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Some Things We Don?t Understand, and an Admission - UPDATE August 10, 2020
10 August 2020
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But first, an admission. Checking photos of lookalike bears, we have to correct some records here. Cinnamon watching cubs
Cinnamon watching cubs
The mother we have been calling 5-year-old Pixie (daughter of Donna), is actually 4-year-old Ohio (daughter of RC). Thank goodness for photos that go back to when these bears were cubs, and thank goodness for team members that are organizing the pictures for situations like this.
The photos in this update tell a story I wouldn?t have predicted. The players are Ohio, the mother of two male cubs; Colleen, the 17-year-old mother of two females and a male; and Cinnamon, the 3-year-old mother of a female and a cub that is still of unknown sex. The latter cub spends so much time up trees that we haven?t gotten the right look yet.
Today, all three mothers overlapped their visits here. What looks like a mother watching over her three cubs is actually Cinnamon trying to understand why cubs from Ohio?s and Colleen?s litters were calmly eating so close to her. Cinnamon is the bear I said showed the most ferocious attack by a mother on an intruding bear that I?d ever seen. More about that story below, but back to the present. When these cubs gathered near Cinnamon, she was calm. Her own cubs resting hidden in the high branches of nearby white pines. The cubs near Cinnamon here are the two male cubs of Ohio and a cub of Colleen. As Cinnamon watched, Colleen?s cub, the largest of the three, initiated play with one of Ohio?s. Meanwhile, Ohio?s other cub just looked away. In one of the pictures Cinnamon is barely visible as she watches. The two cubs played amiably for a minute or two before going back to eating and growing. Cinnamon resumed eating, and Colleen briefly stopped by to check on her cub from 30 feet away before doing the same.
Cubs of different litters playing
Cubs playing together Cubs playing
Cubs from different litters playing
Regarding Cinnamon leaping loudly at a big male and slamming her paws on his back a few days ago; Mike, Lorie, and I recalled a more ferocious example that happened on August 26, 2017. Cinnamon was there as a cub to witness it, because it was her mother Ellie and her grandmother Lily that rushed to attack an intruding male that was attacking Lily?s son Dave. Attacking together, Lily and Ellie drove the male off, but not quickly enough to save Dave. Would Cinnamon remember that sad day and how her mother and grandmother attacked the big male without hesitation? Or do such attacks just run in this family that includes gentle Lily who has always been totally safe around people? It?s all part of the puzzle of understanding and we are glad to have seen parts of it.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
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Topic: Jewel and her cubs (Read 1739280 times)