New information makes me think it was 12-year-old Star’s cubs that were hit by the car. If so, Star’s cubs were hit on the 18th, and I believe she spent the next six days taking care of cubs that were recovering or dying. Star in den 2-15-12She was then spotted in the area on the 24th and each day since with one female cub, which is the sex of the vigorous cub that I carried back into the woods where she’d be closer to her mother and away from the highway. The other cub was limp when it was carried off the highway and into the woods in the mother’s mouth. I presume that one died, leaving Star with only the one cub. Most mothers in the peak of their reproductive years have more than one cub, suggesting that she lost one.
The cub with Star is part of the fifth generation after Shadow. The year each generation was born in this line of her clan is: Shadow (1987), Blackheart (1997), Donna (2000), Shannon (2005), Star (2009), and the present female that is not yet named (2021). Here is a link to the latest Shadow's Clan Chart.
The picture of Star was taken back on February 15, 2012 when she had just turned three and we were checking on her to see if she had cubs. She waited until the next year when she was four and has had cubs every second year since then.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center.