Posted by Kirsten Pisto/Communications with Animal Keeper Maddie Weholt
Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo
Maddie: Their weights change weekly year-round, right now they are dropping weight. Both hit their high weights for the season at the end of October. Juniper’s high weight was 491 lb and Fern’s high was 441 lb. Both bears have lost about 40 lb since then, and we expect them to continue to lose weight until around April or May. If we weighed them today, those weights would be wrong again by the time you read this post—they change that much! Some weeks their weight fluctuates by just a pound or so, some weeks they’ll lose close to 10 lb! We do weigh them weekly year-round and are continuing to do so as their sleepiness allows. So far this winter, only one weekly weighing has been skipped due to sleepy bears—you know how they say “let a sleeping dog lie”? Same applies to bears! We wouldn’t purposefully wake them up just to be weighed.
Maddie: Right now they are not getting any treats because all of their favorite foods are very high in calories, which can impact a bear’s ability to torpor! But both bears favorite treats are grapes, honey and mixed nuts. Fern prefers meat over all other fruits and veggies, Juniper prefers fruits and veggies over meat.
Maddie: I like explaining that “hibernation” in bears is not like true hibernation seen in other animals like some amphibians or some small mammals. Torpor is a more accurate word for what bears do because everything slows way down, but no bodily functions actually shut down/stop. One of the coolest things about the bear body is that their internal body temperature doesn’t drop very much—the bears are able to wake up quickly if they need to. This is an important survival strategy in case the bear’s den starts to collapse, and because mother bears give birth during torpor, they can still act fast if another bear or predator tries to enter the den and come after cubs.
I always tell people that I like to think of torpor as a spectrum—bears are not fast asleep for months at a time. I like to say that it’s kind of like when you fall asleep on the couch and wake up not knowing what time it is or even what day it is, then you fall back asleep—it’s kind of like that for months at a time! Our girls have done something a little different each winter that they’ve lived here, and our management has evolved each year as we learn more about what they need. Neither bear had the opportunity to den up and torpor with their mothers, so they are learning more about what they need each year too. Both have shown a lot of natural seasonality since they first got here—which isn’t always the case when young bears come into human care. They’ve always initiated their diet decreases by leaving food in the late fall, which lets us know they are gearing up to wind down for the season.
Maddie: MUCH less. Right now they are only eating a bland diet of omnivore chow (offered ad lib) and ½ a pound of vegetables per day—if they wake up! There have been a few days this winter where they have not been up for long at all and have not eaten anything.
Compare that to middle of September when they were receiving the most food (when they are in hyperphagia): Juniper was getting 28 lb of food per day (meat/kibble/fruits and veggies), and Fern was getting 24 lb of food per day (meat/kibble, fruits and veggies)! Each bear was also receiving around 4 heads of romaine lettuce, and varying enrichment foods they had to forage for.
Photos by Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren/Woodland Park Zoo
Happy 3rd birthday to Juniper and Fern!
Since their arrival at Woodland Park Zoo in 2022, rescued brown bears Juniper and Fern have snuggled into just about every heart in the Puget Sound. They are now snuggled up in their very own den—dreaming of spring!
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| The brown bears during a lazy wrestle sesh on a den-break in January 2025. |
Both cubs were rescued from their native habitats. Juniper is a coastal brown bear from Anchorage, Alaska; Fern is a grizzly bear from Montana. They were too young to survive on their own. It is estimated the cubs were each born in January 2022.
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| An image from the den cam shows Fern and Juniper snug as can be! January 2025 |
Fern and Juniper bonded quickly after being introduced on Woodland Park Zoo's Living Northwest Trail in November 2022 and the rest is history. We can't believe these love muffins are turning three! While we don't know their exact birthdays, we choose to celebrate them on January 31—a great day for a brown bear bear birthday. Their first birthday was a bash, their second birthday was much more chill, but this year it's a snooze fest! January is the natural time for brown bears to slow down and den up for winter. This winter, both girls have been in torpor (that's brown bear for sleepy, relaxing, hygge season) so we're waiting until spring to throw them the party they deserve.
To celebrate these sleepy beauties, we asked animal keeper Maddie to catch us up on what Juniper and Fern have been doing (or not doing), and explain what "hibernation" really means for these two—and why they seem to be upping their game in the cozy department. Currently, the bears have 24/7 access to their outdoor exhibit as well as a behind the scenes den where they can really get some uninterrupted snoozing in (if they choose to do so). Visitors should still stop by the Living Northwest Trail, because the bears might just be out, plus there is a secret den cam in the Nysether Family Riverhouse where you can see them cuddled up in their behind-the-scenes den (absolutely adorable).
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| February 2024 |
We can't believe the girls are three! They have grown so much since just last year. How much do they weigh now?
Maddie: Their weights change weekly year-round, right now they are dropping weight. Both hit their high weights for the season at the end of October. Juniper’s high weight was 491 lb and Fern’s high was 441 lb. Both bears have lost about 40 lb since then, and we expect them to continue to lose weight until around April or May. If we weighed them today, those weights would be wrong again by the time you read this post—they change that much! Some weeks their weight fluctuates by just a pound or so, some weeks they’ll lose close to 10 lb! We do weigh them weekly year-round and are continuing to do so as their sleepiness allows. So far this winter, only one weekly weighing has been skipped due to sleepy bears—you know how they say “let a sleeping dog lie”? Same applies to bears! We wouldn’t purposefully wake them up just to be weighed.
