Our Bear Cubs are Huge!

I promised yesterday that I'd show you video of how big the cubs from the den have become all of a sudden!

I think that their growth spurt is due to the incredible bounty of bear food that we have this year. The berry crop is overwhelming. Bear scat on the trails is bright red from the berries. The bears must be super happy.

It has been hot recently so the bears have gravitated to water holes, where they often like to soak and cool off. I captured footage of our den family at a watering hole on 8/3. As I watched the video for the first time, I thought that I was seeing yearling cubs because the youngsters have become so big very quickly.

I compiled all the bear visits to that watering hole over the past few weeks into a video. If you're just interested in the den family, then watch the opening clip because that's where the family is.

I didn't include the myriad other animals who have drunk from that watering hole, including multiple moose, deer, bobcats, and mountain lions. It's a popular place when the weather is hot and dry like it's been recently.

You can watch the video either here or at Youtube.
I promise to get back to other subjects besides bears, starting tomorrow!

Bear Tales

Although it is still raining an extraordinary amount here, full spring seems to have arrived!

Springtime means lots of bear antics. Tiny has been very busy marking trees and marching back and forth on the mating trail.

 Too tall for my camera...

Wriggling his back against the trunk of the tiny sapling.

He was back again, at the same tree, two days later. No other bears had been to the tree between his two markings.

It still astounds me that bears do these goofy dances every spring. No one gets see them, except for my trail cameras!

After that marking, Tiny headed for "the" main marking tree this year. He is a massive bear.

At the main marking tree, something odd had happened. The mother bear, who we've seen once before with her cubs, had marked the tree! In past years, mothers with tiny cubs don't mark these particular trees during mating season.

This was the second very popular tree that my cameras had captured her marking. Tiny, our biggest male, seemed confused by the mother bear's scent. He was the next to come to the tree and spent his entire visit sniffing. A couple of days later, he came back and marked again. I have a video of all the action which you can watch here or at Youtube.

Another note - we haven't yet seen the two matriarchs with cubs yet. They are both on schedule to have cubs this year. I believe that we saw "Mabel" on one occasion, taking a mud bath.

We have not yet seen a glimpse of Cinnamom, the hilarious mother who captivated us with her antics two years ago. I worry about her. She had ear tags which meant that she had a strike against her, probably for going too close to human habitation. The last photo of her was last spring when she was marking trees on the mating trail, looking for a good father for her next cubs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we do get to see her again.

Valentine's Day from a Bear's Perspective

Since it's Valentine's Day, our Blogville Mayors have asked us to post something related to wildlife and this holiday. Because bears have the most visible patterns of mating and raising their young, I thought that I'd tell you about what I've observed of bear mating season and cub raising.

Every spring, I look forward to the love parade by the bears during their mating season in May and June. The male bears vigorously mark certain trees along a bear trail, going up on their hind legs and rubbing their backs on the trees.

Here's a series of photos of a young male bear marking one of the "bear trees" during mating season.

Then, other bears sniff the tree, getting information about who has been marking the tree.

Females who are looking for a mate follow the scent trail laid down by a male bear like the one shown above. Some evidence shows that females choose their mates rather than vice versa. So, a female who liked the scent on this tree might follow the male bear until she finds him.

If you want to see a video of bears marking trees, I have made a few. Here's a link to one of them.You can look through my YouTube account to see more.

After mating, female bears start eating, almost continuously, for the rest of the summer. If they are fat and healthy when they go into a den, the fertilized egg develops into a fetus that is born in January.

One of our local female bears, who I've watched for years, is due to have cubs this winter. If I'm lucky, I'll capture photos of her with her tiny cubs in early spring. Four years ago, I was lucky. First she walked to the east with her cubs (one is lagging behind).

Here's the lagging one. Actually, he showed a streak of independence all summer so some readers dubbed him "Rebel".

And then, a minute later, she walked back to the west with her cubs. This time, Rebel stayed close.

Raising cubs is not an easy task for a mother bear. Cubs can't walk far early in the spring and are very vulnerable to predators. So the mother often sends them up a "babysitting tree". Around here, that tree might be a tall Ponderosa Pine. Then, she somehow tells them to stay there, and she goes out foraging on her own.

This is the same sow, hours later. She must have left her cubs in a tree.

Female bears stay with their cubs for about 18 months so they den with their cubs the next winter. I was lucky enough to find a den with a mother and two yearling cubs a few years ago. I placed a trail camera outside their den and got priceless photos of the mother and yearlings playing at the mouth of the den in the spring.

After the yearlings and mother leave the den, they stay together for another month or so. Then the mother sends the yearlings off on their own, and she embarks on finding a mate for her next litter of cubs.

