ASHEVILLE-SEPT2021

“The Bears Aren’t Mean,
Just Hungry!”
Although fall is almost here, it’s never too soon to plan a trip
for next spring and summer. You might consider a road trip to
enjoy the scenic beauty and wildlife in MN. The Vince Shute
Wildlife Sanctuary (home of the non-profit American Bear
Association) in Orr, MN might make for a very worthwhile
experience—especially since we too, share our WNC
mountains with these intelligent and amazing creatures. The
information in this article was taken from their site at
americanbear.org (as well as the title, which is credited to
Vince Shute himself). Now closed for the season, they will
re-open on Memorial Day 2022.
Many years ago, a humble Minnesota logger made a
decision that would greatly affect black bears and the
attitudes people have towards this often-misunderstood
animal. It was then that Vince Shute chose to stop
shooting the bears that broke into his cabins. He tried a
more peaceful approach and the strategy worked – no
more break-ins. Vince claimed, “the bears aren’t mean,
just hungry!” Thus, began Vince’s long and celebrated life
with black bears in a tiny corner of the north woods near
Orr, Minnesota.
Generations of black bears still visit his former
homestead, now designated as The Vince Shute Wildlife
Sanctuary. The American Bear Association, a non-profit
organization, was formed to manage the sanctuary in
order to promote a better understanding of the black
bear through education, observation and experience.
Vince Shute’s final wish has become a reality – peaceful
coexistence between humans and bears. All of the bears
are free-roaming; they come and go at will through clover
meadows, cool cedar swamps and pine forest.
Far from solitary, simple-thinking, nuisances, black
bears are highly intelligent creatures. Bears possess the
largest and most convoluted brains relative to their size of
any land mammal. Researchers theorize that they are
actually more intelligent than chimpanzees. This is so,
because chimps stay in the same territory their whole life,
while black bears are constantly moving. Therefore, they
constantly need to adapt and problem solve in their new
environments.
As highly social beings, black bears form complex
social hierarchies and can remember familiar animals for
years, recognizing and identifying them from a distance
as far as 2,000 feet away. As omnivores, black bears
are significantly more intelligent than more specialized
feeders. This is so, because their varied diet means that
bears have to remember a lot of information about a wide
variety of food resources. Incredibly, black bears compile
a detailed map of their environment and can remember
where they encountered a certain food source from ten or
more years earlier.
Bears have something called a vomeronasal organ,
more commonly known as the Jacobson’s organ. This
organ is located on the roof of the mouth and connects
directly to the nasal cavity. The Jacobson organ aids
bears in smelling, and storing various scents. Male bears
will use their Jacobson’s organ to capture the pheromone
scent of a female in estrus during mating season. Mother
bears will chew up food and hold open their mouths for
their cubs to recognize a safe food source. The cubs will
use their Jacobson’s organ in order to store that scent. In
order to use this organ, bears will lift their head after
finding the scent, and use a facial movement called the
flehmen response, which helps direct the scent into the
organ. The flehmen response includes the bear wrinkling
its nose while curling its lips back.
At the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, we see
extensive signs of critical thinking. Bears will often use
half-rotten logs as floats to get across rivers and streams.
As shown in the photo below, bears often use logs as
bridges.
Amazingly, black bears can make long term plans. For
instance, bears will climb to the top of oak trees in midsummer
to assess the budding crop of acorns, as if to try to
determine how much food they will have come fall time.
Bears will also start searching for a den to hibernate in as
early as June-July. The incredible resourcefulness and
problem-solving abilities of black bears is what often times
gets them into trouble with humans. Bears have figured out
a plethora of ways to benefit from living in close proximity
with us. A bear could spend all day foraging for berries, or
get ten times that amount of protein, fat, and calories from
a Big Mac in your garbage. As such, living in bear country
requires a willingness to minimize bear attractants, as well
as a tolerance and appreciation of these incredible beings.
For more information about black bears and the
sanctuary, visit americanbear.org. Also on Facebook at
Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary. For helpful tips about
precautions for local bears, see Bear Wise Basics on p. 24.
PLEASE BE SURE YOUR PET HAS A
MICROCHIP AND ALWAYS WEARS AN
ID TAG WITH CURRENT INFORMATION!
CRITTER MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2021 • PAGE 9