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Bear Update: Yearling black bears and August forecast 2002

Black Bear Researcher Yearling Explosion This summer Whistler is experiencing a slight explosion of yearling bears – one year old bears which have been pushed out from their family bond by their mother.

Black Bear Researcher

Yearling Explosion

This summer Whistler is experiencing a slight explosion of yearling bears – one year old bears which have been pushed out from their family bond by their mother.

Family break up is a naturally occurring event in the bear world. It’s supposed to happen. Yearling bears, 18-19 months old are small (30-40 pounds in the ski area; 50-70 pounds in the valley) resembling boarder collie to German Shepherd-sized dogs. Seemingly helpless, small yearling bears are supposed to be on their own. If you see a yearling, enjoy the experience and leave it alone. Yearling sightings do not need to be reported as "bears in distress." Yearlings are eager, resourceful, tough, and as always, adaptable.

You can report sightings/activity to the Whistler Black Bear Project at 604-902-1660, as the information is useful in monitoring kinship relations of local bear families.

Bear Family Biology

Mother bears raise cubs for 17-19 months from birth in January, allowing mom’s to produce litters every two years. After the cubs first winter of hibernation (cubs do not hibernate when they are born) they emerge as 16-month-old yearlings in April.

The mother breaks up the family during mid-May through mid-June (occasionally early July) in response to the presence of adult males. After the mother is away from her yearlings she begins to leave scent behind, indicating her availability to mate.

To separate from her young she begins to distance herself and act uninterested in their activities. Yearlings follow and she gets aggressive. She distances herself continuously and soon the yearlings get the message. They KNOW it’s time to leave their mother.

In the ski area, mothers raise 1-2 cubs and throughout the valley 1-3 cubs. Daughters remain in their natal range (area of birth) and sons are forced to disperse after break-up.

Sons are forced out of their mother’s territory to eliminate potential inbreeding (with mothers and sisters), competition for food, and potential cub predation.

During the mating period (June and July) adult males may kill cubs to induce the breeding cycle of mothers. Mothers may experience many aggressive encounters by males but are generally successful in protecting cubs from males in that the survival rate of cubs with their mother is 95 per cent.

Daughters are allowed to remain in their mom’s territory until they mature (at four years) then either mother or daughter will shift territory activities to overlap. In nine years (1994-2002), there has been only one case where a black bear cub was found abandoned or separated from his family. He was approximately 30 pounds in July and did survive on his own without any human intervention.

Young Bears and Habituation

Whistler Valley fills up with younger bear class (less than four years) because resident dispersing yearling males, females, and transient yearling males move through Whistler to avoid encounters with dominant bears in undeveloped habitats. Finding food is easier in Whistler closer to people than away from people and in the midst of competing adult bears. For instance, when a yearling leaves its mother in mid-June on Whistler Mountain, green-up is limited to where all the adult bears are courting/mating and competition is high. Younger bears move back down into Whistler where abundant green-up is high and berries will ripen first. Young bears would rather risk encounters with people (which are generally passive) to aggressive encounters with older bears.

Whistler Valley comprises a main valley with intersecting mountain drainages of the most productive forests in the Coast Mountains. The last 50 years of logging and wildfires have created a mainstay of berry-producing shrubs. Sub-adult bears find pockets of habitat near people which older bears may avoid because of the closeness to habitation. Here they try to establish themselves, securing food and avoiding physical stress/injury from older bears.

Being so close to people allows yearlings to rapidly habituate to people (tolerating people to benefit from natural foods). Habituation is not necessarily bad except for when young impressionable bears find human foods. Associations between people and/or people activities are quickly learned when young bears are rewarded with fattening foods that allow them to grow at a more rapid rate than natural food foraging. It is almost impossible for a bear utilizing habitats throughout Whistler Valley not to be habituated to human presence/activity. Natural foods are enhanced and grow extremely close to people. To benefit from skunk cabbage, grasses and clover, dandelion flowers, and huckleberries/blueberries and other berries, bears must tolerate people or the closeness of people to secure these required foods.

August Forecast

Oval-leaf blueberry began to ripen in the first week of July in scattered open sites of the Whistler Interpretive Forest. Berry ripening has continued with this helpful period of warm sunshine. The valley crop is considerably scattered as pollination did not occur uniformly through habitats. Upper slope (1,000-1,500-metres) berries are more abundant than valley patches with fruit swell (green berries) at _ to _ size of full ripe berries. If sunny weather continues, mountain berry patches should ripen through early to mid-August. Valley bears are currently foraging the ripening berries and insect feeding sites (carpenter ants from rotten logs and stumps).

Expect very high bear activity through August in the valley as more and more berries ripen. If the high elevation berries ripen fully this may alleviate some bear activity from lower elevations near people. It’s up to weather.

Next Bear Research Camp for Kids

If you missed out on this week’s (July 22-26) Bear Research Camp for Kids an additional camp will be held in the last week of August (26-30) for eight kids aged 10-16 years. The two sessions are10 a.m.-1:15 p.m. and 1:30-4:45 p.m. Four kids per session. Price is $150 per child. To register call the Whistler Black Bear Project.

These popular camps are an exciting way for local and visiting children to experience hands-on the activities of a bear researcher. Children observe and weigh bears, set-up bear hair trap sites, collect hair samples, analyze scat, and survey bear dens.

I’d like to send a big thank you to all the participating kids and supportive parents.

I want to thank all that have participated by calling in to REPORT BEAR FAMILIES and bear behaviours. Please continue to call! It is vital and interesting information. A database with all participants’ information will be published in the Pique Newsmagazine at the end of the bear season, during December.

BEAR FAMILY REPORTS is inputted into the Whistler Valley bear mapping database on activity and movement patterns. To report a BEAR FAMILY (or other bear activities) please includes date, colour of bears, litter size and location to 604-902-1660 (Whistler) or 604-898-2713 (Squamish) and by e-mail at mallen_coastbear@direct.ca .

Bear Update columns are sponsored by Pique Newsmagazine.