Bewildered Bear Wakes up After 4 Months of Hibernation

Bear Wakes Up After 4-Month Hibernation and People Today Can Totally Relate

By Emma Taggart on April 1, 2020

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A post shared by Nicole Marie (@grizzlygirl84) on Mar 18, 2020 at 5:34pm PDT

We’ve all had those groggy mornings where it takes a few seconds to come back into consciousness. But for bears, waking up from their winter hibernation must feel totally surreal. In a video posted by Canadian ranger Nicole Gangnon, an adorable grizzly bear (aka North American brown bear) called Boo is captured poking his head through the snow for the first time in 4 months—and he doesn’t look too impressed with how 2020 has developed so far. Can you blame him?

Typically, bears hibernate for around 5-7 months over winter to preserve fat stores in the cold, and emerge in spring when the ice begins to thaw. This year though, bears like Boo across the globe are waking up early due to unseasonably warm weather. Boo first entered his den on November 21 and came out on March 17, 2020. For the last few weeks, he’s been adjusting to being awake.

His first priority? Food! “Bears naturally know there isn’t much food growing atm. So they work hard in the fall to put excess weight on not just to survive winter but to also make it through the hardest part of spring which is now,” Gangnon writes on Instagram. “With Boo we give him about 3 days of rousing out of the den and then start with just lettuce for a week before introducing carrots. Next is a bit of protein and then yams. Week by week Boo is reintroduced to a new food that becomes a part of his daily diet and slowly build those calories up.”

Boo was born in the wild; but, tragically, his mother was shot and killed by a poacher in June 2002. Boo and his brother Cari were left orphaned at just 5 months old. Thankfully, they were both given a new home at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Watching Boo come out of hibernation is just one of many activities the rangers observe in order to learn more about grizzly bears. “We continue to learn from Boo, while at the same time allowing him to live the best captive life possible,” Kicking Horse states on its website. “He is an inspiration for everyone who comes to see him and he is an outstanding ambassador for this magnificent species.”

Watch an adorable grizzly bear called Boo poke his head through the snow for the first time in 4 months.

Spring is in the air 🐻
Grizzly Bear Boo emerged from his winter den at Grizzly Bear refuge
Kicking Horse, BC 🇨🇦
📹 grizzlygirl84 #soundon pic.twitter.com/NKmM2W5FvW

— Kelly Canuck🍁 (@KellyCanuckTO) March 24, 2020