08/30/2026
There's More to Bears Than Meets the Eye
You can't hear me sighing
Or see my heart a crying
You can't know
'Cause it don't show on me.
Abuse, unuse, refuse, misuse
That I got from you
But you can't know the feeling
'Cause it just don't show on me
You can't know the heartbreak
And you can't feel the heartache
You can't know
'Cause it don't show on me.
—Buck Owens, It Don’t Show On Me
The old expression, “You can’t tell a book by its cover,” was proven true by a group of US and Swedish biologists. Researchers were worried about the psychological and physiological effects on Bears from intense, unrestrained human interaction by ATV users, mountain bikers, hikers, hunters, and, more recently, drones. At any time and virtually any place, humans intrude on Bear privacy and activities that are core to their survival—the search for food, ablutions, courting, denning, and care for young. Scientists wanted to assess what levels of fear and anxiety Bears might be experiencing.
In Bears, as in humans, chronic fear and anxiety lead to chronic stress, which in turn compromises immunity and psychological health and creates intra-specific tension and a suite of other potential maladies. Over time, stress in humans and Bears leads to severe psychological and physical harm. To assess internal states of wellbeing and stress effects, doctors and scientists commonly use cardiac measures of heart rate and heart rate variability. Biologists fit collars on Bears for this purpose.
At first, the biologists didn’t notice much behavior change when the Bears heard and saw drones. Most bears appeared unaffected. But data from the cardiac monitors showed otherwise. “You can’t tell a book by its cover”: What was happening inside the Bears told a completely different story. All of the Bears, even one denning for hibernation, showed off-the-chart heart rates, doubling when drones were sighted and heard overhead. The heart rate for a mother Bear with cubs jumped from 41 to 162 beats per minute.
Recovery from the spike of stress was slow. One Bear took more than three hours before his heart rate fell back to normal. On the outside, Bears seemed nonplussed, but inside, psychophysiologically, they were stressed to the max. This is an important message.
While the mountains and wilderness may be relaxing and an antidote to our own human stress, it isn’t for the Animals who live there. Charlie Russell, who lived with Grizzly Bears all of his seven-plus decades, put it this way: “When we stride off hiking, biking and hunting, it may feel good to us, but for a Bear it’s like a stranger bursts right in our living room and we have no idea what they plan to do, including if they plan to kill us.”
Given the precarious state of all Wildlife, and the further stress of fires, drought, loss of habitat and food shortages, it’s time to prioritize Animals' well-being over our own and feel content knowing that our restraint is helping Bears live in the peace and harmony of Nature that we love so much.
by Gay Bradshaw, The Applegater, Fall 2026
Photo credits: Charlie Russell
