On Friday, after the releases of Martha Washington, Betsy Ross, and Tamale Bear, the curators opened the gate between Acclimation Pen #3 and the Wild Enclosure, to allow Tinsel Bear to go outside! She had finished her deworming medicine and was cleared to go out to Enclosure #3 with Twinkle!
The tiny cub wasted no time in racing outside! She is so small that we had to use big arrows to point her out.
The first thing she found was the Forbidden Tree, just like many cubs before her.
She climbed onto the big rock (perhaps to make herself larger?)
She foraged for yummy treats, like shiny apples, peanuts, and acorns.
Twinkle Bear didn’t seem to be at all concerned about the newcomer to her enclosure. We are sure that within a few days they will be friends.
Both of these bears are in the 20-25 pound range, which is low for cubs of their age (almost 11 months), even for wild cubs who weigh much less than the whopper-sized cubs that ABR released during the past week. The average weight for a female would be around 40 pounds and for a male, maybe 10 pounds more. These two girls will spend some more time with us, to get them fat enough to survive the winter.
That’s good news for those of us who like to watch them and their antics, but it would be better for the curators if they got a nice break before any of next year’s cubs need our help.