Climate change and global warming plague global ecosystems and have also affected wildlife worldwide. While the rising temperatures have caused water scarcity, they have also resulted in bears coming out of hibernation earlier than usual – or forcing them to skip it altogether.
Warmer winters, later autumns and earlier springs in Türkiye have disrupted food chains and biological rhythms, preventing bears from hibernating. Bears normally hibernate to survive the winter, a time when food and water are scarcer in the wild. As soon as temperatures start warming in the spring, bears come out of their dens and start searching for food. But this year's record-warm winter has thrown off their natural patterns in different parts of Türkiye.
Northwestern Bursa province is home to Türkiye's only bear shelter, where a special nutrition program was prepared for 72 bears who did not hibernate. In the Karacabey Ovakorusu Bear Shelter and Celal Acar Wildlife Rescue Center located in the Karacabey district of Bursa, the bears are in good spirits on 302 decares of forest land. They are very well taken care of by their caretakers. Apart from the food they find in the natural environment, the bears prepared for winter by eating the fruits and vegetables offered by the caregivers.
Even though the bears at the center do not hibernate during the winter months, they enter a period of lethargy called "torpor" and less food is given as their metabolism slows down considerably.
Officials stated that a bear eats about 5 to 6 kilograms (11 to 13 pounds) of food a day, including apples, pears, cucumbers, chicken, pellet feed, and carrots. As a result, in the shelter, the bears are given a total of 400 kilograms of food on a daily basis.
Specialist Veterinarian Azizcan Sezer, head of the Celal Acar Wild Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, said: "We started supporting their hibernation period as of the end of summer. We give high-calorie foods to the animals in the shelter. In this period, our goal is to help them store fat.
"In our center, animals cannot fully hibernate because they are fed outside of their natural habitats. But they spend this period resting more often since their metabolisms significantly slow down. We also provide supplemental feeding to help them maintain their energy."
The brown bears in the Black Sea province of Bartın are also unable to hibernate and continue to roam in nature, as seen in the camera traps set up around the province.
Numerous photo traps have been installed in wildlife development areas within the scope of the project to determine and monitor the wildlife population. The project has been carried out by Bartın University and the Bartın Nature Conservation and National Parks Branch Directorate for 10 years.
Images of many wild animals such as roe deer, wild boar, red foxes, brown bears, rabbits, badgers and otters have been captured on camera many times in forest areas. In the past few years, it was determined that brown bears have been unable to hibernate by retreating to their dens due to unseasonally warm temperatures. They instead continue to wander the woods in winter.
Experts have warned that brown bears are the most aggressive in winter; therefore forest villagers, forestry workers and citizens who enter forest areas to collect wild mushrooms should be careful.
Bartın University's (BARU) Bartın Faculty of Forestry and Department of Forestry Engineering lecturer Associate Dr. Nuri Kaan Özkazanç noted that they have been carrying out wildlife monitoring studies with camera traps for 10 years and found that there is a delay in hibernation in brown bears due to the mild climate this year.
In his statement, Özkazanç warned those venturing into the forests: "We can see that many brown bears are currently actively roaming more intensively than in previous years. Normally, it is impossible to see brown bears in winter, but the increase in density frankly worries us."
Listing what to do in a possible encounter with brown bears in the forest area, Özkazanç said, "It is very important not to disturb animals. For brown bears in a possible encounter, get away from them as slowly and calmly as possible. It should not be forgotten that brown bears are very hungry and aggressive in this context, especially during hibernation and awakening periods.
Despite being mid-January in eastern Erzincan province, bears that did not hibernate due to the absence of the expected snowy winter remain sleepless.
On the Munzur Mountains, one side of which faces Erzincan and the other side Tunceli, the bears continue to wander the forests and search for food. Nature lovers who noted that the bears used to hibernate in previous years said that the lack of snow this year has largely affected wildlife in general.
Within the framework of the project to study the species via movements and changes over time in the Munzur Mountains, brown bears have been caught by camera traps searching for food.
