Bears trying to put on weight before hibernation may have found the stuff of their dreams at an Alaska military base. Authorities at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson say black bears broke into a storage room and chowed down on Meals Ready to Eat, leaving a huge mess behind, CNN reports. Photos provided by JBER—which is pronounced J-bear—suggest that the bears ate the calorie-dense cold-weather variety of MREs, and even scored some M&Ms. In another incident earlier this month, a young bear broke into a motor pool building and was seen sitting on the driver's side of a Humvee. The base says personnel "employed tactics to get the bear's attention" and managed to get it out of the building.
Officials say the bear in the Humvee feasted on an MRE stash in the vehicle, Task & Purpose reports. Bear sightings are far from unusual at the base outside Anchorage, which has around 600 bear reports a year, but it's "very rare" for them to gain access to buildings, a base spokesperson tells CNN. Most of the reports involve bears just passing through the area, the spokesperson says.
James Wendland, JBER wildlife conservation law enforcement officer with the 673d Civil Engineer Squadron, says bears are "opportunistic" feeders that "will follow their noses looking for food even if that's in open buildings or unlocked vehicles." He says bears will look for other food sources when natural foods like berries or salmon become scarce. The cold weather MREs contain around 1,560 calories, Task & Purpose notes. Biologists say black bears usually consume around 5,000 calories a day, but that rises to 20,000 as the bears prepare for hibernation. (More US military stories.)