Cub alert!For the wild bears, little has changed. Aster is still in and near her den. Lily, Eli, and Ellie are still centering thier activities in a small area around a bed 97 yards from their deep rock den. We suspect that den, formed of rocks, is holding its cold after this second coldest winter here on record—records that go back to 1871.
Cubs tussleJuliet, Ray, Bernard, and Charlie are in and out of their den with Juliet still grunting a lot as she did yesterday. Her grunting is especially interesting considering how little grunting she did after giving birth, contrary to the amount of grunting we heard from Lily and Jewel. 
A cub stand-offThat’s part of why we like an adequate sample size. Den-watchers are reporting good moments of Juliet grunting and the cubs responding by returning to her. Between 3:20 and 3:43 PM, the cubs were twice all outside but quickly came to her when she grunted. 
Juliet's cubsCould the development of this re-grouping response be part of the process of getting ready to leave the den? The Den-watchers remarked how well the cubs are moving.
At the Bear Center, Reporter Dave Anderson from KBJR-TV Channel 6 in Duluth, the Northland’s NewsCenter, recorded close-up video and sound of the friendly high-pitched grunts Ted uses when he wants close, friendly contact. 
How many cubs do you see?Dave Anderson also recorded Holly saying “I want!” in bear language. We’ll see if those will be included in KBJR’s news broadcast tonight at 6 PM. We hope it will be online at some point at http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center