Bears usually wake up around this time of year, mid-April, amid warming temperatures and longer daylight hours.
“Typically, a bear will come out of its den, and stay within the area of that den for a little while,” said Jason Herreman, an area biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, in Homer. “They don't just pop out of the den and then immediately take off wandering around. They'll typically come out and hang around that den site to make some small forays.”
Though bears hibernate between four and seven months during the winter, that doesn’t mean they’re sleeping the whole time. Some bears will emerge during the winter months, particularly if there’s food around or their den is damaged by weather. Or, Herreman said, sometimes they shift and move around in their dens, like sleeping dogs. But he said sightings in winter aren’t unusual.
“Usually, these are our younger bears though,” he said. “So sometimes we will get sightings in December and January of a bear that's gotten up to stretch its legs a little bit, but usually they don't wander too far, and head back to their dens pretty quick.”
Bears have adapted to survive without food or water for the winter, and their body fat — from months of feeding on fresh salmon, berries and vegetation — is converted to energy. Their body temperature and heart rates fall dramatically, and a bear's breathing can slow to one breath every minute, and a heart rate of 8-10 beats per minute.
As the spring sunshine warms their dens, both brown and black bears begin to emerge this time of year.
“Our large males are getting up first. Our sows with cubs are some of the later bears to come out of the dens,” Herreman said. “They typically tend to hang around the den a little bit more, giving those cubs time, because it's the first time they've been out in the world.”
Cubs are born at two months of hibernation, and start to walk after about six months. When adult bears emerge, some have lost up to a third of their body weight — and they’re hungry. Herreman said their first food source is the first fresh green vegetation of the year.
“As you're looking across Kachemak Bay, you can watch that snow line slowly melt up the hill,” he said. “And you can actually track bears going up the hill along with that snow line as it melts back.”
For bears adjacent to neighborhoods, Herreman said it's also the time of year to secure any bear attractants. That means outdoor trash cans, compost, and especially bird feeders and any pet or livestock feed.
“We've had bears pull feed sacks out of the back of pickups, and then the next day we've had somebody put that feed back inside the cab of the pickup, and bears open the door to get at that feed sack,” he said. “Once a bear learns about an attractant in the area, they come back to it. They’re really good at finding that food source. And so it's really important that folks clean up these attractants before the bears get up and make sure there aren't any out for them.”
Residents should secure trash in bear-resistant containers, outdoor barbecues or smokers should be cleaned, and outdoor freezers or fridges locked or moved indoors.
“It's best to have those inside in a garage,” he said. “If you do have them outside, they need to be locked. You should probably even put an electric fence around them because bears have no problem ripping open the doors of those even when they are locked.”
Herreman suggests securing outdoor items or livestock with electric fencing, and Fish and Game has instructional videos on its website on how to best set those up.
Herreman reminds the public it’s a responsibility to do so, to reduce human-bear contact.
“If you have any attractants out, you cannot legally shoot a bear for defense of life and property,” he said. “Because you have not done your part in making sure that that bear is not being attracted to where you're at. So we actually have a law that addresses that: it falls under intentionally or negligently feeding wildlife. That's why we really stress to folks to get these attractants taken care of and get them put away. Because that will reduce the chances of negative human-bear interactions in our communities.”
For more information and resources for living in bear country, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website.
