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A popular bear emerged from hibernation in Golden, B.C. this week, suggesting spring has sprung early — but some experts say that while a warmer winter possibly influenced Boo’s awakening Monday, he is technically right on time.

The 22-year-old grizzly has been in a 22-acre enclosure at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort since 2003, after his mother was illegally shot by a hunter.

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Dominique de Vries, team lead of the Grizzly Bear Refuge at Kicking Horse, said Boo usually comes out in mid-March, and it’s typically for an hour, up to a couple of hours a day: “He still will return to his den; he’s still pretty sleepy and groggy.”

She added temperature and snowpack changes are usually determining factors for when bears come out of their dens.

“It has been a fairly warm year over here in Golden, so with his sleep pattern — we’ve seen him in and out of the den a little bit throughout January, and he’s been moving a bit around in the den. So, maybe not the most thorough sleep this year.”

Kim Titchener, president of Bear Safety & More Inc., is all too familiar with Boo and his caretakers and joked their titles should be “Boo-keeper.”

Climate change affecting bears’ sleep patterns: expert

“With climate change, we are seeing bears emerging from their dens earlier and going to bed later,” Titchener said, adding studies are analyzing the sleep patterns of grizzlies.

“Dr. Karine Pigeon has been doing some research on that in Northern Alberta and has been seeing grizzly bears waking up an average of a week earlier. Some of my clients in the oil and gas industry have been seeing grizzly bears now for weeks — they’ve been seeing them sitting outside their dens, laying there, napping — there’s no snow insulation in some of the areas of the province, so because of the lack of snow insulation, bears’ dens are exposed.”

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Titchener said it is common for large grizzly male bears to start waking up around mid-March — with the younger bears, the females, and the females with cubs making an appearance somewhere in April or May.

“They’ll stay in their dens and continue to lactate and feed their young until there’s vegetation,” she said.

Alyssa Charbonneau, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said the Golden area has seen a mix of periods of cold and warmer-than-normal temperatures.

Temperatures are expected to warm up pretty dramatically across B.C., with 10 degrees higher than normal for the daytime high.

“I don’t know if the bears read our weather forecast — certainly from now until the mid-part of next week, it’s going to be much warmer than normal,” she said.

Warming weather means it’s time to start thinking about bear safety: expert

The Grizzly Bear Refuge has tours set up in the summer, as guests travel far and wide to catch a glimpse of the beloved bear frolicking in the sunshine.

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“He’ll often be foraging, exhibiting play behaviours, swimming, etc.; we do get a lot of guests specifically for him,” de Vries said, noting that in the springtime people can take the gondola up to see him through his habitat there.

“It’s time to start thinking about learning about bears and bear safety before you head out hiking and planning your camping trips for the spring and summer. And that way, you’re prepared, because you could run into a bear in the next few weeks for sure,” Titchener said.

ECCC meteorologist Alysa Pederson said that there has been a little bit of a dip in temperatures in Calgary since the start of March. And, with warmer-than-normal temperatures, it’s no surprise that Boo has made an appearance this week.

But by mid-next week, there will be a cooldown and likely some snow across much of the central part of the province. “It’s looking like snow across Edmonton, all the way down to Calgary and further south,” she said, adding that more volatility with temperature trends is expected.

Calgary had its 15^th warmest period ever for December, January and February, covering 140 years of data, said Pederson.

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