Do bears poop when they're hibernating?

[vellavu]

Do bears poop when they're hibernating?

Each autumn, most bear species around the world will ease up on scaring campers and scampering through the woods, and settle in a den to hibernate their way through the cold winter months.

This hibernation period tends to last for roughly six months, and during this time, some species, like the black bear (Ursus americanus), can drop their heart rates from 55 beats per minute to a mere 9, reducing their metabolic rate by up to 53 percent. Oh, and they don’t poop the entire time.

Yes, bears can manage to go entire seasons without ever needing to drop a deuce, but how?

"During five to seven months in dens, bears accumulate faeces in the lower 7-15 inches of the intestine to form a 'plug' 1.5 to 2.5 inches (3.8 to 6.4 centimetres) in diameter," the North American Bear Centre explains on its website.

"The faecal plug is simply faeces that have remained in the intestine so long that the intestinal walls have absorbed the fluids out of it, leaving it dry and hard."

 

[white avenger]

According to Google:

A) Bears hibernate during winter, but aren't sleeping the whole time. Hibernation for bears simply means they don't need to eat or drink, and rarely urinate or defecate (or not at all). There is strong evolutionary pressure for bears to stay in their dens during winter, if there is little or no food available.

If bears generally don't eat and drink during the winter, it stands to reason that there's little, if anything, to digest and pass. They obviously become very inactive, which would lead to extended periods of sleep, but "extended" doesn't mean the same thing as "constant."

In other words, don't go prowling around a bear's den in the winter, thinking that it will never know that you're there. You might wind up being one of those rare winter meals.