animals

We interrupt our mostly Michigan content to bring you important news about Alaska’s Fat Bear Week online competition! Some of the largest brown bears on the planet make their home at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, and in addition to being adorably chonky, the fattest bears are best prepared for winter hibernation.

While Michigan doesn’t have brown bears, our native black bear population is also out there in the woods right now, actively searching for the raw materials to pack on the pounds. The Michigan DNR says that about about 13,000 American black bears live in Michigan. Most of them (around 11,000) live in the Upper Peninsula with around 1,700 in the northern Lower Peninsula. Their Living with Black Bears guide says that the black bear is the only species of bear with an average lifespan of 10 years in the wild. Male black bears live in an area about 100 square miles or more in size, while females live in smaller areas about 10 to 20 square miles. They are solitary animals, a sow (female bear who has birthed at least one cub) and her cubs may be seen together.

Black bears can have various color phases including black (most common in Michigan), brown and cinnamon. In Michigan, adult female black bears range from 100 to 250 pounds while adult males can weigh up to 400 pounds. Adult black bears measure about three feet high on all fours & five feet tall when standing upright.

Black bears are omnivorous & will travel great distances to find food, opportunistically feeding on both plants and animal including tender vegetation, nuts, berries, and insects. Black bears are generally fearful of humans and will leave if they are aware of your presence, but human foods, garbage, pet foods, & birdseed can definitely draw them to your door! In the rare circumstance that a bear doesn’t turn and leave, try to scare it off by yelling while leaving a clear, unobstructed escape route for the bear. If the bear stands its ground, makes threatening sounds or bluff charges, you are too close. Take slow steps backward while continuing to talk to the bear in a stern tone. In the rare event of an attack, fight back with a backpack. DO NOT run or play dead.

Mark captured these black bears out for a Saturday morning stroll near Empire back in June of 2015. You can see more in his In In My Backyard gallery on Flickr.

Woody the Woodchuck by Howell Nature Center

The Howell Nature Center shares: Groundhog Day 2025 is a wrap! Woody has predicted EARLY SPRING! 🌷🪻☀️ Thank you to everyone who came out to help us celebrate with Michigan’s official woodchuck. This was Woody’s 27th prediction, and her accuracy rate is about 65%!

So keep your Punxsutawney Phil forecast of 6 more weeks of winter, I’m going with Michigan’s official groundhog! Last year the Howell Nature Center shared why the event is so meaningful to them, education:

Groundhogs are often villified because of their digging habits, and it is easy to forget about their neat adaptations and their role in the ecosystem. We love sharing information about them to increase understanding, and this event gives Woody the opportunity to serve as an ambassador for her species to help people live in harmony with woodchucks.

DID YOU KNOW…

🐾 Woodchucks dig burrows that can be 50 ft long and include several different chambers for different purposes like raising young, hibernating, and toileting? Other species will even move into abandoned chambers!

🐾 With all that digging, woodchucks help aerate soil and recycle nutrients to increase soil health.

🐾 Woodchucks help disperse seeds, which promotes plant growth and diversity.

🐾 Woodchucks sometimes eat insects, which helps eliminate garden pests like grubs.

🐾 Woodchucks are an important part of the ecosytem and provide food for predators.

🐾 Woodchucks, also known as “whistle pigs”. are one of our only true hibernators in MI.

🐾 Their body temperatures can drop to 40 F and their heart rates to 4 beats per minute during hibernation.

Our wildlife helpline is available to help solve conflict with groundhogs that are living in undesirable places. We have lots of tips and tricks to humanely evict them and encourage them to move to a different location. Trapping and relocating is never a good idea, since it often results in death of groundhogs that are not able to find resources in a new location or of babies that have been orphaned by the removal of their mother.

I hope that you are able to make a donation on their website. Here are some of the injured and orphaned chucks they have cared for in their rehabilitation clinic.