It was a cool, sunny day in Townsend yesterday (December 19th) and a big day for eleven of the ABR cubs that were ready for their “second chance at a life in the wild.”  The TWRA officers came out to dart and capture as many of the largest cubs as possible, to transport them to their new home in the forest.  It was challenging, to say the least, as several of the cubs retreated into their cozy, underground den.  Four females (Sadie, Sally, Trixie, and Violet) refused to come out at all.  They will spend the winter at ABR and will no doubt become the new “mama bears” for the smaller cubs that have arrived recently.  The eleven that were released, with their respective weights, were: Bobby (144 lbs), Sissy (91 lbs), Ham (142 lbs), Huck (141 lbs), Daisy (99 lbs), Jack (103 lbs), Jill (95 lbs), Jake (113 lbs), Scooter (76 lbs), Highway (76 lbs), and Winston (83 lbs).  If you go back to the posts when these cubs arrived you’ll see that they have done a lot of growing and putting on weight!  For example, Bobby, the first cub to arrive last spring, weighed just over 3 pounds at admittance!  We will post photos of the workups as soon as they are available.  We wish our big cubs well in their new, wild home.