Just a week ago, on February 5th, the 8th yearling of 2012 was admitted to ABR.

He is very tiny, weighing in at just over 10 pounds.  That weight is about what a cub usually weighs when the mother brings it out of the den in the spring at the age of 3 months.

Challenger, however, is a year old!

He was introduced into the pen with Hardy (our 7th 2012 yearling) and at first he did not eat at all.  After a week, though he is still hiding from Hardy, Challenger has finally started to eat.

He stays tucked in behind his Christmas tree and keeps away from his “roommate”…but no doubt they soon will become best buddies.

Challenger is lapping applesauce containing Pedialyte, yogurt, and pPuppy chow morsels (regular dog food pieces were too big for him but when offered the Puppy Chow morsels, he started happily crunching the tiny bits!). Now that he is enjoying tiny “crunchies” he should soon be able to start eating the NutsOnLine peanuts and hazlenuts.

If you would like to provide some tasty and nutritious nuts for little Challenger, you can order them from www.nuts.com   – Search for the special Appalachian Bear Rescue package .

Thank you for caring for our little bears!