Hi friends. Happy Friday to you! I hope you’re having a great week and enjoying the beautiful weather we’ve been having. Have you gotten out to look for wildflowers or wildlife? Seen anything interesting?
I am still waiting to catch a mama bear with this year’s cubs on one of my two trail cameras, but my friends Renee and Rich shared some darling footage with me of a mama bear and her BRAND new cubs. They are so small and clumsy, looking like they are trying out their tiny legs for the first time.
Did you know after a gestation of 7 months, female Black Bears give birth in the winter, while they are hibernating? Imagine waking up from your long nap and finding two tiny fur balls nursing hungrily! At birth the cubs weigh just 9 ounces and are blind. Females can have 1-6 cubs though the average litter size is 2 or 3 here in western NC. First time mothers usually have only one or two cubs–good thing, right as there is a lot to learn about being a good Mom! Mama bear protects the cubs from predators like bobcats, coyotes, foxes, other bears and even dogs. Bear cubs usually leave the dens with their mothers at 2 to 3 months of age, when they weigh only 4-6 pounds. Cubs do not eat solid food until much later in the spring, after their chewing teeth have developed. They will continue to nurse from their mother until fall.
Cubs grow quickly, putting on about 80 pounds in their first year. Female black bears weigh between 90-300 pounds, males between 125-500 pounds.The cubs will remain with mama bear for a year and a half at which point they are sent off by Mom to experience life on their own. Everything they need to know they will have learned by then
Know what bears eat? They are omnivores meaning they have a diet of both plants and animals. They feed on nuts, fruit, roots, fungus, insects, larvae, succulent greens and animal matter such as carrion, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds.
Here’s a fun video just to make you smile. It seems impossible to have a bad day after watching this!
Thanks for watching! I hope this made you smile! Have a great weekend and make time to get outside to witness something amazing for yourself.
The Cubs are just so tiny!! Thanks for sharing this😎
I know, right? Looks like they are taking their first steps in the big world!
So tiny and vulnerable. Wishing the best for momma bear and babies.
Vulnerable is exactly the word to describe them. I hope they’re all right too.