Bear Family Update

My trail cameras have captured more photos of the bear family, which is still divided.

One afternoon recently, the chocolate cub entered the frame near a bear marking tree (it's in the center of the photo).

Usually, this cub is interested in the marking trees. However, on this day, he hurried on past it.

His mother, however, was very interested in it. Look at how her fur color is changing as she grows her winter coat. She was almost all cinnamon in the spring, with slightly darker legs than body (hence her name "Socks"). Now she's half cinnamon and half chocolate!

She decided to mark the tree. I've been told that females do the majority of their territorial marking in the time just before hibernation.

You can see that her nipples are still enlarged. Den cams in Minnesota have shown that mothers continue to nurse their yearling cubs during their second winter of hibernation together.

But she didn't stay for long. Soon she was hurrying after her cub.

Sadly, the black injured cub was not with them.

However, the black cub showed up on a trail camera about 0.4 miles from this spot a couple of days later. The camera shoots rapidfire still photos. It looked as if she was using her injured back right paw now. Compared to how she was in earlier videos, this is a huge improvement.

I am confused by the fact that this cub is in such close proximity to her family but she hasn't rejoined them. I am starting to wonder if her mother is not accepting her back into the family. I had one very blurry photo that suggested that she was being chased by something about a week ago. At that time, I knew that her mother was in the area so I wondered if she might be chasing him away.

I've sent inquiries to a couple of bear experts to ask if they've seen scenarios where mother bears won't accept a cub back after a prolonged separation. I haven't received replies yet.

I think that this little black cub, who I believe is a female, can survive based on studies of cubs who lose their mothers to hunting at this time of year. I am so impressed with her spunk and will to survive that I'm going to call her "Braveheart". She has earned that name in her short life.

I long to see this family together again so little Braveheart has a better chance of growing up to be a mother bear in our neck of the woods.