Insomniac Bears Finally Get Some Shut-Eye

For weeks, bears in eastern Russia’s Amur region were having a hard time bedding down for the winter, as warm weather has kept the region unfit for hibernation. In a normal year, the bears will tuck in by the end of October, but the temperature didn’t drop until this week, so it’s time to say goodnight at last.

In areas around the Amur River region, half-asleep bears were observed staggering  around their dens during the unusually high temperature. The city of Blagoveshchensk and environs experienced its warmest October on record, following a very hot summer across Siberia. The somnambulant bears were mainly males, as females with cubs hit the sack more or less on schedule.

It’s not just the heat, it’s the humidity. “Temperatures above freezing in wet snowy conditions could cause melt-water to enter dens [and] that could make it uncomfortable for bears to stay in,” zoophysiologist Oivind Toien tells Live Science. 

But all that unpleasantness is behind them now, as the weather has finally turned. Temperatures in and around Amur are well below zero Fahrenheit this week and are expected to remain frigid for some time. The groggy bears have gone to their dens, hopefully undisturbed until they emerge in the spring.

That’s all well and good for this year’s ursine crew, but the warming climate does not bode well for bears and others in the Arctic. Russia is warming 2.5 times as fast as the rest of the planet, according to News Agency TASS. The brown bears are not only losing sleep, they are moving north into the more northern tundra area, which is seeing a decrease in numbers of other indigenous species such as the Arctic fox and polar bear.

Photo credit: DPWAR