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Yearly Updates

2002-11-03 - Notes from Charlemont MA 'Bear Walk'

Charlemont, Massachusetts.  About 10 AM, a group of 15 wildlife professionals, educators, and enthusiasts headed into the Massachusetts woods with Lynn Rogers and expert tracker John McCarter.  The leaves were still near their peak of color, enhanced by a dusting of snow.  The light snowfall had ended a few hours before dawn and would probably melt during the day.  We hoped to find bear tracks soon to learn what bears are doing this time of year.  Around noon, we crossed the fresh tracks of a medium-sized bear, either a young male or a mature female.  We followed them back a half mile to where the bear had spent the night.   The tracks showed the details of how the bear had lived and worked that morning. 

The bed was in fallen leaves between two logs at the base of a mature aspen tree.  The bear had gotten up four times during the night to defecate--twice while it was snowing and twice after the snow ended.   The droppings were entirely made up of beechnut parts.  Upon arising, the bear stood near the bed, probably stretching and shaking meltwater from its back.  By this time of year, their fur is about four inches thick and consists of two types--long guard hairs and dense fine underfur.  The combination is so insulating that snow can accumulate on the back, but on this day with temperatures only a few degrees below freezing, the snow would have melted on contact.  This fur combination is also so water-resistant that it is doubtful if any of the meltwater would have reached the skin. 

The forest was a typical Massachusetts forest for this elevation--beech, hemlock, oak, black cherry, and birch trees with practically no understory vegetation.  Here bears have to climb for their fall foods or wait for the nuts and acorns to drop.  A few yards from the bed, the bear began pawing through leaves on the forest floor, sniffing out ripe beechnuts and leaving those that were wormy or poorly developed.  In a wet depression, the bear scraped away leaves to make a deeper depression that filled with water.  The bear could have drunk there or eaten beechnuts or both.  This was the only possible location where the bear might have drunk this morning. 

Further along, beech trees and black cherry trees had fresh claw marks from a few weeks earlier when the cherries and nuts had not yet fallen.  The beech trees also had claw scars from years past, showing the annual importance of this feeding area.  High in the crowns, beech trees had "bear nests" with drying leaves from weeks past, and "bear nests" with leafless branches from years past, further showing the perennial use of this area.  These clumps of branches in the crowns show where bears sat in a crotch and pulled nut-laden branches inward, breaking some of them.   Some of the broken branches remain in the crotch and some fall to the ground.  The clumps of branches that stay in the crotch are called bear nests because they look like nests, but they are not made for resting.   

We passed a grove of large old hemlocks with signs of bear usage from years past--claw marks from cubs and adults climbing the big trees for refuge and nearby trees that were rubbed and bitten to leave scent communications for any bears that passed by.  Large old hemlocks and white pines are especially important to mothers with cubs.  They make the vast majority of their beds at the bases of them because these trees have the kind of bark that cubs can most easily climb without falling.  These trees have dense crowns that provide shade to any cubs that take refuge in the crowns in spring before other trees leaf out, and they have strong branches that can support mothers as well as cubs.  Where these trees are scarce, mothers pass thousands of other trees to seek out these "refuge trees" to bed next to for the night or to leave their cubs while the mother forages nearby.   

On this day, though, our lone bear was old enough to safely climb all kinds of trees, so it was less particular about tree species.  Even so, it still sought large trees in times of danger.  When the tracks showed that the bear became alerted to danger, probably from us, the bear abruptly changed direction and loped a couple hundred yards to the largest tree in the area--a silver maple nearly three feet in diameter.  No large white pines or hemlocks were in that part of the forest.  The bear stood at the base of the maple facing in our direction and then loped down the hill and across a trail where we eventually crossed its tracks and began backtracking. 

The day was a success.  We all enjoyed the exercise,  comraderie, and being able to learn directly from the bear. Everyone shared in finding and interpreting the clues as to how this animal stayed safe while making a living in the rich habitat of New England.  Group members will share this bear's story with others, giving them added appreciation and understanding of this misunderstood animal.  With improving attitudes comes a greater willingness to allow black bears to return to parts of their former range.  In that regard, New Englanders are making their area one of the bright spots in the black bear's world.