Most of the brown bears that FOUR PAWS rescued from confined and poor conditions have never had the chance to withdraw in winter, before they got to our sanctuaries. They never had the possibility to hibernate either due to lack of a safe environment to do so or stress. At our sanctuaries and partner projects, almost all of the bears hibernate in winter. Some even have an extra long first sleep, but some bears take longer to mentally recover and thus it can take some years before they first hibernate.