by Yosemite Bear Team | Mar 30, 2018 | Keep Bears Wild, Yosemite National Park
[Read parts one and two of this story.] Leaving the yearlings at the den site was hard; after all the effort everyone had put in to get them to that point. Biologists watched their GPS data closely, and after about a month of hibernation in their human-made den, the...
by Yosemite Bear Team | Mar 6, 2018 | Keep Bears Wild, Yosemite National Park
In January 2017, the sibling yearlings—orphaned after their mother was hit and killed by a car on Independence Day, 2016—had been in hibernation for more than a month already. The cubs, once weighing eight pounds each, now weighed between 63 and 95 pounds, after being...
by Yosemite Bear Team | Feb 5, 2018 | Keep Bears Wild, Yosemite National Park
It was Independence Day weekend 2016, and Yosemite was bustling with people hiking, camping, and taking in the scenery. For most visitors, Independence Day is a welcome break, a long weekend in the middle of summer. For park staff, it’s the busiest time of year, and...
by Yosemite Bear Team | Jan 4, 2018 | KeepBearsWild, Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Wild Bear Project
It’s January, but Yosemite has only seen a small amount of snow. So where are the bears? Are they hibernating yet? The answer might be more complex than you’d expect. Hibernation in black bears is dependent on food availability – meaning that once a bear is...
