Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] There is a place in the remote northwards of Minnesota in North America. It's located near the town of orr, population approximately 300. Outside this town is an area where normal rules are put to one side. It's a place where humans and wildlife meet. It's a special place, wholly unique and not without its controversies. This is the Vince Tschuti Wildlife Sanctuary, run by the American Bear Association, ABA for short. The ABA is dedicated to promoting a better understanding of black bears and all wildlife through education, observation and experience.
[00:00:30] I'm your host, Philip Stubley, and welcome to the Bear Den.
[00:00:35] Hello. Hello and welcome. Thank you for joining me. Here in the bear den, there's room for everyone. We might as well just jump straight on in. This first run of episodes is all about where the ABA started and why we do what we do. And hopefully you'll learn some interesting things about black bears along the way. The story of the ABA is the story of many colorful characters, both human and bear. So if you like wildlife history and remarkable personal stories, this is for you. I'm very excited to go on this journey with you and we have a lot to get through. So I do ask that you bear with me. The first and not last bear pun you're likely to hear. So now I'm going to introduce myself the Sanctuary Talk a little bit about black bears and where we're going next. Over the series, we'll be looking into the history of the aba, some of the key players, and use the stories of the sanctuary bears to look at topics such as bear safety, wildlife telemetry, bear behaviour and plenty of fun facts. I'll also pepper in some of my own stories to talk about the volunteer experience as well as over time, bring other voices into the Bear Den.
[00:01:39] Let's kick things off. I'm Philip Stubley and anyone who knows me knows that I like bears. Over the last 10 years, I've travelled between various locations in North America and Indonesia, from Sumatra to Borneo, raising orphans and bear cubs, designing and overseeing the construction of some bear enclosures, educating and advocating for bears and walking among wild North American black bears. I first came across the ABA while researching for a dissertation entitled How Much have Humans Affected the Feeding Habits of the North American Black Bear? And to what Extent can this be controlled? Fairly relevant, I think you'll agree. I had spent a year in Canada on a working holiday visa, doing the usual skiing, hiking, general shenanigans. I recommend it. Living in bear country was fascinating to me and I was intrigued how humans and bears managed to live together as everyone is right. Later on I volunteered at an animal sanctuary in Ecuador, South America and thought that would scratch that itch. But before I knew it, I found myself coming back to the UK and enlisting in an animal management course at a local college. Shout out to Kirkley Hall, Northumberland College. We had to do a dissertation and choose our own subject and bears seemed to be an obvious choice to me. In researching the dissertation, I came across the Vinsciutti Wildlife Sanctuary. Here you could see wild North American black bears and if you volunteered or interned there you could walk among them. As I wrote in my dissertation Side note, this was written in 2013. Vinscuti began feeding bears to keep them away from his farm buildings over 40 years ago and many bears annually visit. Thousands of visitors from all over the world arrive each year to see and learn about the black bears there and the bears accept their presence. So here's me thinking a place where you could see wild bears coming and going as they please. I knew I had to see this for myself. It turned out it wasn't that easy at first. My emails wouldn't send and I had to use Skype to make an international call to finally secure a volunteer slot. Before I knew it, I was flying out to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I then made my way north by night bus to Duluth, the nearest big city to the sanctuary. It still wasn't plain sailing. The motel I had booked in Duluth didn't have a record of my booking and they were full. After some persuasion, the attendant dropped me off at a nearby motel that did have some vacancies. It didn't help that as he dropped me off he said he didn't want to scare me but this motel was a bit shady and he wouldn't stay there. I won't name the motel as it was a while back and who knows, they may be a ritzy five star resort now. I entered and the receptionist was friendly enough and apologize for the corridor. As they were renovating, I holed up in my room and managed to email the change in circumstance to the sanctuary. Despite this rocky start where roadblocks seemed to be set up at every turn, I had a delicious breakfast at the Duluth Grill and I was picked up and driven to the sanctuary. I had finally made it and it completely exceeded my wildest expectations. At that time, volunteers went through a strict 48 hour rule where you can't be alone on the grounds and must complete bear safety training. Nobody is allowed to touch or hand feed bears and this rule is strictly enforced. These are wild bears, remember and must be Respected. Since my first visit, the sanctuary safety protocols have been enforced and tightened even further. The sanctuary owns roughly 700 acres of land and in a designated feeding area, a two acre meadow affectionately called the Magic Circle, food is put out for the bears. Bears come and go as they please throughout the season. There are no fences at the sanctuary and the same individuals come year after year and bring their offspring and their offspring bring their offspring. Generations of bears, each one a unique individual. They don't solely rely on this food source and some bears only spend a few weeks on the property, depending on how much natural forage there is. An observation platform overlooks all of this so visitors can safely watch and learn about black bears themselves, effectively operating as an open air classroom, the sanctuary is open to the public from Labor Day through to Memorial Day. In the evenings, Tuesday to Saturday, you can learn about bear behaviours, how to tell the difference between males and females, and how to live and holiday responsibly in bear country. These are all things that we will cover as we go through the series.
