Family of 5 bears hibernating under a house

The bears recently emerged from underneath the house in Lake Tahoe, California, where they slept through the winter. BEAR League, a volunteer organization dedicated to conservation and rescue of bears, described the process of rescuing the bear family on Facebook on April 19. BEAR League said that the mother bear has 3 cubs 9 months old and adopted an orphan bear of the same age. Before winter began last year, the family of five found an opening underneath the house and decided to hibernate there.

During the winter, residents of the home heard some strange rumbling and snoring on the floor but could not determine the source of the sound until the bear family woke up and prepared to leave. Go. They quickly called the BEAR League for assistance. That’s when the organization’s volunteers discovered there were many bears underneath the house, BEAR League executive director Ann Bryant said.

When they arrived, the group of volunteers entered the opening and made a lot of noises to urge the bear family to leave. They are trained to safely handle such encounters. BEAR League volunteers are regularly asked to assist homeowners who have brought in during the winter. “Mother bear went out and called her cubs. They came out one by one,” Bryant said.

There are three species of bears native to North America, but the bear in Tahoe is the black bear (Ursus americanus), the only wild bear species in California. The California Fish and Wildlife Service says there are between 25,000 and 35,000 bears in the state. Black bears can weigh up to 227 kg in summer. They spend nearly 20 hours a day eating large amounts of seeds, fruit, insects and small mammals to store energy for the winter, according to the California Conservation Society.

According to the North American Bear Center, a bear and wildlife education facility in Ely, Minnesota, black bears begin foraging or building dark and warm burrows from September to October. They usually forage in rock crevices. , caves and hollow tree hollows or in some cases openings underneath houses. After entering the cave, the bear prepares to hibernate. Their body temperature drops and their heart rate also drops from 80-100 beats/min to 50-60 beats/min. Black bears will hibernate for several months before reappearing in the spring. Authorities are advising residents and visitors in Lake Tahoe to seal openings in their homes to prevent bears from getting in.

An Khang (According to Live Science)