Herbie, Fern, & Jewel - Jan 27, 2013It’s a hoot watching Jewel and her yearlings wiggle and squirm as they attempt to maneuver around each other in their den. With the warmer temps (27 F at 6 PM) these bears have definitely become more active. 
Herbie, Jewel, & Fern - Jan 27, 2013Both Jewel and Herbie went to the entrance to lick snow. All of them in turn chewed the end of a root Jewel had broken when she dug the den. And of course there was the usual bawling to nurse with Jewel finally giving in and the den filling with the rumbling hum of yearlings nursing.
A video of Jewel and her yearlings is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-_BS_a6lcQ.
Herbie, Jewel, & Fern - Jan 27, 2013Lily’s action isn’t so obvious because it’s mainly staying in position to nurse, interrupted by bouts of baby bath time.
For us, it was a day of inaction, sitting in front of computers and moving mainly our fingers.
This morning, the full bear moon was setting big and beautiful.
The Bear Fact and Fun Team lived up to their name with a post about denning at https://www.facebook.com/lily.the.black.bear/posts/527543233943021.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center