Lily and Her Four Cubs - UPDATE July 26, 2024
Mallard family passes as bear eats
![](https://www.bearstudy.org/templates/yootheme/cache/f8/20240726_Mallard_family-f88a7936.webp)
With the crops of juneberries (Amelanchier spp.) and blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) not doing as well as we thought, bears are hungry. Last evening, Lily and her four cubs checked an old favorite feeding site three miles from her usual haunts and were thoroughly occupied by food as people snapped pictures to send us. The people also confirmed the sexes of her four cubs--one female (with the chest blaze) and three males. It took two pictures to get the whole view of Lily--one of her head and the other of her healthy body.
Lily's female cub
Lily's female cub
![](https://www.bearstudy.org/images/stories/images/Updates_2024/20240726_Lilys_female_cub.jpg)
Lily w/cubs
Lily w/cubs
![](https://www.bearstudy.org/images/stories/images/Updates_2024/20240726_Lily_w_cubs.jpg)
Lily w/smallest male cub
Lily w/smallest male cub
I hope I get a chance to see her one of these days. It is always nice to feel that she remembers me and so calmly accepts me that she just ignores me and keeps eating as I take her pulse, stroke her back, and say the words she expects. She is the bear I most want to watch with a den cam and compare how she cared for cubs when she was 3 to 6 years old and now she would be 18 this winter or 19 next year when she should give birth again. I wonder if she has any gray hairs yet.
Loon
Loon
![](https://www.bearstudy.org/images/stories/images/Updates_2024/20240726_Loon.jpg)
Deer on shore
Deer on shore
![](https://www.bearstudy.org/images/stories/images/Updates_2024/20240726_Deer_on_shore.jpg)
Out the window here, this group of ten mallards passed (top photo) within six feet of a bear that was resting and eating. The ducks didn't hesitate and the bear just looked and went back to eating. I thought there would be more reaction because a mother mallard with a single duckling made a bear back off a week or so ago. Some of the ducks and bears here are probably accustomed to seeing each other. It was the same for us on a pontoon ride with the recent wonderful course group. A loon paid little attention as we quietly passed by and a deer did no more than calmly look at us.
Good times.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center