Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

by Mary Roach

It’s early fall, the time of year when black bears eat with purpose and abandon, to construct the fat they will live off in their dens over the winter.* A hyperphagic black bear doubles or even triples its daily calorie count, taking in as much as 20,000 calories. As omnivores, bears happily eat a variety of foods; during hyperphagia, what they are drawn to most powerfully is a concentrated source. They want to take in lots of calories without having to burn lots of calories wandering around looking for calories. The mountains around Aspen have always supplied that: acorn-dropping oak brush, fruiting serviceberry and chokecherry trees, the outrageous fecundity of crabapple trees. Come the 1950s and ’60s, the skiers began to move in. Bears looked up from their nuts and berries and went, Hurunh? Birdseed hanging on a tree? Bag of kibble sitting on a deck? Yes, please. Soon they ventured into town, following the humans, because the humans provide. The alleys behind Aspen’s multitudinous restaurants are concentrated-food-source nirvana.