Man that is awesome.

And when I first read it I missed the part about the tranquilizer gun. For about 2 minutes I thought he was grabbing her ear while she was just asleep. Fine line between brave and stupid. In this instance that line is a tranquilizer gun.

On a sad note, did anyone else see that Congress has passed a resolution rejecting some new regulations that would have outlawed taking of bears while they hibernate in their den in Alaska? How effed up and desperate are you that have to kill a sleeping animal for fun.

Man, that just looks absolutely awesome. Would definitely tag along on something like this given the opportunity.

Great post, and thanks for sharing!

How much longer will they hibernate?

No idea how it started. Probably with the notion that they might abandon the cubs if the smelled humans, which we now know isn't that likely to happen (by the way, that is a wive's tale with most wildlife). But it is a good way to distract the sow, and encourage the licking behavior. I don't know when it started. I know I did it in the late 90's/early 2000's, but its been referenced since at least the mid-80's. So it likely goes back further than that, and you are beyond me knowing what a bear is.

In the west, 2 cubs are common. Throughout the upper Midwest and the east, 3-4 cubs are pretty common as the sow matures. The occasional 5 cub litters are always out of the northeast in general. This is a function of food availability. Pennsylvania has a record of a 6 cub litter. Generally speaking, with the 4+ litter, maybe half survive. Keep in mind, in the east (WV), has a pretty high cub survival (like 80%+). Out west (NM) the survival rate is more like 50%. This is why there is no real cookbook approach to managing bears. Black bears are do well. But if you crash their population, it can take a long time for them to recover. Most of your eastern states, WV included, keep pretty good data on their bears.

AC, I don't remember you mentioning it, did y'all collect a tooth or was it not need due to being a known bear?

I asked one of my co-workers about the possibility of three cubs surviving with a 190 pound sow. He thought it was quite possible in this part of the country (Gatlinburg area) due to the amount of garbage foraging that occurs in and around here.

AC...love the second set of pictures with the cubs. Also, that picture of your son holding a cub is a keeper!

No doubt about it.

That was awesome AC. That will be something your son will remember all his life.

The closet thing I've come to is when my sister was working at Aransas Wildlife Refuge outside of Sinton. She got me on a trip with a couple of researchers to go out and catch some alligators at night. We took them back to the lab. All was good until one got the rubber tire band off of its mouth. I was on top of the table at that point. I was a freshman in high school at the time.

Irish_Man said:

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How much longer will they hibernate?

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I imagine they'll be up and on their feet within a few weeks. Although snow isn't out of the picture until May, winter is in it's death throes.

ursusguy said:

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AC, I don't remember you mentioning it, did y'all collect a tooth or was it not need due to being a known bear?

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They collected a tooth a few years ago when they first collared her, that's why they know she's 9 this year.

Steve Rinella did a podcast a while back with a bear biologist and they talked about a sow they named the "Wisconsin Super Sow". She had something like 2 litters of 5 cubs during a ten year span that she was monitored and something like 16 cubs total.

I think that podcast was from about a year ago. Not his most recent bear biologist podcast about bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

I thought about that podcast as well. IIRC, she had 2 or 3 litters of 4 cubs each, and all of them survived. Pretty phenomenal.

This thread. Nice job AC

My parents saw a bear with three cubs in the basin at Big Bend (last year? 2 years ago?). I'll see if I can find pictures.

Point being, they can have 3 cubs even out west.

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Would love to know how biologists came to using Vick's. What else was used prior to, etc.?

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Drakkar Noir

They've got some really good food around there, and just across the river they eat really well. Oddly enough, they don't quite live the stressed lifestyle many of the other sw populations live.