Hide your snacks when in Brendan Byrne SF...Yogi is coming!
- Thread starter Jersey Jeff
- Start date
Surely it will just wander off into someone's backyard after it gets tired of hanging around the picnic area. Byrne isn't all that big. Would it even provide the kind of habitat a bear needs? Where would it spend the winter?
There is lots of things for a bear to survive on in our pines......berries, bugs, rodents, fish, etc......NJ bears don't really hibernate as others do from colder climates. Their metabolism slows down, they curl-up under logs, downed trees, waking up occasionally throughout the entire winter season. I'm glad to see them back. They are part of nature; there is room for us all.
Actually they do, as does the griz, albeit their own unique form. But I still wouldn't crawl into a den with one.
http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/hibernation/190-do-black-bears-hibernate.html
Byrne isnt that big, but dont forget it backs up to Greenwood, Stafford Forge, Penn SP, Wharton, etc. This area is the biggest undeveloped and wild tract in the state, so it makes sense for the state to release them here.
This apparently is the same bear that was released in the Wharton just last year, and it wandered out of the forest into suburbia. What does Byrne provide to keep the animal there that the Wharton doesn't? Who's to say it won't do the same thing.
Releasing this bear into Brendan Byrne guarantees that it will again make an appearance where it is not safe for itself or others. This is a very poor decision, this bear should be released in a more remote and distant area. I hope the bear stays under cover and well, but I expect its life just got shortened with this decision.
It has acquired a taste for garbage food. It will be back and ultimately euthanized. Hope the campers there keep a clean camp.
You are correct re. hibernation. I was misinformed. What I should have been told is that they come out of hibernation earlier here in South Jersey because it is warmer and we have shorter winters. Regarding the acquired taste for garbage....... Not only do campers need to keep a clean camp, so do home owners in suburbia and communities. From where I came from in central PA black bears are a common occurrence. You quickly learned to keep a clean yard, keep the garbage in a secure container(s) and hang bird feeders 10' high (using a pulley system to lower them for filling). As I said before, there is room for all of us.
I got the following from From the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Fish and Wildlife & the Division of Parks and Forestry
Black bear facts:
Bears have excellent senses of smell and hearing.
Black bears eat both plants
and animals. Their diet mostly
consists of skunk cabbage, berries, wild cherries, acorns and beechnuts. They also eat bees and other insects, small mammals, bird eggs, white-tailed fawns and dead animals. Black bears are opportunistic feeders and will supplement their diet with food or garbage left out by people.
Adult females average 185 pounds; adult males average 400 pounds.
Black bears hibernate during the winter to avoid periods of severe weather and food shortages. Den sites include rock cavities, brush piles, open ground nests and hollow trees. Bears do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate while hibernating, but females can give birth and nurse their young.
Breeding season runs from late May until August, peaking in June and July. Cubs are born in January and weigh about 8 ounces. Average litter size is three. Cubs remain with the female until she breeds again 16 months to 18 months later.
Black bears can run up to 35 miles per hour. They are strong swimmers and excellent climbers. Both adults and cubs will climb trees for food and to escape disturbances.
I got the following from From the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Fish and Wildlife & the Division of Parks and Forestry
Black bear facts:
Bears have excellent senses of smell and hearing.
Black bears eat both plants
and animals. Their diet mostly
consists of skunk cabbage, berries, wild cherries, acorns and beechnuts. They also eat bees and other insects, small mammals, bird eggs, white-tailed fawns and dead animals. Black bears are opportunistic feeders and will supplement their diet with food or garbage left out by people.
Adult females average 185 pounds; adult males average 400 pounds.
Black bears hibernate during the winter to avoid periods of severe weather and food shortages. Den sites include rock cavities, brush piles, open ground nests and hollow trees. Bears do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate while hibernating, but females can give birth and nurse their young.
Breeding season runs from late May until August, peaking in June and July. Cubs are born in January and weigh about 8 ounces. Average litter size is three. Cubs remain with the female until she breeds again 16 months to 18 months later.
Black bears can run up to 35 miles per hour. They are strong swimmers and excellent climbers. Both adults and cubs will climb trees for food and to escape disturbances.
Groundhogs are true hibernators as once they go to sleep they do not wake up till spring.Bears metabolism slows down but they do occasionally wake up and even walk around a bit during warm spells so from what i have read are not true hibernators.The again there is no such thing as a poisonous snake but you will find references to them is supposedly hundreds of books written by professionals as you will references to hibernating bears.Both are just technicalities and I don;t care for grammar nazi's so I'll try not to be a natural history nazi
I think that it's differentiated by the term 'Turpor'. I am also trying not to be either a grammar or a natural history Nazi, btw.
For your reading pleasure, a study on black bear hibernation by one of the best, Frank Craighead.
http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmi...d_Varney_Craighead_Sumner_Telemetry_Vol_3.pdf
http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmi...d_Varney_Craighead_Sumner_Telemetry_Vol_3.pdf
It doesn’t matter what you call it as far as I’m concerned. Biologists have played around with the terminology regarding hibernation somewhat, so it really just boils down to current semantics. In fact, most of the terms used in natural history exist only in the minds of man, not in nature. It is just man’s desperate attempt to create order in a disorderly world. I have a running debate with a coworker who keeps correcting me when I call a long-tailed duck by the old name of oldsquaw. The ornithologists may have changed the name, but I imagine nobody bothered to inform the ducks. They just go happily on, not knowing or caring what they are called.
Thats why I never made much mind to latin.They claim the latin names avoid confusion but they change them from year to year.The common names last longer.I know of several local snake genera that have changed in the last decade but the common names are still the same.
Same with frogs. I imagine that I would get an uppity sniff from some people for still using 'Rana' instead of 'Lithobates'.
true frogs have been changed? I didn't even know that.I still thought they were Rana.See what I mean.Are treefrogs still Hyla???