Hibernating bears’ bathrooms

This video is called Black bear and cubs in hibernation – BBC wildlife.

From eNature Blog in the USA:

Bears Have Evolved An Interesting Solution To A Winter Plumbing Problem

Posted on Sunday, April 14, 2013 by eNature

Most of our readers like bears and want to help protect them. But almost no one would want anything to do with a bear plug.

Not once you’ve heard where it’s been.

The bear plug is a curious product of bear hygiene. Bears do not use their bedrooms for bathrooms, and excrement is never found in a bear’s den.

So how do they survive the time holed up in their winter den without relieving themselves? That’s where the bear plug comes in.

A few days before retiring for the winter, a bear begins gorging itself on indigestible materials, things like leaves and pine needles and even pieces of its own hair. This roughage passes along the digestive tract and lodges low in the large intestine, forming an anal plug as much as one foot long. And there it remains until spring, when the bear emerges … and finally gets some relief.

Click here for more about the American Black Bear.

Click here for more about the Grizzly Bear.

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