Bears Hibernate (and Soon You Could Too)

 "Until very recently, everything we knew about bear hibernation could be fairly well captured in a single sentence: We're pretty sure they do it. They disappear into dens for months at a time, they emerge in the spring looking a whole lot skinnier, and we're reasonably sure they didn't send out for any food. Hibernation is the only thing that explains all of that.

But whether the long winter nap bears appear to engage in qualifies as true hibernation has always been another matter. The natural seasonal cycles of zoo bears are completely disrupted by the very fact of their captivity, and studying them thus yields little. As for nonzoo individuals, well, you know that whole thing about not waking a sleeping bear? Scientists take that seriously."
via TIME/continue reading