Text Transcript with Description of Visuals
| Audio | Video |
|---|---|
| Chelsea Davis: Hi. Welcome to the Washington State University Bear Center. I want to take you on a brief journey to understand hibernation here at the Bear Center and why we do it. | A woman speaks to the camera. She wears a green polo with a Washington State University Bear Center logo on it. As she speaks, clips of educational materials, and bears crawling over grass and logs are shown. |
| [ Music ] | Title screen. Winter's Rest. Grizzly Bear Hibernation at W S U. Then, the same woman. Onscreen text. Chelsea Davis, W S U Bear Center manager, Pullman, Washington. |
| Hibernation is a very complicated process. It starts in August with a phase called hyperphagia, where the bears increase their appetite with the purpose of gaining fat. | Onscreen text. Hyperphagia. A group of five grizzly bears, shown from above, eating grass. |
| Just prior to hibernation, bears will have a fat percentage of 25 to 40% of their body weight. | Onscreen text. Hyperphagia. A group of five black bears, shown from above, eating grass. Then, close-ups of individual bears eating grass. |
| Fat is what they use for energy during hibernation to maintain bodily functions like body temperature and other core functions. | Images of bears are intercut with clips of Davis speaking. |
| The cue to start hibernating is actually the lack of food or lack of calories in the environment. | Chelsea Davis speaks to the camera. |
| While many zoos choose not to hibernate their bears, we choose to hibernate them so that we can study genetic processes and physiological processes of hibernation that helps greatly aid our research. | Davis working in an office with a video monitor showing another area, as on a security camera. Then, an interior enclosure with straw on the floor and a light shining in the corner, with one bear inside. |
| We also realize that hibernation is a great way to naturally control weight. | Two bears in a similar enclosure, shot from a high corner. |
| When they come out of hibernation in the spring, they've lost 17 to 20% of that body weight. | A bear in an outdoor, small, fenced-in enclosure, shown from above. Then, Davis and another Bear Center worker, outside the same enclosure, observing a digital readout on a machine. An arrow superimposed on the screen indicates the number on the readout. |
| We make sure to hibernate our bears at the same time as wild bears in the area. This makes sure that it's as natural of a process as possible. They're not stressed, and they are not starving. | Davis in an office, observing six different enclosures with bears in them on a monitor. |
| In fact, when we have offered food during hibernation, they either completely refuse eating or eat very little. To make sure that we mimic wild cues, we wait to start the hibernation preparation process until mid-October, when the temperature starts to change. | Davis walks down a hallway, looking into a series of enclosures through grated screens. |
| We slowly decrease the amount of food that we offer at each feeding until one day we stop feeding altogether. Once the bears have their final meal, we go ahead. We let them empty their GI tract and their urinary bladder. | Two bears enter an enclosure. In one corner is a pile of six apples and what appear to be nuts. |
| We give one last good cleaning, and then we give them a bale of straw to make their beds, and then they do what they do naturally for the next four months of hibernation. | Davis puts a bale of straw into an enclosure. Then, a clip of two bears spreading out straw on the floor of an enclosure. Then, two bears getting comfortable and sleeping on a straw-covered floor. |
| During hibernation, we do monitor them through a remote camera system. We watch for activity. | A monitor screen showing sixteen different views, mostly of bears sleeping in enclosures. |
| They do get up, move around, and reposition. They just do not urinate, defecate, drink, or eat during this period. We do go ahead and record this behavior. This allows us to monitor them both for USDA and for our own research, and it also allows us to make sure that they are progressing through hibernation. | A few clips of bears getting up from sleep, changing their spots or positions, and nestling back down. In one clip, a bear settles itself lying across another bear. |
| [Snoring sound effect] [Music] | A sign from the Bear Center asking patrons to be quiet and explaining that the bears are hibernating. |
| [Snoring sound effect] [Music] | Logo, Washington State University, Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center. |