[00:05:40] One thing I suppose I should say is that volunteering isn't for everybody and the hands on work at the sanctuary may not be to everyone's tastes, but there are plenty of other ways that people contribute and I guess, I guess I just don't want to be misleading or give any false expectations.
[00:05:57] Volunteering at the ABA is hard but rewarding work as feeding the bears begins from dawn and continues until dusk, with volunteers working in shifts to cover this. It's long hours scooping poop, prepping food and public engagement, but witnessing the bond between mothers and cubs. Bears play, wrestling together and seeing the same ones return year after year are unforgettable experiences. I actually found a diary that I kept at the time and here is what I wrote on Tuesday 19 August 2014. At the end of the day, they are wild animals and totally unlike us. But watching their behaviours and interactions, unless you've seen it, it's indescribable. Even writing here for the past few days, I find it hard to convey the feelings of awe, amazement and joy of being here. I think I still agree there is nothing quite like listening to a chorus of black bears eating peanuts in the shell, calmly sitting and crunching away.
[00:06:49] Young bears play and wrestle together and this aids in their physical and mental development. And we see a lot of this in the Magic Circle. But we also see older bears relax and engage in these behaviors as well. After all, bears are essentially a fun loving species.
[00:07:03] This area is truly a sanctuary, a Safe place where bears can relax and be themselves and display behaviours we wouldn't otherwise witness. I must stress that we don't anthropomorphise the bears.
[00:07:15] Names are used purely for identification purposes. There is a mutual understanding between human and bear in this area. But animals have their own complex set of rules that we cannot begin to understand.
[00:07:28] Remember, black bears are considered intelligent, resourceful and creative animals.
[00:07:34] Now, you may be wondering, quite rightly, you say you're feeding black bears, but I thought you shouldn't feed wild bears. And you're correct. The ABA is managing an existing situation which really shouldn't have been started, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, DNR for short, know what the ABA do and have coordinated with us in the past. The feeding is supplemental and aims to complement the bear's natural diet. Outside of the designated feeding area, negative reinforcement techniques are used to scare bears away, so they associate the area with food and not the humans. Once outside of the magic circle, normal rules apply and bears become more elusive and wary of humans. The ABA does not condone feeding wild bears. Once a bear has found a food source, it never forgets it and will return more often than not. This creates what is termed a conflict bear. This is the preferred term over nuisance bear, which you've probably heard of as nuisance bear, assigns blame to the bear when more often than not, they are caught up in a situation not of their own making.
[00:08:37] Relocation is rarely successful and ultimately the bear ends up being euthanized. So if you live in bear country, you constantly have to be mindful about bird feeders and securing garbage properly. This is something we will reiterate and explore further. I finished my month volunteering and even then I knew I wanted to work with bears and I asked myself, what can I do for them? I returned to the sanctuary in 2015 for another month and then in 2016 for the better part of three months. The the first year I actually missed visiting the sanctuary was in 2018, but I did have a good excuse. That was when I was in Borneo looking after sun bears, where I would spend the next couple of years. That's another story, one we may get to in time. I've since returned and I am now an active board member of the ABA. Let's have a quick 101 on North American black bears, Latin name Ursus americanus. So they are one of the eight extant bear species. They are listed as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more commonly referred to as the IUCN Red List. This is a Definitive list of the status of plants and animals throughout the Earth. Least concern basically means the population is healthy. There are estimated to be around 900,000 black bears in North America, with 300,000 in the United States alone. And you find black bears from Mexico to Alaska and from the California mountains to the Florida swamps. There are 16 subspecies of black bear that all have their own IUCN listing. But. But we won't get into that now. I will tell you, subspecies fascinate me, so they're maybe a topic for another time, and it won't take much to convince me to do that. Aside from brown bears, which are also listed as least concern, black bears are very well off compared to the other six bear species. So you've got giant panda, Asiatic black bear, Andean bear, sloth bear, polar bear and sun bear, which are all listed as vulnerable by the iucn, with five, not including the giant panda, showing a decrease in population trends as keystone species. Bears contribute vital functions to their environment and their loss can cause damaging and irreversible impacts to other species and life on Earth. Not to be alarming, we'll get into other bear species as we go on. Since North American black bears share territory on the west coast with brown bears, we'll definitely talk about them in a later episode, as it's important to be able to identify each species and know what to do if you come across either of them in the wild.
