Man Crawls Into Cave With Hibernating Bear on Purpose

A man knowingly crawled into a cave with a hibernating bear, and he called it “an incredible experience.” Ivan Carter isn’t exactly your average person, though. He’s an EarthX TV show host, which meant he was allowed to go along with some biologists who were tagging and collaring black bears in Utah—and that required entering their dens.

Carter has over 650,000 followers on Instagram, and his goal is education and conservation. He took a video while inside the bear’s den, just a couple of feet away from the sleeping bruin—a female black bear. At one point, he even reached out and touched the tag on the bear’s ear as she slept.

“This is amazing,” Carter wrote in his Instagram post sharing the video. “Deep in the mountains of Utah, we get to tag and collar Black Bears – into her cave I go!”

Notably, bears don’t enter a state of true hibernation. Rather, bears’ bodies enter a state of torpor when the weather is cold and food is scarce, and they can be roused from this state. For that reason, I wouldn’t personally climb into a sleeping bear’s den. Thankfully, the bear did not rouse, and Carter and the tagging team had no issues.

See a man climb into a cave with a hibernating bear here:

A man knowingly crawled into a cave with a hibernating bear, and he called it “an incredible experience.” Ivan Carter isn’t exactly your average person, though. He’s an EarthX TV show host, which meant he was allowed to go along with some biologists who were tagging and collaring black bears in Utah—and that required entering their dens.

Carter has over 650,000 followers on Instagram, and his goal is education and conservation. He took a video while inside the bear’s den, just a couple of feet away from the sleeping bruin—a female black bear. At one point, he even reached out and touched the tag on the bear’s ear as she slept.

“This is amazing,” Carter wrote in his Instagram post sharing the video. “Deep in the mountains of Utah, we get to tag and collar Black Bears – into her cave I go!”

Notably, bears don’t enter a state of true hibernation. Rather, bears’ bodies enter a state of torpor when the weather is cold and food is scarce, and they can be roused from this state. For that reason, I wouldn’t personally climb into a sleeping bear’s den. Thankfully, the bear did not rouse, and Carter and the tagging team had no issues.

See a man climb into a cave with a hibernating bear here: