Lily cares for her cub -- wolves and coyotes - UPDATE January 23, 2010
January 23, 2010 - 4:36 PM CST
Lily has one job now—keeping her cub warm and fed. Instead of exiting the den periodically, Lily will spend the next couple months hovering over the cub and responding to each vocalization.
If the cub sleeps quietly or makes the pulsing hum of contentment, Lily holds still. The motor-like hum means the cub is nursing successfully. Sometimes, when a cub is just warm and comfortable, it hums too, but more quietly than when nursing.
You may also hear the sound of Lily licking. She needs to lick the cub to stimulate urination and defecation. Lily consumes the cub's body wastes and recycles those nutrients. Once we start seeing the cub in the den we may witness this behavior.
If the cub squawks, Lily moves. It means the cub is cold, uncomfortable under her, or can’t find a nipple. A little squawk elicits a little move on Lily’s part. A big squawk can elicit more movement. There may be other differences in the cries that we haven’t figured out yet, but I’m sure Lily knows. You can learn more about bear vocalizations and what they mean on the North American Bear Center’s website at https://bear.org/bear-facts/black-bears/communication/.
It might be weeks before we can determine the sex of the cub. Once the cub has matured a bit and is more visible in the den we may get a peek. Without litter mates competing for milk, this little cub should grow fast and may weigh 9 pounds when they leave the den in the spring.
One viewer reported coyotes barking and howling. Coyotes and wolves live in the area but are not a worry. In our 43 years of research, we’ve found tracks at dens of injured bears, and a pack of wolves did kill a mother and cubs in a less secure den back in 1972, but wolves and coyotes mostly ignore healthy bears like Lily, especially when there is only one den entrance to defend. We hope Lily is not disturbed, but she would do a great job defending herself and the cub while thousands of viewers cheered her on.
As researchers, we watch and report. If we interfered, we wouldn’t learn anything. To learn more about the research associated with this project visit the Wildlife Research Institute's website at http://www.bearstudy.org.
The Lily T-Shirts are now available in the North American Bear Center online Gift Shop at: https://bear.org/bear-facts/black-bears/communication/ . Thank you for your patience!
Thank you again for your donations. Getting rid of the debt will make a difference to what we can do for bears.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center