Mother bears teach their cubs about foods as they go through the seasons. Since the ABR cubs don’t have the benefit of a mother’s teaching, our curators offer many different foods to the cubs, to introduce them to the kinds of things they will forage for in the wild. To provide variety and a bit of a challenge, they sometimes put treats (such as honeycomb and nuts) inside of paper tubes or wrappers. This sequence of photos shows what happens when treat tubes were given to the TN cubs. As you can see, the cubs were very pleased with their treats.
Annie Bear waits for treat.
Oscar with his treat.
Annie and her treat.
Oscar wants it, too.
Annie won’t let Oscar have hers.
She enjoys all of it!
We are glad to see that Annie Bear, though small in size, is learning to stand her ground. Oscar can’t bully her any more.