Bear comfy in culvert? Expert says culverts are common bear hibernation sites. 
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A black bear spotted in a culvert in rural Brainerd this fall appears to have set up sleeping arrangements there and is expected to remain there for the winter, unless disturbed, according to Brainerd area DNR officials.
A Brainerd Dispatch employee, Jamie Olson, reported what he considered a bear cub poking its head out the culvert in mid-November and reported the sighting to the DNR, as he was concerned about the small bear on its own as winter was nearing. He feared it was orphaned and may need assistance.
The bear location is not being named as wildlife officials want to avoid any possible harassing or disturbing of the bear while it rests, but it's roughly 10 minutes out of Brainerd.
After investigating the situation, Brainerd area wildlife manager Christine Reisz said it was discussed whether the bear should be relocated or not. It was decided by those involved the best thing to do in this case was to let a sleeping bear sleep.
Brainerd area conservation officer Jim Guida also noted that it was decided it was best to respect the bear's choice and give it some distance rather than remove the bear.
"If it becomes a public nuisance, like if you put this article in the paper and there are people disturbing the bear in its denning environment, then we'd either shoot the bear or have the bear removed some other way. But we don't want to interfere with mother nature and if mother nature is saying have the bear in the culvert for the winter, we'll do it that way."
Officer Guida noted that in a similar instance in Nisswa, a bear hibernated in a culvert and was watched during the spring as it came and went.
"It finally got to a point where there was enough people around it that it moved on," Guida said.
Reisz said a picture was taken of the bear in the culvert, but the actual size or age of the bear was unclear.
According to Dave Garshelis, Minnesota DNR bear research biologist, bears hibernating in culverts are not rare and it's even a prefered hibernating space for some bears within Camp Ripley. As long as there is some nesting materials to lay on they seem to do well there.
As far as the likelihood of a small bear surviving winter on its own, Garshelis notes that it can depend largely on the health of the bear at the start of winter. But he has seen yearling bears of only 40-50 pounds surviving on their own. Even some 2-year-old bears who has been foraging on their own can appear small having a dramatic weight range from 70-150 pounds, he said.
"If they are an adequate weight they tend to do pretty well," Garshelis said.
He said there are five bears equipped with radio collars in Camp Ripley and some have formed the habit of returning to hibernate in culverts year-after-year. Garshelis said animal survey coordinator at the Camp Ripley Environmental Office Brian Dirks experimented with closing off some of those culverts to get the bears to hibernate elsewhere. Once the bear is deep within the culvert it is unsafe to dart the bear and remove it to change out a radio collar, which is part of the work involved to study the bears in that environment. So unless removal is necessary, it's not recommended. Dirks has recorded at least six active bear dens in the more than 280 culverts found within Camp Ripley in recent years.
He doesn't want the bear to avoid the culvert because it isn't safe for them—because it is safe, according to Garshelis—he wants them to avoid it because it is difficult to study the bear once deep inside. Garshelis said if there was a risk to human safety, they could extract the bear, but as for the safety of the bear, "it's safe."
"This culvert thing seems to be fairly common in (Camp Ripley area) for whatever reason. ... The main danger with the culverts is that there can be a lot of water that goes through there in the spring so the bears get flooded out and if it's an early spring they basically have to vacate their dens earlier than they normally would," Garshelis said.
This is an especially dangerous situation when a sow gives birth to cubs in January, which is normal. That could put the cubs at risk of getting wet and potentially succumbing to hypothermia if an early thaw pushes water into the culvert before the worst of winter is over.
Garshelis said they have not witnessed a bear dying from this situation, but he noted some early sightings of bear after a thaw likely point to the bear's hibernation space being flooded. In that case, the bear will try to find a new place to sleep, but that can be a challenge. One bear believed to have been pushed from its winter home was found sleeping in the middle of a harvested corn field.
Garshelis said bears find themselves in odd places and people often find them in those places including under decks, seasonal cabins, under snowmobile trails, near railroad tracks or in city parks.
"Pretty odd selection of stuff, it's pretty hard to figure out why they choose what they choose," he said.
If the bears are not collared or implanted with GPS, it can be very difficult to find a bear's hibernating spots. Most near Garshelis' headquarters in Grand Rapids tend to burrow into the ground or under a brush pile. But they have found them in more strange places in the state.
One such location, which is not unusual in the northwest part of the state is within a swamp.
"That's actually really common for male bears to go out into cattail swamps and they kind of weave together a big nest and sleep in this nest, which is actually cozier than you might imagine cause they are deep into it and with all the cattails around it really blocks the wind and it's actually quite warm, but their back is exposed and they get snow on their backs."
Bear population highGuida noted the Brainerd bear call was one of many bear calls that came in this season. Bear calls were above average this year for a couple reasons, Guida said.
"There was a significant amount of bear complaints received," Guida said. "The big reason for an increased number of bear complaints would be a general overall population increase, as well as a lower than normal amount of acorns or natural foods for bear to eat in the wilds."
He compared the bear situation to the mice problem much of the region has been experiencing. With a high population, warm conditions and a lower food supply, mice and bear were seen close to homes in search of food and staying active outdoors longer than normal.
Active bear surveysGarshelis notes prior to bear hunting season, there were 30 bears with radio collars across the state. Six of those bears were shot during the season.
From the radio collars, they can receive daily info about the movement of the bear within the den.
The DNR for the first time at the end of 2015 put out game cameras at the entrance to several bear dens. All batteries went dead during the winter though many photos were taken of the bears. This season they are using improved batteries to hopefully get images throughout the entire season. He hopes they can capture some images that might show if the bears come out of the den any time other than spring, such as during a mid-winter thaw.
Last year, they had over 100,000 images of bears coming out of their dens as well as a host of activities from all sorts of other creatures right outside the den, including humans. Some of the photos show researchers that bears tend to hang around the den for four-five weeks after waking up, often playing with their young.
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