Ted’s new camera is showing us behaviors we haven’t seen before, as in this 5½-minute video https://youtu.be/dYQyr0vnwSM. In previous winters, wide angle cameras showed so much snow that the camera iris closed down and made the inside of his den dark. 
Ted 10-4-14Now, with the ability to zoom in, we can exclude the snow and get a bright image inside his den and document new behaviors. I never saw any bear eat its straw before, although droppings from wild and captive bears in spring do include vegetation of the types used for their bedding.
Editor's note: Early this morning a Pond Chat moderator who has watched many many hours of NABC Ambassador bear live cam footage sent a note in regards to the straw eating video I posted last night. "Just wanted you to know, Ted does eat straw a lot just as he wakes from hibernation. Not a new behavior for him or Honey." This is good to know! Thanks for the information.
It was nice to see Ted up and out investigating on these last couple days of balmy weather. It looked like he nibbled some grass, although I couldn’t be sure. Some of the time, he was down crawling on his front elbows. I don’t know if that was for convenience or because his front feet are sore. As is stated in the paper on food pad shedding (Rogers, L. L. 1974. Shedding of foot pads by black bears during denning. Journal of Mammalogy 55(3):672-674), the fresh pads of black bears are sensitive and easily injured. I observed that myself and quoted the observations of Native Americans and Japanese. It could be that Ted didn’t want to walk on a rough surface. I did find in my early studies that bears easily injured their fresh new footpads to the point of bleeding by walking on icy snow in early spring. I couldn’t tell from the close-up a Lily Fan captured of Ted’s foot pads today if he has shed them or not. The focus was a little off and the light glared enough that I couldn’t be sure. I’d like to visit Ted soon to see if he will show me his pads so I can better interpret his behavior.
We’ll be interested in seeing Ted’s feces in spring after seeing him ingest the straw.
The fact that Ted responded to the warm weather (40’s and low 50’s F) by becoming active the last couple days is interesting. Bears in parts of North America where food might be available in winter are genetically programmed to become active in midwinter warm spells like Ted did the last couple days. These are in parts of North America where beechnuts, hickory nuts, or acorns could be available. Bears that are fed overwinter in these areas remain active.
However, in parts of North America where fall and winter foods are practically nonexistent, like around Ely, bears do not become active in warm spells. It would be counter-productive. These bears are genetically programmed to not respond to warm weather. They also do not vary their hibernation schedule to take advantage of food supplied by humans. In fall, hunters are baiting and some households are putting out food. Nevertheless, pregnant females go into dens in very late August or September in most cases. Some very fat mature males do the same. Other individuals, including mothers with cubs, enter dens in October or very early November whether or not people are providing food for them. It will be interesting to see what Ted does toward the end of this week when cold returns, possibly with snow.
We don’t know Ted’s heritage. His genes could be a mixture from various parts of North America. Seeing his behavior gives us clues for speculation about his heritage.
We are always tempted to give Ted food, but we also want to follow the veterinarians’ recommendations not to overfeed him, as heavy as he is.
Quill was the latest bear to enter a den that we know of around here. He arrived October 12 weighing 32 pounds and left (presumably to den up) at 12:07 AM at the beginning of November 18 weighing about 63 pounds. He is an outlier with special circumstances as far as date of hibernation goes for this area.
It’s great to be able to watch and learn from Ted as we can now.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center