The Jumanji effect? Extra warm winter playing havoc with hibernating animals

Ravenous black bears scurrying through trash cans for dinner, mosquitoes swarming in the early grass, amorous deer behaving like, well, rabbits. Creatures great and small are being thrown for a loop this winter as the unusually warm climate stirs all forms of wildlife from their natural hibernation and reproduction cycles.

Call it the “Jumanji effect.”

It will cause bat populations to crater and had famous groundhog Puxatawney Phil stirring early. And rather than hibernating through the freezing snowstorms typically seen from October to March, black bears are likely to wake early -- and they’ll be ravenous, said Paul Curtis, a professor of natural resources and wildlife specialist with Cornell University.

“They’ll be hungry when they come out of their dens after hibernating all winter,” Curtis told FoxNews.com. “Their fat reserves will be gone and they’ll be looking for easy food.”