[pct-l] Food Bags --bears

[Carl Siechert]

More than you want to know about bear butt plugs:

It was once thought that bears ate roughage prior to den entrance to scour
their digestive tract and form a plug in the anus to prevent them from
eating any more food that fall. Actually, the plug, made up of feces, dead
intestinal cells, hair, and bedding material, forms during hibernation and
not before (Rogers 1981). Bears continue to produce some feces during
hibernation yet they do not defecate (Rogers 1981). It is possible this plug
may keep the bear from defecating inside the den during hibernation as fecal
plugs are found just inside or outside the dens of bears that have just
emerged (Rogers 1981).

>From http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/denning.htm


Also from the same page:

Bears hibernate during the winter months in most areas of the world.
Duration of winter denning is dependent upon latitude and varies from a few
days or weeks for black bears in Mexico to 6 months or more for bears in
Alaska (Kolenosky and Strathearn 1987, Haroldson et al. 2002).


I found various sites that suggest the hibernation period for black bears in
California is generally December-March.