I can't wait to see the bears emerge. I love seeing who has new cubs and who is on the mating trail. Bears are my favorite animals!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day! This was Shyla's Valentine's Dance that she did recently.

Play, play, play

I've been trying to do special things to help R and me heal our hearts. So, the other day, we headed over to Dream Valley Ranch for R to play with their new puppy, Huck.

Lots of chasing and playing "keep away" ensued. R would lay claim to a toy and entice Huck into chasing him.

Almost all the photos show the same scene... I love R's eyes peeking over the Monkey toy in the next photo.

Next, it was Mr. Froggie's turn.

It seemed that R had not mastered the art of letting Puppy Huck "win" the game sometimes. When R was a puppy, K would let R think that he'd stolen the toy from her on occasion to keep him interested in playing. I hope that R learns! At least he has learned to wait his turn for a treat...

On a different topic, how many of you get to see this outside your kitchen window (captured by trail camera)? The bear peacefully rested and then walked away, heading for an anthill where my other trail camera photographed him digging for ants.

More about bears tomorrow.

Astounding K and Bear Questions

K continues to astound me. Despite her dire health situation, she still rises to the occasion most mornings to have lots of fun.

Last week, I believed that we were within a week or two of the end. Now look at her!

I am treasuring these days with her. If I could grab onto time and hold it in place, I would. Alas, that's not within my power. And, K isn't wishing for such silly things. She's loving every day of her life. Her spirit has taught me so much about life and living every single day with all the joy that we can muster.

Today, after I hiked with K, I went to check some wildlife cameras during a bike ride. I learned that "Cinnamon Bear" is fine, and Milton didn't scare him away from our territory. He's still marking trees and searching for mates.

These photos of Cinnamon Bear are from a new camera site. I noticed this tree because the bears have left deep imprints where they stomp their paws as they mark this tree. First, Cinnamon Bear sniffed it.

And, then he marked it! He wasn't hurt by Milton during the chase the other day, that's for sure.

When using trail cameras, I always have to strike a balance between getting close-up photos versus keeping my camera well-hidden from thieves. My cameras are locked but one thief cut my locks a few years ago. So, the photos of this tree are from pretty far away to keep the camera hidden.

You asked some great questions about the "Dancing with Bears" post from the other day. First, K wears a bell on her collar to forewarn wildlife that we're approaching. We bought the bell years ago after K (as a young pup) chased a bear out of the woods and right toward us. The bell has the nice side benefit that I always know where she is when she's off-leash. That's especially good for me, with my fusions in my spine, because I can't twist to look for her very easily.

Second, yes, all of these bears are called "Black Bears". It is a silly name for the species because they can be cinnamon or jet black... but they're all the same species.

Third, yearling bears (like the little girl we've been observing with patches on her sides - I believe that she was one of the cubs we saw last year) sometimes breed. This year, I believe that "Patches" bred with "Milton" because they walked together on the bear path a couple of times within a few days. That's a hard combination to imagine because Milton is many times bigger than Patches! Here's a photo of little Patches from earlier this year. Her patches are not as obvious as in the video from the other day.

Two-year old bears always breed if they're in good health. I believe that "Socks" is a 2-year old female because I captured footage of her being chased away from her mother by a suitor last spring. Last year, Socks acted like she was scared near the bear trees. This year, she's not scared anymore, and I caught photos of her consorting with Milton too! Milton will have a lot of cubs running around here next year. A photo of "Socks" is below (her legs are black while her body is brown. Hence the name "Socks").

Fourth, I believe that the patches on the sides of the yearling, Patches, are places where she scraped against a rock or tree, perhaps as she crawled through a tight space. Her mom had a similar patch last year.

Fifth, Nancy K pointed out that Milton is the only one who actually marked the tree that was shown in my "Dancing with Bears" video. I hadn't realized that fact until I went back through all my footage since I installed that camera in mid-April. It's true! Perhaps, Milton's overwhelming scent scares off all the other males. Milton is undoubtedly the ursine king of our territory.

Thanks to all of you for "putting up with" my love of bears! One of K's nicknames is "KBear"!

This photo of her makes me melt. If only I could stop time from marching forward...

Dancing with Bears

K is in a good phase right now. We're having fun together, walking in our forest and enjoying summertime. At the start of every hike, she still explores the world in a small circle around me, like she's done for her whole life albeit at a slightly slower pace.

This morning, I spotted a beautiful butterfly, backlit by the morning sun as we headed into a peaceful meadow.

The air was cool, slightly humid, and not smoky. K seemed to love that combination and ran like a puppy! I smiled broadly. I love seeing my girl happy.

Look at the intensity in her eyes!

When it warmed up a bit more, we retired to a shady pine forest. I watched K closely, trying to assess how much energy she had.

