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A Plug For Bears

    Hey. everyone. I was walking in the woods today and saw more signs that a bear is hanging about. I found another nice track at the base of a different sourwood tree and saw where the big guy was digging for grubs around a fallen tree. All this reminded me of a somewhat gross but interesting fact about bears.
    Around this time of year when they feel the call of nature to hibernate, they seek out a lot of weird things to eat. I'm talking about leaves, pine needles, bark. Their goal is to plug up the digestive track with this stuff so they don't have any excrement during hibernation. I'm sure they don't sit around and think this up but rather it is an instinctive thing.
   At any rate, in the spring, when they awaken, they discharge this plug. It is sometimes two foot long or more, quite massive and decidedly gross. Several times in the spring, here at the green retreat, I have come across these plugs. Trust me, it will freak you out. It's like, oh my gosh, what has happened here???
Could the creature who did this possibly still be alive? Then you start to look around for a dead body or something.
    I think that this bear that has been hanging about lately has been in 'plug mode' and is using the bark of these little sourwood trees for that purpose. Hey, they use the stuff to make sourwood honey so I assume it has some adhesive value.
    Isn't it marvelous, the things that animals do? I find nature fascinating and endlessly entertaining. From the Bear Place, I'm CE Wills.  

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