[00:10:58] That was a bit of a tangent back to black bears. Black bears have quite pronounced ears. Their typical body length is about 120 to 200 centimeters, about 48 to 78 inches, and typical body height is about 70 to 105 centimeters, about 28 to 41 inches. They also have good eyesight, see in colour and have an excellent sense of smell. Its big nose has an area inside called the nasal mucosa that is 100 times larger than ours. Black bears are renowned climbers. They latch on with their front paws and use their back legs to basically walk up a tree. And they don't even have to turn around to come down, they just come down the same way. They are an arboreal creature used to foraging and are opportunistic omnivores. Their usual diet consists of nuts, acorns, fruit, insects and succulent greens. In fact, 85% of their diet is vegetable matter. Black bears are adaptable creatures and their diets are relatively similar across North America. But they do vary depending on their location and the seasonal availability of food. Black bears on the west coast are known for eating salmon and gathering in groups to do this. While in Minnesota, salmon doesn't feature in bear diets whatsoever. As opportunistic omnivores, bears will take advantage of their surroundings. So, for example, scorpions have been found in the scat of black bears in Mexico. They typically mate around May, June time. During the summer feeding frenzy known as hyperphagia, the bears eat up to 20,000 calories a day. For context, that is the equivalent of about 65 cheeseburgers. Seasonal migration is also a major factor in bears feeding. In the late summer, bears leave their home ranges and move to other feeding areas so they can gain enough weight before hibernation. Food availability is also an influence on this behavior. Studies have suggested this migration is facultative and not always an annual occurrence. This seasonal migration can be a risky business for bears as they encounter increased threats of mortality as they travel during this time as well. Depending on the food availability, bears employ an energy maximising strategy, focusing on food areas that have the highest return of calories.
[00:13:02] After this, bears go into a food coma. Understandably, as the winter months roll around, black bears go into their dens to hibernate for the winter. And I know some listeners will be saying they're not true hibernators. And this is still a topic of debate in academic circles. Put simply, black bears enter a lighter state of sleep known as torpor. They have even been known to wake up and briefly leave their dens during wintertime. In the southern parts of the us, there are areas where black bears don't even bother hibernating as the temperature stays nice and warm year round.
[00:13:33] This means there is plenty of food available as this is more related to bears hibernating rather than temperature.
[00:13:39] That's why the further north you go, you'll find that some bears den longer than others. In northern Minnesota, bears contend with long cold winters lasting six or seven months.
[00:13:49] While they're hibernating, bears recycle all of their waste products. And they have remarkable restorative properties with injuries or wounds healing over the course of the hibernation. This is all happening while they live off the fat reserves they've built up over the year. So a healthy female bear can start having cubs when she's around 3, 4 years old. I realize I said this would be quick, but bear with me throughout the series. I will refer to cubs, yearlings, sub adults and adults for the benefit of those who may not be aware of these terms in relation to black bears. Cubs are newly born bears in their first year. Yearlings are bears that are one Year old sub adults are typically about two to six years old and older than that we have adult bears. You may also hear male bears referred to as boars and females as sows. Although this is rather historic and not really used for bears anymore, you do still hear it on occasion, so I think it's worth mentioning. And the collective noun for bears is a sloth, sometimes pronounced sleuth of bears. Female bears give birth in the dens, but only if they have reached an ideal weight to support that birth. They have a very clever adaptation known as delayed implantation. So the fertilized eggs don't implant in the uterus until the female is ready to support the pregnancy. Cubs are born around January, February time. They are born blind and completely dependent on their mother. Mothers can have a litter ranging from 1 to 5 cubs. 3 is the average litter in Minnesota. Cubs stay with their mother for 16 to 17 months before she disperses them. Bears emerge from their dens as spring begins and the cycle starts again. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Just to confuse things, not all black bears are black. They can be black, brown, cinnamon coloured, blonde and in rare cases, white. We are lucky to see a large variety in the colours of black bears that visit the sanctuary. I can honestly go on for hours as we're only really scratching the surface of everything so far. We'll have plenty of time to talk about black bears. Trust me, we'll be doing a lot of that. One final point that I do want to make for you to keep in mind. Over many years, humans have been encroaching on bear territories and cutting bear populations off from one another. With the invasion of humans who are living, holidaying and working into bear territory, the black bears have had to adapt to human presence. The number of human black bear interactions has surged across the United States with 46,000 incidents reported to state agencies in 2022. This data was compiled by the International association for Bear Research and Management, IBA for short. Bears are no strangers to adapting to their situations.
