Snow falls into the den... Snow—lots today, which will hamper upcoming visits to dens that might have cubs. We want to listen and count little voices to better determine cub survival.
...right onto a cub's head!We especially want to visit the den of Star, who might have only one cub. You know the kind of jeopardy a single cub can be in. Talking about this reminds us of Donna a couple years back. If we hadn’t visited her den and heard two voices, we never would have known she had two cubs. The den flooded. One cub survived. Then Donna was with only one cub—a female. 
A tangle of cubsShe left the den with the one cub, and it was never seen again. We can’t approach Donna in the woods and get good data like we can with June, Lily, Jewel, etc., so more things remain a mystery, like what happened to her single cub.
Play can be ruthless!Was it another Hope story? Lily’s trust back in 2010 opened the door to understanding the loss of single cubs that has been a mystery. The explanation a biologist gave a reporter was that everyone knows young mothers are inexperienced. Maybe so, but 85% of the females in Pennsylvania gives birth at 3, like Lily, and do just fine. 
Lily and maleHowever, older mothers often lose a single cub, like RC and Donna and others did. Counting cubs in the den and knowing how many cubs leave the den is all helpful information.
Male cub on LilyA year ago today, people were raking their lawns and some bears were out of their dens, according to last years update for this date at www.bearstudy.org/update-march-19-2012.html. Juliet and cubs were flooded out by the early melt. Jo, June, Jewel, and Ursula left their dens without being flooded out.
Lily and cubWe think emergence won’t be until April this year because of the snow. For mothers with newborn cubs, departure from dens seems to depend somewhat on when the snow disappears or gets a crust that cubs can walk on to follow their mothers to a refuge tree like a mature white pine. Lone bears or mothers with yearlings can depart sooner, same as adolescent and mature males that can walk through melting snow like we’ve seen Honey do.
Lily's cubsThe setback part of the title is about the new addition. The contractors advised us today that it would be prudent to wait for the ground to thaw outside the building. We trust their judgement. They have our best insterests at heart. We'll move forward with the construction in late May or June.
Female cubAt the same time, we haven’t been able to move forward on our end like we’d like either. But somehow, things always seem to come together and work out for the best. So many things went like that for the original building. What we thought were setbacks at the time turned out to be blessings.
Lily nuzzles male cubOne small benefit is that we can now open the doors for Ted, Lucky, and Honey, although they probably won’t even notice. They haven’t set foot outside their dens for a long time, and they’ve never walked over and checked the doors. They’ve just stayed in their dens like Lily and Jewel have so far.
Lily leans out to lick snow, cub has snow on chin!We expect Ted, Lucky, and Honey to come out earlier than Lily and Jewel, though, so we’re happy to open the doors even though the snow will likely deter them a bit from coming out as early as they’ve emerged some years.
We hope you've enjoyed all the pictures in tonight's update. Hard to choose just a few when there are so many good ones. We couldn't resist posting a funny 'Super Speed' video of the cubs antics today at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHhpTLrekkM. We got a chuckle. Hope you do too!
Wow! Over 4,000 of you have voted for names for Lily’s cubs in only 2 days with 5 days to go at http://www.bear.org/website/cub-naming.html.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.