|
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. |
