When in the bear cub care business, you never know what will happen next. Beignet Bear, recovering from the second break to her right rear leg, is doing well, but is favoring the leg (no wonder!) It had become obvious that she will need to spend the winter at ABR. Rather than have her stay alone, and requiring the Louisiana wildlife officers to make the long trip to ABR and back two times, after conferring with the LA wildlife officials it was decided to move her brother, Boudreaux, into Wild Enclosure #4. The idea is that the two cubs can den here in TN and return home to LA in the spring.

This plan meant that Boudreaux would need to move. That proved to be easier than expected – the curators put tasty grapes in Acclimation Pen #3, and Boudreaux followed the grapes, or their smell, and walked right in. Then, it did take a visit from NPS ranger Ryan Williamson to immobilize the hefty cub for the very short trip to Wild Enclosure #4. The curators took the opportunity to weigh our chonky bear cub, and – WOW! – Boudreaux weighs 92.2 pounds!

Boudreaux woke up in Acclimation Pen #4, which is where he and Beignet as well as the three Beary Triplets spent time in early spring, soon after their arrival. Undoubtedly, since bears have such amazing memories, he recognized the Acclimation Pen, but he didn’t like the confinement. He paced quite a bit during the night.

This is an unexpected turn of events, as we had thought that these two cubs would be returning to their home state to hibernate. However, due to the interference of Beignet’s broken leg, the new plan to be implemented is that both of these cubs will spend the winter at ABR and return home in the spring of 2020. Stay tuned.