Hard to fathom that with annual average temperatures seemingly up 3 or more degrees from the 100 year average that the snow brought on by Hurricane Sandy would cause early denning for Black Bears in West Virginia..............Early snows that bury acorns and beechnuts for sustained periods will cause Bears to go to den early-----but lately such early snows tend to melt quickly with weather warmups that instead can keep Bears in the woods longer, forestalling denning

Early Denning of Black Bears

Chris Lawrence;
wvmetronews.com

 

Hurricane Sandy's punch to West Virginia in the form of snow has brought a harsh taste of early winter to the West Virginia mountains.  The snowfall arrives well over a month ahead of the bear hunting season for houndsmen in the state.
 

Typically a snowfall the size of Sandy's Blizzard would spell trouble for bear hunters in the state's high mountains.  The mast buried under the deep snow would tend to drive the bears into hibernation.  The question on the minds of hunters now is how that will impact bears by happening this early.
 

"The big thing we're concerned about is just duration," said DNR District Biologist Rob Sylvester. "If this is really the beginning of a long, cold winter and we have a lot of snow then yeah, you may see some bears denning early.  But if this storm breaks up and it kind of clears up and we see the ground again, it may not be as bad as some people think."
 

Bears are driving into hibernation by the lack of food and not necessarily by the snowfall.  The first to go to den will be the pregnant sows.  They would only be a few weeks away from denning up regardless of the weather.  

"Mast conditions are the key and this year, it's a decent year," Sylvester said. "It's spotty, but typically when you have those very poor mast years is when it will drive bears into the dens."

Time will tell according to Sylvester about whether the early onset of winter has an impact.