Can you bear it?
Monday, December 9, 2024
Even if something is not edible, bears will try to eat it-scented air freshen-ers, cherry lip balm. The black bear is the terrestrial equivalent of a shark, the sharpest nose in the ocean; its sense of smell is seven times better than a blood-hound's, several thousand times better than a human's. A bear that detects so much as a Tic Tac will remember the location of that score forever-and teach it to her cubs….
In autumn, bears enter hyperphagia: they must eat at least twenty thousand calories (the equivalent of thirty-six Big Macs) a day before they den.
Usain Bolt topped out at 27.8 miles an hour; bears can hit thirty.
Paige Williams, “The Wild Side: Is Lake Tahoe’s Bear Boom Gettng Out of Hand?,” The New Yorker, Dec. 2.