Today, less than 24 hours after the births, we amazingly caught our first good glimpse of the cubs. At 1:15 PM Lily lifted her head as she faced the camera. Two cubs were clearly visible. Hope surprised us by crowding in to join Lily in licking the cubs. Video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvu3b--1A48&feature=channel.
We’re excited to think of all we can learn from this mixed-age litter!
Tonight is another cold night. The forecast is for minus 24F to minus 29F. If these tiny newborn cubs survive tonight, they will have proved they can survive the cold in this family. After tonight, temperatures will be mostly above zero for the coming week.
For more about how black bears care for newborn cubs, check http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/mothers-raise-cubs/73-care-of-newborn-cubs.html.
We met Bob, an avid Lily fan who is blind, at the Bear Center party yesterday. We saw how he sat with rapt attention in front of the speakers listening to sounds from the den. He noticed things happening in the den before we did. Blind from birth, his auditory acuity is far superior to most sighted people. He has offered his assistance in recording sound data from the den cam. We’re looking for someone who could develop a form for him to use that would date-time stamp sound codes as he enters them. If you can help, please email
The terrible whine we hear on sunny days is from the solar panels making more electricity than the charge controller can quietly handle. We can hear the whine coming from the controller when we’re in the shed, and we can all hear it on the den cam video feed captured on sunny days. The Den Cam Team is working on a solution.
Thank you for all you have been doing lately.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center