In honor of Fat Bear Week coming to a close, Short Wave is revisiting our episode on black bear hibernation.

(Fat Bear Week is the annual tournament celebrating some of the fattening bears of Katmai National Park.)

On today’s show, Rae Wynn-Grant, a large carnivore biologist, explains there’s a lot more going on during hibernation than you might expect. Like giving birth. And re-absorption of nutrients from their poop.

This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez, edited by Viet Le and fact-checked by Emily Vaughn and Ariela Zebede.

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