Come fall, black bear really put on the feed bag, so you might be seeing more bear during this time. This massive feeding is called HYPERPHAGIA, and it’s basically bears building up their fat reserves before entering dens. Bears consume ten times the calories they do during the summer months and by Mid-September bears in the Northwoods start to consume up to 24,000 calories a day eating what food sources are available.

Those calories come from fruits like berries and apples that are ripe but those will be gone soon. Once these fruits are scarce bears switch to nuts and acorns. One pound of acorns equal 2100 calories but that could take a whole day of searching. But, if their natural food source is not available, bears can leave their normal areas and travel miles to find food.

Do you know what makes a bear happy? Easy meals with a lot of calories. Do you know where they can find easy meals to build their fat reserve? Most likely around your house. Black bears have an excellent memory and when leaving their dens come spring, have travel routes and that’s why so many bird feeder get destroyed this time of the year.

Well, when food is hard to come by in the fall, they are more willing to venture out of the woods right back to houses where they can find those calories. So, in just a few hours chowing near cabins and houses, they can get more food than a days’ worth of searching in the woods.

If one thinks about it, this is also when Wisconsin’s black bear hunting season (last Wednesday the 9th) started. Hunters put out bait piles of cookie dough, marshmallows, apples, syrup and other items knowing bears go on a feeding frenzy to build up their fat to survive the winter months.

All this being said, with over 24 thousand black bears in Wisconsin and their feeding activity in full swing, you could see one around your cabin/house soon. I will tell you the time they enter their dens depends on weather conditions and food availability, but under normal conditions its usually in October.