Life on an Island Home

Papa bear may reach 1,500 pounds by the fall of the year, but mamma, considerably smaller, seldom weighs more than 650 pounds. However, you will be more impressed with their full-grown size when you learn that three newborn cubs, born in midwinter, are small enough to fit in a man’s cupped hands. How pathetic baby looks at birth​—hairless, blind and weighing about one pound! It may seem difficult to imagine that he will grow up to the majestic stature of his parents.

After a couple of months come spring’s warming temperatures, and the cubs weigh from ten to fifteen pounds. All healthy growing children put on weight rapidly, so, by midsummer they weigh fifty pounds. When they are ready for their winter nap with mother next fall, they will weigh one hundred pounds.

Though winter temperatures rarely drop below zero degrees F., not all is calm in this island home range. In the winter, howling gales work their fury out by sending towering waves against the rocky coastline. Fog and drizzling rain are common. How appropriate that the fur coat provided by the Creator is not only warm but also water repellent!

As winter closes in on them, they are usually well prepared to sleep out the most harsh weather. Good summer appetites help to fortify them with a dense layer of fat and a lush new fur coat. From summer to late fall, growing bears increase in weight by about 30 percent. In checking on this weight gain, biologists tabulated a gain of forty-five pounds for one three-year-old male in just twelve days. That is an average gain of 3.7 pounds per day. No concern over reducing diets in this family!

Zoologists now recognize that the Kodiak bear does not truly hibernate but is better called a winter sleeper. One can quickly see the difference by contrasting the bear with the woodchuck, a true hibernator. Viewed during the winter, a woodchuck appears as though dead and is completely unconscious. Its normal body temperature of 96.9° F. is reduced to 38 degrees, and it takes only one breath every six minutes. The bear, on the other hand, maintains a normal body temperature and his breathing is reduced to four or five complete respirations a minute. When you are in deep slumber, your breathing rate is about the same. The bear’s heartbeat is slower than normal but he is semiconscious. His sleep is not always uninterrupted, as he can be routed out of his winter home without too much difficulty.