Caching, the act of a bear burying its food, is a survival behavior practiced by large carnivores across the globe. This instinct involves covering a substantial food source with natural materials to save it for later consumption. The behavior reflects the intense caloric demands of these animals, especially in preparation for the winter denning period.
Which Bears Practice Caching
The tendency to cache large animal carcasses is not universal among all bear species, but it is prominent for certain types. Brown bears, including Grizzlies, are the most frequent practitioners. Their reliance on large prey, such as ungulates like elk or moose, makes caching an important strategy for managing a kill too large to consume in one session. American Black bears also cache food, although they do so less often and typically only with sizable kills they have scavenged or hunted. Polar bears also cache their kills, using snow and ice as the primary covering material to protect seal carcasses.
The Strategic Reasons for Hiding Food
Caching is a strategy that maximizes a bear’s caloric intake while minimizing energy expenditure. The primary purpose of covering a kill is to protect the resource from competitors and scavengers, such as wolves, coyotes, and avian species. Concealing the carcass deters detection and prevents other animals from claiming the meal. Storing a large kill allows the bear to consume the meat over multiple days, which is beneficial when the animal cannot finish the entire carcass in one feeding session. In cooler climates, the covering helps preserve the meat by limiting spoilage. Caching extends the availability of a high-calorie food source, ensuring the bear gains maximum nutritional benefit.
How Bears Construct a Cache
A bear constructs a cache using surrounding materials to create a dense, protective mound over the carcass. The animal uses its paws and claws to rake together debris, including dirt, sod, leaf litter, moss, and broken tree branches. For bears in snowy regions, such as Polar bears, the covering material is a thick layer of packed snow. The construction is a forceful piling of material designed for concealment and deterrence, not a neat burial. Brown bears often choose remote or densely vegetated locations to obscure the kill from sight and smell. The mound physically hides the meat and helps mask the strong odor of a decaying carcass. After covering the kill, the bear often remains nearby for several days, actively guarding the hidden food source.
Recognizing and Avoiding a Bear Cache
Encountering a bear cache presents one of the most dangerous situations for a person in bear country, as the animal will defend this resource with extreme aggression. The first and most obvious sign of a cache is a strong, foul odor of rotting meat, which may be apparent before the physical location is visible. Visually, a cache appears as an unnatural mound of debris, like a low, irregular pile of dirt, sticks, and leaves that seems out of place on the forest floor.
The area immediately surrounding the cache may also show signs of the bear’s activity, including fresh tracks, large patches of disturbed soil, or drag marks indicating where the carcass was moved. If any of these signs are detected, a person should immediately assume they are within the bear’s defensive zone and that the animal is likely nearby. The bear may be hidden in the dense cover, watching the cache.
The instruction for safe retreat is to move away from the cache immediately without running, as running may trigger a predatory chase response. Instead, a person should slowly and calmly back away from the area, keeping their eyes on the cache site while speaking in a low, assertive voice. The goal is to leave the area as quickly as possible without startling or challenging the bear that is guarding the food. If a bear is encountered near its cache, the situation is considered a defensive encounter, where the bear is protecting its property, and a person’s priority is to demonstrate they are not a threat to the food source.