To beat heat, Yellowstone grizzlies jump into bear bathtub

Being a bear in Yellowstone National Park on a hot summer day can be pretty miserable.

Bears are natural heat magnets and they don’t sweat. Like dogs, panting is their only option. Often, this is not enough.

“Bears, just by their structure, they’re able to retain heat. Their fur is thick, and the fur is usually dark, so it absorbs heat,” Yellowstone bear management biologist Kerry Gunther told Cowboy State daily”.

To make matters worse, both black and grizzly bears are trying to store as much fat as possible in preparation for winter hibernation.

All that fat retains more calories, Gunther says.

So what’s a poor overheated bear to do?

Fortunately, backcountry areas of Yellowstone are dotted with small ponds and sinkholes filled with cold water that serve as “bear bathtubs,” so to speak.

“These cool little places” attract a lot of bears in the summer, Gunther said.

Bears will plop down and soak in it, drink gulps of water, and even swim in larger ponds.

The National Park Service will not reveal the exact locations of these most popular bear resting areas. This secrecy protects bears from human harassment, as well as reckless humans from bears who don’t want their bath time to be interrupted.

Usually close to food sources

A few years ago, National Geographic installed a remote camera near a bear bathtub and captured some amazing, sometimes hysterical, footage of bears using it.

At the end of the film, a grizzly bear stops to check the camera, starts messing with it, and eventually knocks it over.

Gunther said he knew the location where the film was filmed. It’s near some whitebark pine trees. In years when the trees are particularly lush, bears gather there and gorge themselves on whitebark pine nuts, which can literally make them fat.

That particular tub also attracted a lot of bears during those years.

He said being close to a food source makes a good bear bathtub because the bear can alternate between eating and taking a bath to cool down.

Gunther said the bear bathtub is not commonly used during June and July, even though July is typically the hottest month in Yellowstone.

During the early summer months, bears are still relatively thin and can find other ways to cool off.

“They dig holes and lie in the cooler soil in the shade,” he said.

Tub usage is usually highest in August and September, when the bears really start to gain weight.

Whose turn is it?

Bears also prefer remote and inaccessible ponds to avoid human disturbance.

The bears in the National Geographic film may look relaxed, but Gunther said the bears are actually on high alert while bathing.

Of course, they listen for people approaching and are also keenly aware of the presence of other bears.

Any bear is free to use the tub—until a bigger, meaner bear shows up.

“They developed a pecking order,” Gunther said. “When a more dominant bear shows up, those lower in the pecking order will run away quickly.”

The National Geographic film once showed a black bear jumping into a swimming pool, then immediately climbing out and escaping.

Gunther said this is typical behavior for black bears if they sense a grizzly approaching. As a smaller species, black bears avoid conflicts with grizzly bears.

“Both black bears and grizzly bears use these ponds. It takes a little while to jump out of the water, so when the grizzlies show up, the black bears are always ready to jump out and run,” he said.

No personnel issues yet

So far, Gunther said, there have been no examples of humans coming into conflict with bears in any bathtubs.

He said most conflicts between humans and bears in Yellowstone occur on hiking trails or when bears are actively feeding and distracted.

Gunther said the hope is that the vast majority of visitors to Yellowstone won’t see these isolated bear bathtubs, because the bears become so dependent on them as temperatures soar.

Mark Heinz can be reached Tag @cowboystatedaily.com.