Dan's Outside

Bear Buffet

Tom Stienstra posts a summary of some interesting Yosemite bear facts for fall:

The summer-to-fall transition has started for black bears in Yosemite National Park and elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada. In a two-month eating frenzy, bears will pack on the pounds to prepare for hibernation. Here’s what’s happening with the bears at Yosemite…

I learned at least one new thing from this article. Apparently the bears – who are trying to eat about 20,000 calories per day right now to prepare for winter – make acorns a big part of their diet during the season. I knew that Yosemite black bears are omnivorous, eating berries, insects, and just about anything else they can get into their mouths, but I had no idea they were interested in acorns.

Another interesting fact from the article: while human/bear conflicts do occur on the part (the occasional car break-in, bears being hit by drivers, etc.) it sounds like the number of incidents this year is quite a bit lower than during some of the record-breaking years in the 1990s.

It has actually been quite awhile since I’ve encountered a bear in Yosemite, though I used to see them with some regularity while backpacking there or while car-camping in Tuolumne Meadows. (I was visited – twice – by a bear earlier this summer while camping at Ediza Lake. No harm done since my food was safely stashed in a canister.)

September 6, 2007 - Posted by gdanmitchell | Yosemite