As far as I can tell, K has decided not to be conservative with her energy. Today, she ran and romped, and then she suddenly became more sedate during our walk. So, I assumed that she'd suddenly become tired, and we headed home with her following closely at my heels, wasting no energy.

My opinion is that I'll let her run and use her energy as she chooses. She's still enjoying life on her own terms which is exactly what we want for her. I'll make it my job to be sure that we don't end up too far from home when she runs low on energy.

In the pine forest, K and I made a fun discovery of a bear path and a day bed that is very heavily used by bears, based on the number of scats and the marked trees nearby. I'll be putting a trail camera there soon!

It was in this area where we met the bear that I showed a photo of a couple of days ago. After I took a bunch of photos of him, he took off, bounding toward a bear path that I know well. This was the last photo that I captured of him before he disappeared, moving fast.

It turned out that he was heading directly toward the biggest and strongest male bear in our forest, "Milton", who was in the midst of marking a tree (he's the star of the video below). Milton had started by sniffing the tree.

Then, he turned around and started rubbing his back on it.

After an extensive dance (I showed you a couple of photos from it yesterday), he walked away from the tree (covered in pine needles) at exactly the time that the cinnamon bear was fleeing from me and K, and was heading toward Milton.

I suspect that the two of them caught wind of each other, and that the smaller cinnamon bear fled. I captured one photo of the cinnamon bear moving very fast past a nearby trail camera. There's a bear whammy tree behind the cinnamon bear but, unlike very single other bear who has passed this spot, the cinnamon bear didn't even slow to sniff it. I think that he was fleeing from Milton.

I do know that bears prefer not to fight if they can avoid it. Hopefully, Milton just postured to establish that he was the boss of this highly prized territory, and no one got hurt. Maybe my cameras will give us more insight in the future.

Finally, I compiled a video of a bear tree and all of its ursine visitors over a few weeks of mating season. I called it "Dancing with Bears" because Milton marked the tree numerous times, using slightly different "dance moves" each time. I hope that you enjoy it. You can watch it below or at Youtube.

Glowing dogs and bear mating season

I'm not sure that our girl is feeling great today... but hopefully it's just a glitch and she'll rebound. To soothe my scared feelings, I looked at a few of the photos from our trip when she glowed with happiness. This photo shows K standing in a splash of sun filtering through the trees at sunset of one day that we spent in the Utah mountains.

A little later in the trip, we endured a sandstorm in the desert that lasted almost an entire day. The wind died down just at sunset, and I captured this photo of our Duo. You can even see the red sand that was embedded in R's fur from the sand storm, even though we spent most of the day holed up in our van. Whew - we were very happy when that desert storm ended.

I'll tell you more about the trip tomorrow. First, I want to catch you up on this exciting time of year in terms of wildlife activity.

While we were away, the bears were in a mating season frenzy here at home. I thought that I'd chronicle the daily life of one poor bear whammy tree that was repeatedly marked by bears. This behavior is a way of scent-marking and attracting mates. You'll see that the season hasn't ended. The last photo was from this morning. All the photos were taken by my trail camera, a motion activated camera posted in the woods. Check out trailcampro.com if you don't know about these amazing cameras.

I realize that there are a lot of photos here but I thought that they just might make you smile.

I'll start with when the bear whammy tree was mauled at the end of April.

Then, a little bear, who I think is one of the cubs from last summer, attempted a tree marking. Like all the young bears who I've observed, this youngster hasn't yet figured out that she should rub her back on the tree...

More than a week later, a big brute visited the same tree. He sniffed it first.

Then, he rubbed his back on the tree while peeing at the same time. He's a multi-talented guy.

His marking went on and on. He tried a unique move, shimmying downward as he rubbed the trunk.

A few days later, a cinnamon-colored bear visited the same tree.

He sniffed first while sticking his rump toward the camera...

Then, he marked it...

 And marked it...

Then he launched into a unique dance move before departing...

I think that the next visitor was the same bear as on 5/17.

This marking session was shorter than the last one.

But, it was creative...

Finally, this morning, a brute marked the poor tree... Is it any wonder that the pine saplings that serve as bear whammy trees never grow very big?

Just one more funny bear note. The tree in the next photo is in a different part of the forest. The little bear, who I think is one of last year's cubs, tried to mark it. Look how she's standing on her tippy-toes. She hasn't learned to rub her back against the whammy trees yet.

For comparison, a huge male marked the tree a few days later. Based on my photos at this tree and at others, I have the impression that these two bears, the little cub and the big brute are following each other on their rounds of tree-marking, which suggests that they may pair up to make cubs sometime soon.

I adore watching bear behavior at this time of year. We got a unique view of it during our trip... but I'll save that story for another day.