While Saskatchewan may be expecting more snow this week, there are other signs that might just give you hope that winter is ending.
Bears in the province are emerging from hibernation including two grizzly bears at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo that are now awake.
Jeff Mitchell, the manager of the zoo said the bears usually go to bed around late October and they usually wake up at the beginning of April or end of March. This year however, the wake-up was delayed due to cold weather and snow.
“This year they stayed in a little longer,” Mitchell said. “That winter held on and when we opened the doors and said ‘you wanna go out?’ they said ‘no no. We are still gonna sleep.’”
Each year, the bears go into what is generally referred to as hibernation but is actually something a little different.
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“It’s actually called torpor,” he explained. “It is kind of like a hibernation and they will sleep and stay down, but they still get up and occasionally roam around.”
The grizzly bears have been at the zoo for roughly 16 years and have claws five inches long. Mitchell said right now, the zoo is working on getting the bears appetite back up.
“One of the things we do is really work on their diets and really mimic what they would be doing in the wild,” he said “Right now they get a lot of lettuce and greens because in the wild that is what they would be eating. Really getting their stomachs back and ready to digest.”
Over the course of the winter, one bear lost 114 pounds, while the other lost 123 pounds.
“After a while they begin to have more meat products and by the end of the year, they will be eating six to 11 pounds of salmon everyday,” Mitchell said.
The zoo is open every day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., before closing an hour later in the summertime.
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