Bulgaria: "Mild winter triggers spring fever in zoo "

[leftchick]

this isn't ant stinkin el-nino causing this.....

SOFIA (Reuters) - An unusually warm winter has sown confusion among animals at a zoo on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, causing two bears to miss their usual hibernation period and peacocks to lay eggs months early.

"The animals are confused. They are acting more like it is spring than the dead of winter," said Todor Hristov, zoo director in the port city of Varna.

Temperatures have risen to as high as 13 degrees Centigrade (55 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last few days in Varna, far warmer than usual.

Hristov said the two 35-year-old bears may go to sleep once temperatures fall to around minus three for at least 10 consecutive days, while the peacocks usually laid eggs in May or June, not January.

Many put the unusually warm weather around Europe down to global warming which scientists say is disrupting weather patterns, melting glaciers and causing other environmental anomalies around the world.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070105/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_bulgaria_weather_zoo

[Kagemusha]

1. May I mention scientists say bears don't truly hibernate?

In the technical sense of the term, it's not actual hibernation. Understanding that makes this sound a little less horrible - for the bears that is - than otherwise. For the bears, this isn't confusion, it's SOP for unusual warmth.