I rarely see bears. Once in a while one walks through our wooded areas, or maybe even strolls across the driveway. I've never seen one with glasses, or hearing aids.
...Bear eyesight is awful, the hearing is ordinary and the sense of smell is terrific.
I was intrigued by your comment and so went a'Googling to see what I could, er... see and hear. All the 'bear facts' sites I looked at say that bears have good/excellent eyesight, and decent hearing.
Is your experience different?
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From yellowstonebearworld.com) Bears actually have excellent eyesight. ... Yes, bears do have an amazing sense of smell, but it does not make up for a lack of vision because they actually have excellent eyesight. Bears can see just as well as humans do during the daytime, but it is during the night that their fantastic vision pulls out all the stops. Like your familyâs dog or cat, bears have amazing night vision. There is a reflective membrane on the back of their eye called the tapetum lucidum which reflects light and causes light sensitive cells to react a second time to the light and therefore greatly enhances their vision at night. This is why if you see a picture of them at night, their eyes look greenish. —————————————————
From Alaska Department of Fish and Game: One common misconception is that bears have poor eyesight. The reasons behind this misconception are understandable, but evidence indicates that bearsâ eyesight is comparable to ours.
âFrom my experience bears can see very well at a distance, at least as well as humans,â said biologist Harry Reynolds. Reynolds is a bear biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Fairbanks and serves as president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management.
Vision: Bears see in color and have sharp vision close-up. Their distance vision (over two hundred yards) has not been tested.
Hearing: Hearing is the black bearâs first line of defense against danger because they can hear in all directions (unlike smell) and they can hear farther than they can see in brushy forest. Their ears develop to full size more quickly than the rest of their body. Their hearing is over twice the sensitivity of human hearing and exceeds human frequency ranges
Odd to read of black bears that are not already hibernating at this time of year.
Denning is never a true hibernation; bears will come out and wander around if it's warmer weather, and may never actually go into that lower metabolism state if there's enough food. OR if there's not enough food and they keep foraging. I imagine Virginia sees bear activity pretty often during the winter.
Grizzly bears are dying at a record pace in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but wildlife officials say thatâs a sign of a population that has reached its carrying capacity. The leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team said this week that, despite the deaths, the grizzly population appears to be growing.
Holy crap...DO SOMETHING SUSAN! That look was classic.
