One Year Ago - Bear Cubs were Born!!!

You might remember that I discovered a bear den years ago. It was occupied in the winter of 2009-2010 by a sow with her yearling cubs. Then, I kept a trail camera pointed at it for SIX years before the den was used again. Last winter (2015-2016), it was occupied again. .

My trail cams in the area saw the last sow walk a nearby bear trail at the end of October, 2015. Her movements suggested that she was heading toward the den. I waited until December 10, 2016 to check the den for an occupant. I completely expected it to be empty so I walked straight to the entrance and peered into the murky cave. A pair of eyes was looking straight back at me. I think that I jumped a foot or two into the air!

I quickly retreated and gathered trail cameras that could record photos and video. I revisited the den to set them up. Then, I waited and waited and waited before going back again. I didn't want to do anything to upset the bear.

At the end of February, I returned to the den to check the cams. No sounds emanated from the den so I didn't know until I got home and put the memory cards into my computer that the mother bear had given birth to two cubs on 1/31/16!

Here was the time line of the mother bear's actions.

All through the winter until 1/14/16, the bear ate snow only twice, both times by reaching her head outside the den to take a bite or two of the snow on the ground.

On 1/14, things changed. She began eating snow at least once per day. She wiggled so that her head reached further outside the den, day by day.

Then, on 1/30, she was a restless bear. Her head was visible in the den entrance almost all day.

She ate snow many times. Twice, she walked outside the den. Each walk was only about 6-8 ft in distance but it was an odd departure from her behavior earlier in the winter.

On the night of 1/30, she seemed not to sleep. She looked outside the den, and she seemed to toss and turn until our last video clip at around 11 PM. After that, she was deep in the den, and there were no visible movements to trigger the cams.

The next morning dawned with incredibly strong winds. The tree holding the cams swayed in the wind, which triggered a cam to record video and audio. The audio told the story - cubs had been born, probably very early in the morning of 1/31/2016!!!!!

You can watch the video here or at Youtube. Make sure that your sound is turned ON!!! The bawling of the cubs tells you the most exciting part of the story!

I know from the accounts of others that the cubs were tiny when they were born. They would have fit into a human hand. The scientific literature says that they weighed about 1 pound when they were born. They spend almost all their time over the first months of their lives latched onto nipples, nursing. They bawl like you heard in the video when they lose their grip on the nipple or are not covered by mom so they get cold.

I plan to follow along with this story from last year. Last year, I severely limited my visits to the den and my cams to avoid upsetting the bear family. Each time I visited, I got more than 100 GB of videos and photos, and I was unable to keep up with watching all of the footage and posting it in a timely way. I plan to post new footage this year, using the "extra" footage that I didn't post last year.

I hope that you enjoy it!

A Beary Exciting Day

I'm afraid that I must digress from the desert again. Today was pretty exciting.

It didn't start out as a special day. Shyla and I were out for sunrise, both of us sleepy. She broke into a huge yawn just as the sun peeked over the eastern hills.

Then she woke up, alert to the world around her, and glowing in the sunrise light that I love so much.

After she and I had a great snow bike ride together and lots of good training, I left Shyla at home while I went out on my own. I had a special mission today - to check to see if a bear den had any ursine residents this winter.

I hid my bike, and I hiked to the den. I was so pessimistic that I didn't even bring a trail camera just in case there was a bear in the den. I had a little trouble finding the den - it's very well hidden. In fact, I didn't even know that I was standing right in front of the entrance until I turned around and found myself eye-to-eye with a sleepy bear.

Here's what the scene looks like. That's why I didn't know I was in front of the den. The den is in the right-middle of this photo, just to the right of the chewed fallen tree trunk. It is well hidden.

After I saw the bear so close, I may have set a personal best for how high I jumped and how fast I got the heck out of there. I would have never knowingly gone so close.

I went and picked up 2 trail cameras from other sites in the forest, one that shoots video and one that shoots still photos. I loaded them with new batteries and huge memory cards. Then, I very warily went to the den again.

I was nervous. The last bear and yearling cubs who used the den were very passive. The mother never did anything more than "moan" when K and I accidentally found the den for the first time and went too close. However, I know that bear personalities are as varied as human ones are so this bear might be very different from the first mother bear who I saw in the den back in 2010 (see the video at the end of that post that shows the bears playing).

All went well as I mounted the two cameras, aiming them as well as I could without walking near the den. They are both now functioning, waiting for the bear(s) to come outside the den. The last time the den was used, the mother bear came out about once every 3 weeks to eat snow and pee.  Then, in the spring, she and her cubs laid out in front of the den entrance and played incredibly cutely!

