Hibernation Delayed

Looking out the windows, I can say for certain, Winter has arrived here in our Valley. We've had our first big snow (over 15 inches accumulated for November so far) and tonight we're suppose to get our first minus zero temps - probably lasting for the next 2-3 days. Our cold snaps don't usually last very long here like they do further North.

But the Bears don't seem to have noticed Winter's arrival yet and don't want to go to sleep. For instance, Ketchikan recently experienced the Alaska version of a Bear Market.




BROWSING FOR THE BEAR NECESSITIES:
Video
http://www.youtube.com/user/jtex1888


To the amusement of shoppers, a bear cub followed his nose thru the automatic front doors of the local grocery store and wandered the aisles for awhile before hopping up on the fruit and vegetable display to inspect the goods.

Police were called as the cub clambered back and forth along the rows of produce at Tatsuda's IGA supermarket in Ketchikan, Alaska on Saturday. Officers tried to coax the cub down before an off duty fireman finally stepped in, grabbed the baby bear, carried it to the back door and chucked it into the woods .

Shoppers who captured the cub's antics on their cell phones said it appeared to be on the small side for the time of year. Fish and Game biologist, Boyd Porter, said cubs, usually born around mid-February, should probably be 50-60lbs now. But this one only looked to be around 20lbs. No mother bear was sighted in the area at the time of the incident.

The grocery store had to throw away all the vegetables and sanitize the produce case after the cub's romp. Thousands of dollars of produce was donated to a local livestock owner.

UPDATE: November 9, 2011 - The small, black bear cub that was seen scrambling across the fruit and vegetable case in a Ketchikan grocery store is probably doing fine says Boyd Porter, Fish and Game wildlife biologist, and is probably snuggled up in a den with its mother by now.

Porter told the Ketchikan Daily News that if the cub had been orphaned or ill, chances are people would have seen it again scavenging in the neighborhoods, but no sightings have been reported.


And then there were these THREE LITTLE RASCALS out and about for Halloween:

Video
http://www.youtube.com/user/thealaskazoo#p/u/1/KEE2cyG9y84


Three Alaska grizzly bear cubs, orphaned when their mother was killed , soon will be calling the Detroit Zoo home.

The 11-month-old brothers were orphaned in October. The first cub, named Boo, was brought to the Alaska Zoo on Halloween. The other two, Mike and Thor, joined their brother a few days later.

Alaska Zoo executive director Pat Lampi says the plan is to fly the cubs to Detroit in about two weeks. In the meantime the sibs are having fun at the zoo, playing in snow and digging for sticks.

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) - What’s 100 pounds, 2 and a half feet tall and super cute? The Detroit Zoo’s newest residents: Three grizzly bear cubs coming to the zoo from Alaska.

The Detroit Zoo says the bears’ mother was killed in October by a poacher. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game rescued the young animals and determined that the Alaskan winter would be too rough for these three motherless bears.

The young bears are currently living at Anchorage’s Alaska Zoo and will arrive at their new Detroit Zoo home in Royal Oak in a few weeks. Zoo officials say it will then be a month until they become acclimated to their new environment and are ready to be seen by the public.

IMO, since Michigan is usually colder in winter than it is around Anchorage, I'd think these brothers would be ready to snooze by then. Public Appearances might need to be rescheduled for when they are less likely to be grouchy.