June nursing yearlings - Spring 2008Faith probably is getting no milk but apparently still has the drive to suckle. A Lily fan sent us a related story today. He rehabilitates orphaned black bear cubs on his expansive acreage in the mountains of the eastern US. He becomes their mother. He leads them on walks in the forest so they can learn. He feeds them, and the cubs get their security from him. They suckle on him—the usual areas for cubs to suckle on people are the forearm, a finger, or an earlobe. He said a young female that is the same age that Hope would be now (nearly 2) still tries to suckle on him whenever he lies down with her on a walk. The bear is over 200 pounds and mostly on her own in the wild. She returns to him occasionally, and he cooped her up during the bear hunting season. She still follows him in the woods but runs from him if he approaches without calling out to her. He hasn’t heard of her approaching anyone else despite her strong bond with him.
In New Hampshire, Ben Kilham is famous for using the same method of raising orphaned cubs. He becomes their mother—thus the National Geographic special about him entitled, “Mother Bear Man.” When the cubs become yearlings and would normally leave their mothers, the cubs are left on their own. From what we have heard, these bears are no more likely to get into trouble with people than other bears, but we wish we had numbers on that.
The picture above is from the BBC 'Bearwalker' movie. June is nursing her 3 cubs, Lily (with collar), Cal, and Bud (mostly hidden), while Lynn observes.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center