[00:16:18] As a result of their relatively late arrival to North America, black bears had to contend with their larger cousin, the now extinct short faced bear. Trees provided a safe haven for escape, habitat and food. Because of this, genetically, rather than stand and fight, black bears are inclined to retreat from any threat. Black bear attacks are rare and usually happen. If a bear is taken by surprise. They act defensively rather than aggressively. There is an oft quoted figure saying that there have been 63 deaths by black bear recorded since 1900 through to 2009. So I was actually listening to an episode of the podcast National Park After Dark, and they had guests from another podcast, Tooth and Claw, on which of whom is a wildlife biologist, Wes Larson, and he updated that figure to 78 deaths up to 2021. The rate is increasing, but that is because more people are spending more time outdoors. But compared to the amount of black bears in North America, those figures are still very low. As an aside, both of those are very good podcasts if you like the outdoors, and they do have episodes covering brown and black bear attacks, if you want to know more. And they do deal with these objectively and sensitively. Received wisdom is that the two main reasons for attacks are if a bear is startled or if it's a mother defending her cubs.
[00:17:26] This is a common misconception associated with black bears. Defence of cubs against people is mainly by grizzly bears, not black bears. Black bear families are more likely to flee, climb a tree or the mother will show harmless bluster. That's something we'll get to in a moment. Common misconceptions is actually a topic in itself and I probably will try to cover that in a later episode. In reality, black bear females with cubs are responsible for about 3% of fatal attacks over the last 100 years.
[00:17:53] Current research shows that dogs that are off their leash have been involved in the majority of incidents involving people and black bears. Many of those dogs were injured or killed and the people trying to protect their dogs were often injured as well. The website bearwise offers many educational articles and materials for living and playing responsibly in black bear country and is well worth a look. It was created by bear biologists and is supported by state wildlife agencies. If you see a black bear, appreciate and enjoy it from a safe distance. It is a rare thing in the wild. If approached by a black bear, you should back away slowly, speak in a calm voice and don't take your eyes off them whilst also avoiding direct eye contact. And if the worst comes and you're attacked, you have to fight with whatever you have. One thing you should have is bear spray, which one should always carry when hiking in bear country. And yes, for those listeners who aren't aware, it is not an anti bear spray that you apply to yourself. It is a spray that is three times more potent than pepper spray. Bear spray also covers a larger area and works from much further away, so has a range about 20 to 40ft depending on weather conditions.
[00:19:03] So if the worst comes to the worst and you have to use it, point it away from you and pray the wind is on your back.
[00:19:10] Do not play dead or climb trees as black bears have those short, curved claws that make them excellent climbers. Also, black bears can sprint up to about 35 miles per hour and they will give chase if you run. Bears may also charge forward or swat their paws at the ground and breathe heavily when approached. This is known as a bluff charge and bears do this as a warning when they are uncomfortable. If a bear does this to you, you should stand your ground and back away, letting the bear know you aren't a threat. As bears and humans interact more often, it is our responsibility to manage these situations. There are different ways of doing this and the ABA is unique in the way that humans and bears have found a mutual understanding when they are within the magic circle.
[00:19:52] Now I want to go back to the beginning. How did this all come about? Where does the sanctuary name come from? In short, who was Vinci?
[00:20:02] The story of the creation of the sanctuary stretches back over 100 years and is quite an extraordinary one. Regardless of right or wrong, Vince created a special place to see black bears. Join me next time where we travel back to the early 1900s to a simpler time including a boxing match with a school principal, unruly logging, and a lot of sourdough pancakes.
[00:20:31] The Bear Den the American Bear Association Podcast was written and presented by me, Philip Stubley. The music was composed by React Music. Thank you to everyone who has helped make this podcast possible, including Karen Housman, Bill Lee, Clarie Lee, Stephanie Horner, Donna Brzinka, Ross Coyer, and Angie page.
[00:20:51] The website www.bearwise.org is dedicated to helping people live responsibly with black bears and is well worth a visit for those who do live in bear country or plan to visit.
[00:21:03] You can find out more about the American Bear association at www.americanbear.org. you can find Mint Shooty Wildlife Sanctuary on Facebook and Instagram. You can ask questions and submit comments about the podcast to pswmericanbear.org the ABA is a special circumstance. We do not condone feeding wild animals. If you enjoy this podcast, help support the ABA either by donating, becoming an ABA member, or symbolically adopting a bear. Or come visit the sanctuary during the season and say hello.
