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During the summer, I spend a lot of time traveling up and down the Icefields Parkway with groups of all kinds. Usually, the sight of a bear, particularly a grizzly, is both an uncommon and exhilarating sight. This year, the bears have been so common that it's been a rare trip that we've been skunked. This is definitely the best spring in years for seeing bears and as a result, caution must be passed on to hikers and mountain bikers.

Due to the heavy snow accumulations still found up in the high country, the bears have been forced to stay lower on the slopes--particularly the grizzlies which tend to stay high during the summer. There have been a number of bears appearing regularly along both highway and trail this year and so travelers will want to be aware. For those of us that like to scream around on mountain bikes, make sure you slow down on those long blind hills. I know at least one biker that has hit a black bear full tilt (although not this year), and was very lucky when he took off in one direction the bear chose the other.

Both grizzlies and black bears eat primarily vegetation--more than 75% of their diet. At this time of year, they commonly look for various members of the pea family like Hedysarum, and sweetvetch. You may see them digging for roots or munching down dandelions.

Grizzlies tend to do more digging than black bears and as a result have longer claws and a huge muscular shoulder hump. Not only roots and tubers are excavated, but the bears will also try to dig up marmot and ground squirrel nests, often tearing up large areas. It takes a lot of work to get one ground squirrel, but they are high in fat content and the bears need a lot of fat to get them through next winter.

These long winters provide an interesting study in bear behaviour. Bears don't truly hibernate as was once thought, but go into a deep sleep. True hibernators undergo a number of metabolic changes. Their respiration and heart beat slow down to only a few per minute and their body temperatures drop to near freezing. In the case of the bears, their metabolic rates only drop slightly and they actually wake up on occasion. Their body temperature drops from about 38 C to about 31-34 C. How can they actually survive for more than five months without eating? They convert their urea into proteins. We normally unload urea as urine, but by recycling it the bears can subsist for long periods of dormancy.

Another interesting aspect of bear behaviour has to do with their mating habits and the birth of cubs. Although they mate in the spring, the embryo doesn't begin developing until October or November. It floats free in the womb and doesn't implant in the uterus walls until the autumn when it begins to grow. The cub, or cubs, will be born in mid-January or early February. The mother may wake up briefly during the birth but quickly becomes dormant again.