Someone asked if the cubs were afraid of the 4th of July fireworks noise.  While bears do not like loud noises (in fact, noise is one way to discourage a bear that may come into your yard or that you may encounter in the woods) the cubs were not in an area that was close to a large display.  They did react when the sound of a passing motorcycle scared them.  It rained off and on all that day.  Here are some photos that the curator was able to take.  The first one is Carter Bear in his tree, in the rain.  He looks a bit dejected to our human eyes, but since bears are out in every kind of weather, that’s probably just us anthropomorphizing.

Carter Bear is getting wet!

Next, we see Marvin climbing a tree.  It’s likely that a noise (like the motorcycle) spooked him, but cubs do climb trees for other reasons.

Marvin starts to climb.

A cub can climb a tree with amazing speed. He got this high in mere seconds.

Next, we see Bonnie Blue and Ridgeway, who are seldom very far from each other.  Befitting the month of July, they headed for the cub pool.

Bonnie Blue and Ridgeway head for the pool.

The pool is a good place to get a drink.

One of them takes a sip of water.

Marvin came down the tree and decided to take a drink, too.

Marvin takes a drink.

Hopefully the curators will catch the cubs actually swimming/playing in the pool.  Cubs (and bears) do like water!  But because of the limited amount of time they are able to observe and photograph the cubs, it may not happen.  If it does, we’ll certainly share the photos.