Here was what the adult bear looked like when I first saw the den in 2010. I didn't take any photos today but today was almost identical. The bear today was oriented exactly the same way, with one eye on me, just like 6 years ago.

At one point today after I finished setting up the trail cameras and was about to depart, the bear did lift his/her head and snorted. I took that as my signal to go far away as fast as I could. I did that, and the bear didn't make any more sounds as I retreated. I then sat silently at a viewpoint far away to see if the bear stirred. It did not. Thank goodness I didn't scare him/her too much.

Back in 2010, I saw ONLY one bear, the mother, all winter long. She was always at the front of the den blocking a view of anything behind her. It's a deep rock den with lots of room. In March, I learned that she'd had two yearling cubs behind her all winter long! Here was a first glimpse of one of them.

And here was the whole family out in front of the den in March 2010. The cubs (on the left) were frisky but the mom looked stern a lot of the time.

The play of the two cubs was hilarious. In this photo, one was lying on his back with his paw pad up in front of the other cub's nose.

Based on the one warning snort I got today, I don't think I'll be peeking in the den, even from a distance, again. However the trail cameras will tell us what is going on whenever a bear comes out of the den!!!

I think that 2016 is going to be a very special year! Perhaps I'll make it my Year of the Bear!

Sunsets and Bear Cubs

I've been enjoying summer time with my pups and watching our bears. Here, the Duo watched the sun set with me.

A pair of Night Hawks nest yearly somewhere close to where we watch the sunset. They glide and swoop over our heads, letting out squeaking noises as they snag insects out of the air. The Duo don't seem to notice but I do. K and I watched the nighthawks last summer on many evenings - another good memory. Now I'm making new good memories with the Duo.

This was the view after the sun finally dipped below the mountains. Ah, I love summertime.

In the bear world, mating season has come to an abrupt halt. The reason probably is that their favorite foods are maturing and ripening. It's time for bears to eat and eat and eat. Over the next couple of months, they'll eat 10's of thousands of calories very day. It's rather stunning when I realize that an animal as big as a bear can eat all the calories that s/he needs for an entire year within the course of a couple of months.

Buffalo Berries

As the mating season has ended, the mothers with cubs are emerging from hiding. More than one family has visited this spring but I'll show you just one visit today, saving the other one for another video. Here are the two cubs who we've seen before.

The family first visited the base of a bear marking tree and then moved onto a nearby pool of water fed by a spring. The cubs are very cute! You can watch their activities here or at Youtube.

Since this mother bear is around my area a lot, I'd like to give her a name to make it easier to talk about her. I believe that she's the mother of "Socks", the young bear with black legs and a cinnamon body who we see photos of regularly. Do you have any ideas for a name?

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice to everyone. This photo is from sunset last night, which was so very late!

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it means that daylight lasts longer today than any other day of the year. For our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, the tide is turning - your days will now get longer! So, I think it's a good day for all of us.

It's a good day for Shyla, who is feeling better, after her diarrhea stress-reaction to a visit to town earlier this week. She went to my PT clinic with me yesterday, and even though that involved going into town, her tummy is better. Moreover, she seemed very happy at the clinic.

Today, I checked some trail cameras, and I bring good tidings. We have another mother bear in the forest, and this one has two rambunctious cubs.The two cubs were very curious about a bear marking tree that huge males, at least twice as tall as the standing cubs, have marked several times this summer. You can see that the top of the pine sapling is broken off. The adult male bears who mark this tree are taller than the sapling!

The family spent a long time in front of this cam and the one that is pointed at a water hole. I'll have a video of the cuteness soon!

Several of you have asked if I worry about the dogs chasing bears. You might notice in photos that both dogs wear bells. Since we started that tradition almost a decade ago, we've had no close calls with dogs and bears. Even though I am fairly confident that I could call the dogs away from a bear, I'd prefer not to put the bears (and me) through that stress or have the dogs lead a chasing bear back to me. To avoid dog-bear encounters, I also choose the places where I take the dogs very carefully. I've never taken a dog to the place shown in the photos above - I view it as a pristine place for the wildlife.

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm always trying to balance letting my dogs be able to romp with the needs of the wildlife.

Happy Solstice!

P.S. I just learned that today was "Fight like a Frenchie" day for our pal, Benny, a French Bulldog who was just diagnosed with cancer in his liver. We send him and his family the Power of the Paw. To Benny and his family - cherish every day and live it to the fullest - take your inspiration from K, like I did. We're thinking of you.

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.