This is an old post- not sure how it didn't get published....
March 28, 2007
March 28, 2007
We had a fantastic day today!
Part of Kevin's job includes monitoring the black bear population in his area and he invited us to go with him and some of the other biologists on a "bear hunt". What we found was something I never thought I would see in the wild!
This particular female bear that they were watching was located on a Wildlife Management Area near Warner Robins and Perry, GA. She had been previously fitted with a radio collar and she was due to have cubs this year. Her signal had been in one place for some time, which indicated that she had probably had her cubs, so we went in with the telemetry equipment and followed the signal until the mother bear was spotted in a heavy thicket. Black bears are not as aggressive as grizzly bears and tend to leave the area when humans approach. She moved away from the immediate area and we were able to go in and discovered two cubs.
They were both females, and they still had milk on their mouths from nursing. We were able to inspect the cubs, assign them numbers and weigh them. Both Isabelle and Rosemary were able to hold one; they wore gloves to prevent human scent from getting onto the cubs. They were about 4 weeks old and one had just opened it’s eyes, the second one had not. They weighed about 3 pounds each and reminded me of large puppies, except their toes and claws were very prominent and seemed too big for their little bodies. I could have stayed for a long time and watched them snuffling around, but we left quickly so that the mother bear would come back.
This particular female bear that they were watching was located on a Wildlife Management Area near Warner Robins and Perry, GA. She had been previously fitted with a radio collar and she was due to have cubs this year. Her signal had been in one place for some time, which indicated that she had probably had her cubs, so we went in with the telemetry equipment and followed the signal until the mother bear was spotted in a heavy thicket. Black bears are not as aggressive as grizzly bears and tend to leave the area when humans approach. She moved away from the immediate area and we were able to go in and discovered two cubs.
They were both females, and they still had milk on their mouths from nursing. We were able to inspect the cubs, assign them numbers and weigh them. Both Isabelle and Rosemary were able to hold one; they wore gloves to prevent human scent from getting onto the cubs. They were about 4 weeks old and one had just opened it’s eyes, the second one had not. They weighed about 3 pounds each and reminded me of large puppies, except their toes and claws were very prominent and seemed too big for their little bodies. I could have stayed for a long time and watched them snuffling around, but we left quickly so that the mother bear would come back.
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