The ironically exuberant song "Food, Glorious Food" from the musical "Oliver!" showcases a bleak reality of Victorian England. Half-starved, mistreated orphans in a workhouse fantasize about food while queuing for their meager rations of gruel.
Their obsession is understandable. Food means survival.
Among the wildlife of our region, no animal demonstrates that same food obsession better than the black bear.
During autumn's feeding frenzy, a bear may spend as many as 22 hours a day foraging, consuming something like 20,000 calories before winter arrives. This period of relentless eating, known as hyperphagia, is especially important for female bears.
Black bears mate in late spring or early summer, but the embryos do not begin developing right away. Instead, they remain dormant through the summer while the mother builds the fat reserves she'll need for winter. If she fails to accumulate roughly 30 to 35 percent body fat, her body simply reabsorbs the embryos.
But if she stores enough fat, the embryos—typically two—implant in the uterus and begin developing as she settles into hibernation.
Contrary to popular belief, the mother bear does briefly awaken when her cubs are born in midwinter. Barely larger than chipmunks, blind and nearly hairless, they instinctively find her belly and nurse throughout the rest of winter while the family remains tucked safely inside the den.
By spring, those tiny cubs have grown into playful youngsters weighing several pounds, ready to toddle out of the den and sometimes even climb trees.
The youngsters in Oliver! sang "Food, Glorious Food" because they were starving. A mother bear doesn't sing, but every autumn her relentless search for food tells the same story. Food means survival.
And she is eating for three, storing enough energy to sustain herself and her cubs through six long months of winter.
