After the Rain - Appalachian Bear Rescue

There were two days of rain that kept the cubs up in the trees, their preferred spots when it’s raining. When it finally stopped raining, we finally saw the cubs again (they are very hard to find in the trees, in the rain). First to appear were two of the cubs in Wild Enclosure #3, who came out to forage around midnight. Bears have very good night vision.

We don’t know which two cubs these are, since all we can see of them is their glow-in-the-dark eyes.

Look at the food that is trapped by the Cubby Pool!

Hops quickly discovered the cache of food and laid claim to all of it.

After breakfast, the cubs scurried up the tree, to return to where they had spent the rainy days. The arrows point to where the four cubs are.

Where did everybody go? The final straggler hurries to join the others.

The cubs in Wild Enclosure #4 gathered for breakfast by their pool.

After eating, the three cubs disappeared into the brush. They may be headed for Summitt’s Branch, where they spent the rainy days.

You may have noticed that the cubs are looking quite chubby. They are doing a good job of chubbifying and will continue to do so. The annual “feeding frenzy” known scientifically as hyperphagia is about to get underway. Like their relatives in the wild, our cubs will be eating tremendous quantities of food in preparation for winter and hibernation. Miraculously, even though they have not experienced winter and food shortages, their bodies will tell them to start eating more and more during the next couple of months. Stay tuned.