This article discusses how climate change is making berries ripen faster, and that’s bad news for bears, Calgary-led research says. ‘Grizzlies will have less time to forage for their most important caloric food source’.
Climate change is predicted to make buffaloberries ripen much faster than they do now, and that could make life difficult for Rocky Mountain grizzly bears, which need to feast on them before they hibernate for the winter, University of Calgary researchers say.
Projections done by the U of C’s department of geography show that in as little 60 years, buffaloberries in the Rockies will ripen three weeks earlier than they do now, according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change by David Laskin and several colleagues, including his PhD supervisor, U of C professor Greg McDermid.