With the release of Andy and Eliza Bear, Finnegan is a solo cub once again.  He will be staying at ABR a few weeks longer.  He will be released in a different area, close to where he was found last March.  For now, he is enjoying his status as “King of the Enclosure” once again.  He entered the Acclimation Pen along with the other two cubs, and rather than hope he would leave and they would stay (not likely) it was decided to sedate all three of the cubs at once.  Since he was sedated, Finn was ear tagged and collared also.  This will make it easier to catch him when his release date arrives.  As expected, Finn was the heaviest of the three, weighing in at 66.5 pounds.

Finnegan was a mad cub when he woke up and found himself in The Cub House again!  Curator Coy placed him there for safety, so he would be able to awaken gradually and then be released back into the Wild Enclosure.  Finn did not like this plan, at all, and let everyone know how he felt by squalling and raising a cubby ruckus.  Good thing we didn’t understand what he was saying, although his meaning was crystal clear.

Curator Coy is restricting his observation time, but he managed to get a few good photos of Finnegan in a tree the day after the others were released.

Finnegan hanging out in a tree.

His collar doesn’t show, but we can see the ear tags.

Enough of posing – he climbs down to forage.

It seems that ABR will soon be cub-less, after 20 months of caring for bear cubs.  We will have the opportunity to catch up on maintenance tasks and get ready for possible new cub residents in the spring of 2017.  Meanwhile, we will likely have fewer photos to share with you.  We may have to go back and republish some earlier ones.