Bears have many means of communicating information to other bears.  These include a wide variety of sounds, equally important body language cues and the all-important sense of smell.  In today’s post we see the cubs, Otto and Rollo, using the sense of smell to communicate what is being eaten by one of the cubs.  Otto is eating something, and Rollo wants to know what it is.  See how the message is transmitted.

Rollo and Otto forage together.

Rollo wonders what Otto is eating.

Rollo tries to sniff Otto’s mouth to learn what he has.

He continues to sniff Otto’s mouth. Must be something good!

The two cubs return to foraging.

This is actually a method that mother bears use to teach their cubs what foods they should be eating.  A mother bear takes food in her mouth and then lets her cub sniff so the youngster can remember the smell and locate that food on its own later.  Sometimes a mother bear will breathe into the cub’s face to convey the same message.  Bears use their sense of smell more than any of their other senses.

All three of the ABR cubs are eating and getting chubby.  Here is Apollo with his large bowl of food.

Apollo dives into his large food bowl.

As you can see, all three of the bear cubs are making great progress.