Bear Behavior
Bears are intelligent, curious, and have excellent memories, especially when it comes to food sources. Bears have 5-7 months to gain enough weight to sustain them through hibernation in winter. This means they are highly focused on finding and consuming food. Once a bear has associated a place or item with food, they will return to that location year after year. They will also seek out or investigate similar situations in the hopes of finding new food resources. Some bears may actively defend concentrated or high-value food sources, such as carcasses or localized berry patches. In the fall, when food sources become scarce and time for hibernation nears, bears may feed for as much as 20 hours a day. At that time of year bears may be so focused on finding and consuming food that they are less aware of their surroundings, including to the presence of humans in an area. During this hyperphagia (“extreme eating”) period it is especially important to be aware of your surroundings. In some parts of Montana, bears have learned to seek out and feed on game carcasses and gut piles left by hunters.
Bears will generally avoid humans if they can; often a bear will leave an area without humans ever knowing they were there, thus avoiding potential encounters. There are some situations, however, that may cause bears to react to humans, sometimes in an aggressive manner. Those situations may occur when a bear is:
- surprised by unexpected human presence
- protecting her cubs
- defending a food source
- habituated to humans or conditioned to human foods, garbage, or other attractants