. Due to a warm environment, hibernation is not necessary for these bears.
Alaskan Brown Bears can hibernate from five to eight months. As Alaskan Brown Bears are found in a colder climate, they typically spend a long time in hibernation compared to other bear species.
Did the bears go into hibernation early this year because of the cosmic climate? Or was it strictly local conditions that prevailed?
Can some animals sense a rough climate ahead the same way as some animals get out of the way before a tsunami strikes a coast line, or become nervous before an earthquake? Are the animals sensing a drastic change? Even if one does not get a cataclysmic change, it can still be drastic, I once experienced a drop from 20+ C to minus 16 C in two days. I walked outside in the afternoon. It was all silent, except a few distant cars and the sounds of feet walking in snow as all the trees around in the park were loosing a steady stream of green, crisp, frozen leaves that one by one fell to join the others already on a ground covered with 20 cm of snow. It was unbelievable and unforgettable.