BEARS

From page A8

Biologists look for the dens in late winter and have a list of bears that should be with cubs to visit. They will quietly approach the mother bear and again sedate her using a special mix of chemicals.

“We’re actually working with researchers from Texas testing a new drug for the trips,” Means said. “The previous drugs we used were highly monitored by regulatory agencies, and this one should be safer for the bears. It has the ability to be reversed. This lets the mother bear get back to the business of raising her cub as soon as we’re gone.”

Despite popular belief, Means says bears aren’t true hibernators. Many animals like groundhogs can lower their body processes – for example, pulse rates and breathing rates – to the point they are catatonic. It can take several hours for a hibernating animal to rouse from this state. This is not the case with a mother bear.

“She’ll lower her heart rate and breathing rate as well as other bodily functions during the winter denning cycle, but not to that catatonic state,” Means said. “If she sees, hears or smells an intruder, she can instantly respond. Just about every bear we approach in our research will be awake when we arrive to sedate her.

So far this year the bears in the Ozarks and Ouachitas have shown reproductive rates at roughly 45 percent of what they typically record. While this might be cause for concern, Means says the bear population is still very healthy and should be able to withstand one poor year of reproduction.

“We’re seeing sows without cubs and sows with only one cub,” Means said. “The female bears and the cubs produced are in good condition, there are just less cubs this year. “That’s normally an indication of poor habitat quality during the first few months of the bear’s reproductive cycle.”

Means says that although breeding takes place in spring, the bear’s body can reject the pregnancy if conditions are off. “Last year’s drought hit the berry crop hard in the northern half of the state, reducing the amount of wild blackberries and wild cherries these female bears would normally have been eating. But the acorn crop was good, so those bears who did have cubs recovered quickly and are showing very good health. The drought conditions weren’t as bad in the southern half of the state, and we had a really good berry crop in the Gulf Coastal Plain. Those bears continue to show good reproduction.”