Maddie: Right now they are not getting any treats because all of their favorite foods are very high in calories, which can impact a bear’s ability to torpor! But both bears favorite treats are grapes, honey and mixed nuts. Fern prefers meat over all other fruits and veggies, Juniper prefers fruits and veggies over meat.
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| A bear bestie greeting. March 2024 |
We know they've been snuggled up together in their den or the bear cave, but we've also noticed Fern on her log perch and Juniper eying the trout, any other activities they seem to enjoy lately?
Maddie: There have been some days they’ve stayed inside the den nearly all day, and some days they’ve been outside more than inside. We’ve seen them eating grass (normal for bears seasonally), have little bouts of the zoomies, and simply meander around their exhibit. Both like sitting at the back of the exhibit where they can see keepers walk from the bear office to the mountain goat barn or down to otter holding—they like to know what we are up to too! Juniper likes to sit on the rocks across from the lower bear viewpoint, and Fern enjoys watching the fish from the rocks too. When inside the den they are either sleeping, resting, or lazy wrestling.
Maddie: This is still very much a learning and information gathering year, and we really are seeing something a little bit different with the bears pretty much every day! They were given access to the private den for the first time this season on December 24. They scoped it out, but didn’t start really consistently using it until about three days later—at that point they were treating the cave like their winter sleeping place. They did some adjusting and have since decided the private den seems like a better place to sleep the winter away. They will occasionally still check out the cave but it’s certainly not every day. We’ve been watching overnight footage as well and they’ve both been spending the night in the den consistently.
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| During Pumpkin Bash 2024. The pumpkins didn't stand a chance! |
Assuming this sleepy winter is the new norm for them (until spring)... can you explain "hibernation"and what that actually means for our bears?
Maddie: I like explaining that “hibernation” in bears is not like true hibernation seen in other animals like some amphibians or some small mammals. Torpor is a more accurate word for what bears do because everything slows way down, but no bodily functions actually shut down/stop. One of the coolest things about the bear body is that their internal body temperature doesn’t drop very much—the bears are able to wake up quickly if they need to. This is an important survival strategy in case the bear’s den starts to collapse, and because mother bears give birth during torpor, they can still act fast if another bear or predator tries to enter the den and come after cubs.
I always tell people that I like to think of torpor as a spectrum—bears are not fast asleep for months at a time. I like to say that it’s kind of like when you fall asleep on the couch and wake up not knowing what time it is or even what day it is, then you fall back asleep—it’s kind of like that for months at a time! Our girls have done something a little different each winter that they’ve lived here, and our management has evolved each year as we learn more about what they need. Neither bear had the opportunity to den up and torpor with their mothers, so they are learning more about what they need each year too. Both have shown a lot of natural seasonality since they first got here—which isn’t always the case when young bears come into human care. They’ve always initiated their diet decreases by leaving food in the late fall, which lets us know they are gearing up to wind down for the season.
The first year they were reeeeally sleepy for about a month, but that was it. They still shifted and ate some every day. The second year they slept harder, so in January we bedded up the cave for them so they’d have a cozy place to sleep, and they took to it like moths to a flame. Some days they would come in for food, other days they would not, and we overall took more of a hands-off approach with them to see what they wanted to do. This lasted a little over a month, and is really what got us thinking about what else we could provide for them in the winter to allow them to really lean into their natural seasonality and torpor—which brings us to this year. The bears now have 24/7 access to their exhibit and holding den for the winter, so they have full choice of where they want to be. We already had a den built in to their holding area, and are now letting the bears take full advantage of it! If they are up, we offer food, and if they are sleeping, we let them be. It’s a very fluid type of management that is totally tailored to what our specific bears need. I am sure we will continue to learn more each year and will further adapt our management of our lovely bear ladies for years to come.
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| Enjoying a blue-sky spring day in March 2024 |
Do they eat a lot less during this time?
Maddie: MUCH less. Right now they are only eating a bland diet of omnivore chow (offered ad lib) and ½ a pound of vegetables per day—if they wake up! There have been a few days this winter where they have not been up for long at all and have not eaten anything.
Compare that to middle of September when they were receiving the most food (when they are in hyperphagia): Juniper was getting 28 lb of food per day (meat/kibble/fruits and veggies), and Fern was getting 24 lb of food per day (meat/kibble, fruits and veggies)! Each bear was also receiving around 4 heads of romaine lettuce, and varying enrichment foods they had to forage for.
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| Fern scopes out the stream. February 2024 |
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Juniper takes a dip! October 2024 |
Sleeping through January doesn't sound half bad! Maybe we could learn a bit from these two. How much of the day are they really sleeping?
Maddie: Totally depends on the day! I’m not sure I have a good number estimate right now. Often they’ll sleep for a while, then wake up and readjust or wrestle a little bit before falling back asleep. Sometimes they’ll be lying down but resting instead of sleeping. And some days they will go play on exhibit for a bit! I will say I feel they are sleeping harder during the day in the den than they did in the bear cave—it’s much quieter and doesn’t have any visual distractions.
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| Juniper is Queen of the rocks! September 2024 |
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| Log jam! November 2024 Beth Keplinger / Woodland Park Zoo |
Thank you animal keeper Maddie for this cozy peek at our snuggly birthday bears! We'd also like to shout out Fern and Junipers dedicated animal keeper team and animal health carers for making sure these two are living their beary best on Living Northwest Trail—during torpor, trout spring, summer fruit bliss, pumpkin season and all year long! We wish Juniper and Fern a beautiful year full of all their seasonal favorites!
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| Flash back! The cubs in 2022 |
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| The floof was unreal. Fern and Juniper in 2022 |
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