Support The Moscow Times!

Abnormally Warm Winter Keeps Siberian Bears From Hibernating

“It’s a very warm December this year, and the brown bears Masha and Foma woke up and went outside this weekend.” Natalia Bolotova / bolzoo.ru

An unusually warm winter has kept some bears in a Siberian zoo from hibernating and forced others out of hibernation, the state-run TASS news agency reported Tuesday.

Several Siberian regions saw temperatures up to 14 degrees Celsius higher than usual in the early days of December, forecasters have said.

Two brown bears awoke while two Himalayan bears haven’t yet gone into hibernation at the Bolsherechensky Zoo in the Omsk region 2,000 kilometers east of Moscow, its spokeswoman Natalya Bolotova told TASS.

“It’s a very warm December this year, and the brown bears Masha and Foma woke up and went outside this weekend,” Bolotova said. “They were well fed, they saw that it wasn’t spring yet and climbed back into their dens.”

“The Himalayans Kuzya and Dasha haven’t even gone to sleep,” she added.

The bears can’t enter hibernation until temperatures fall below 10 degrees Celsius, Bolotova was quoted as saying. 

Zookeepers in the city of Novosibirsk further east also told TASS that their bears were struggling to go into hibernation because of the warm weather.

“They’re still awake,” the zoo’s spokesperson was quoted as saying. “As soon as daytime temperatures hit a constant minus, then we’ll start getting ready.”

Hundreds of brown bears in a southern Russian nature reserve went all winter without going into hibernation last year. Researchers expressed surprise that a lack of sleep hadn’t turned them into “aggressive insomniacs."

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just 2. It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more