Bear family breaking up

I had a restful summertime breakfast with K and R snoozing at my feet, birds singing, and warm sun on my back. Yes, it's historic - I had breakfast on the deck - a favorite summertime tradition!

Then, K and I headed out for a mountain bike ride. We both had lots of fun but her energy lagged a bit.

I'd been noticing subtle signs of a recurrence of her urinary tract infection (the UTI saga started in late April) so both she and R went to the vet this afternoon. We discovered that K has a particularly nasty UTI and is now taking the cadillac of antibiotics to try to finally eradicate it. R's improvement since his surgery has slowed so he's continuing his antibiotics.

Maybe a wing of the Vet Hospital should be named after us?

Yesterday, I started to tell the story of a bear family breakup that is underway. I've captured images at several wildlife cameras that have given me a decent idea of what is going on.

This was the first image - a very small bear who I've never seen before approaching a bear whammy tree - a tree that bears mark by rubbing their backs on it. This marking gets most emphatic during mating season, which is now. To see how grown-up bears mark this tree, check out this post if you missed it.

This little guy, who I've dubbed "Socks", didn't seem to know how to mark the tree. The yearling got up on his/her hind legs, pawing and sniffing the tree. Then, Socks departed, heading east.

Late that afternoon, Socks passed another bear hot spot (there's a whammy tree in the background). He was just two minutes behind a bobcat who also passed this spot. I've never captured images of two different large mammal species so close together.

First the bobcat..

Then Socks followed almost on his heels.

But, before Socks was out of the camera's view, he/she turned around and headed eastward again.

Later that night, more than a mile west of the spot where Socks was in the late afternoon, a big bear passed a wildlife camera.

Trailing just behind the big bear, a Socks-look-alike walked past the camera (the resemblance is more obvious in other photos, included in the video below).

Then, to my utter surprise, yet another bear followed the sow and her yearling cub. This bear is a male who I've seen around for years. He does the most dramatic "cowboy walk" that I've ever seen, accentuated by his black and huge furry paws on the end of his relatively skinny legs. I've always thought of him as "The Cowboy".

I am fairly certain that this trio was Socks' mother, Socks' sibling, and a male who wanted to mate with Socks' mother. I'm not sure whether a male would harm a yearling cub who is traveling with a sow. I need to do some research to find out. However, I do know that the usual pattern is for the sow to drive away her yearling cubs before she starts attracting male suitors.

The next day, Socks was still more than a mile east of where his/her mother had passed the camera the previous night. Socks seemed to be circling in a very small area and repeatedly passing one camera.

In the morning...

In the afternoon...

Then, the following morning, Socks was still in the same very small radius. I wonder if this is where Socks last saw his/her mother.

Socks posed for the camera...

Then, Socks headed east.

It will be very interesting to see how long Socks stays in the same area. It's a hot area for mating bears so I suspect that it is a dangerous area for a young bear like Socks.

It's odd that I never caught this sow and her cubs on a camera last summer. They must have been in a different, perhaps safer, area when the cubs were very young.

I've compiled all the photos into a "flipbook" video that you can watch here or at Youtube.

I wonder if we'll see Socks again in the near future. I love my wildlife cameras - I'd have no idea that this drama was underway without them.