The fact that a bear is hibernating during the winter is an old lesson learned in the first grade. What most people don’t know is the way he is doing it. “The bear sleeps in a den…obviously” would say some people. Well, at the “Libearty” Sanctuary in Zărnești, the former captive bears are taking advantage of their freedom and they choose themselves “the style” in which to hibernate.
Some of them, the delayed ones are digging quickly a hole in the snow and they “hide” there. They will fall asleep there and if the snow will fall on them, the animal caretakers would get scared each time they pass near the fence because they won’t know where the snoring is coming from.
Others, the laziest, are not even taking in consideration to dig a hole. They just fall asleep under the clear blue sky after which they longed for long years spent in captivity.
Max for example, even if he has two dens in his enclosure, he chose to hibernate between the two dens. Now he is free to chose where to sleep and he has chosen the semi-freedom…neither inside a den, nor outside in the open.
Ursula instead, adopted the classical style of hibernation, in the den. The old lady has decided to take advantage of the conditions offered by the sanctuary team and in gratitude she chose the interior of the den as a place to hibernate.
