There's a bear in the air.
by Berry Wijdeven
by Berry Wijdeven
![Haida Gwaii Bear - Taan. Photo Mary Helmer](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/airbear2_orig.jpg)
When the days get shorter and the temperatures start to drop, outside activities become less appealing while the couch looks increasingly inviting. It is fall and with winter on the way, the urge to hibernate becomes strong. Haida Gwaii Black Bears, while still loading up on as many salmon as they can get their paws on, surely must have similar thoughts. With food sources rapidly declining there isn’t enough to eat for them to make it through the winter. So they need a place to sleep, a den. A good den.
(Photo by Mary Helmer)
(Photo by Mary Helmer)
![Haida Gwaii Bear Den](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/editor/airbear3.jpg?1566511729)
A good den has two primary requirements. It needs to be secure and it needs to be dry. Secure so that a bear won’t be attacked while it is hibernating inside the den and dry so the bear doesn’t get soggy during the long winter months. Tree dens meet these requirements, often better than other locations such as rock crevasses, or root wads, which can be damp. But while Haida Gwaii forests have many trees with cavities, dry and secure cavities suitable as bear dens are in much shorter supply and therefore much coveted.
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/published/airbear4.jpg?1566511843)
Some of the most common tree dens, the “Winnie the Pooh” dens, are those at the butt of a tree, especially in a tree which started its life on a nurse log. The roots of these trees wrap around the nurse log and once that log disintegrates, a cavity is created between the roots.
![Haida Gwaii Bear den in CMT](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/airbear6_orig.jpg)
Unique perhaps to Haida Gwaii, bears are using dens in trees which have been culturally modified. Historically when the Haida needed a large red cedar for a monumental pole, a canoe or beam for a longhouse, they needed to check the soundness of the tree. Large red cedars can be hollow and hollow trees are not suitable for the cultural uses listed. Rather than cut down the tree, a small test hole was carved in its side, originally with stone tools, later with metal ones, to see whether the tree was sound. Hollow trees were left standing and bears discovered that with some minor modifications to the size of the test hole, they made ideal dens with dry interiors, sound walls and entrances small enough to be secure.
![Haida Gwaii bear scratchings](/uploads/1/2/6/9/126967338/editor/airbear8.jpg?1566512002)
The most unexpected dens are the aerial ones, the “bear in the air” dens located well up in trees. Aerial dens are often selected by female bears which use them to hide their cubs from aggressive males trying to kill them. By hibernating high up in a tree, ideally in dens with entrances too small for adult male bears to enter, the security needs are met. Those aerial dens are often identifiable by the marks left on the tree trunk by the bears climbing to and from the den. Sometimes there’s just the odd scratch mark here and there, but a tree with an aerial den which has been used for many, many years will show a battlefield worth of scratches.