Happy Birthday to Our Bears! - Appalachian Bear Rescue

Yesterday was the “official ABR birthday” of Tartan and Taco Bear. January 22nd has been designated as the birthdate of every bear who comes to ABR. That means that Tartan Bear turned 16 months and Taco Bear turned 4 months old. Ken LaValley, the ABR photographer, stopped by and took a birthday portrait of Tartan. He is becoming a very handsome yearling!

Tartan Bear at sixteen months – what a change since the scrawny yearling arrived in April!

Only the curators can enter the Hartley House with Taco, so instead of a portrait by Ken, they did a quick weigh-in to learn how much he has gained in the month he’s been at ABR.

Curator Tom captured Taco, who had done the right bear thing by climbing to the top of his climbing structure. Taco was not a happy cub, and he let out a squawk.

After the weigh-in, Tom dumped Taco out quickly (he had to shake the crate a bit to get the cub out).

He crawled into his culvert den and fell asleep by his Not a Polar Bear.

And so we wish a belated happy birthday to Taco, Tartan, and all bears, everywhere!

Happy Birthday to present and former ABR bears, and the bears in the wild!

When Taco was weighed, he tipped the scale at 7.2 pounds – twice what he weighed when he was admitted to ABR a month ago! Good bear! His obvious distaste for being captured is a good sign. The goal of ABR and our care of the bears is to maintain their wild instincts. Taco still has the wildness that his real mother bear taught him. Curator Tom and Curator Bailey worked fast and completed the capture-weigh-release procedure in just five minutes!