Hibernation is the preferred method for bears to escape the cold of winter.

Bears however, are not true hibernators. The body temperature of bears stays normal. They burn an estimated 4,000 food calories a day. While in hibernation they can awake and move about quite often. Yet they can exist for three months or more without food or water.

During their hibernation, the bears neither defecate or urinate. This would normally mean that nitrogenous wastes during that time would cause poisoning to the urinal system. However this it does not do. The bear solves its nitrogenous waste problem by a form of recycling." The hibernating bears body diverts nitrogen from pathways that synthesise urea into pathways that generate amino acids and new proteins. And it does this by glycerol (produced when fats are metabolized) and recycled nitrogen as the building blocks" according to the New Scientist Magazine of February 1985.

The female grizzly bear will have her cubs during the winter hibernation. During hibernation she does not eat or drink anything at all, yet still she is able to nurse and care for her cubs. The mating period usually occurs in may to early July each year, and the cubs are born generally around January or February, right during the cold winter months. But the gestation period is not very long for the female. She has very tiny offspring usually weighing only a pound or two at birth, so it is easier for her to nurse and feed them even though she does not eat or drink anything during those months.

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