What Shall We Do?

Posted on   February 6, 2020
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Category  :  Bear Feature Stories & Photos

The three yearlings in Wild Enclosure #4 can choose what to do on any given day. On this day, they did some playing and lots of sleeping.

Jessamine started things off by finding a sapling that had somehow escaped the attention of the cubs before.
A few minutes later, Boudreaux joined in and they murdalized the sapling together. We’ve seen time and time again that young bears can’t resist saplings.
They bend the sapling down. It is bendy; they like that. We don’t think they are actually kissing, even though it looks like it.
They find that the sapling springs back when bent. What fun!
Jessamine moved on. Boudreaux continues the murdalization of the sapling.
Beignet takes a nap while her brother continues to work on the sapling. Jessamine is hiding in the bushes.
Boudreaux comes over to Beignet’s bed. Jessamine is still hiding.
Boudreaux naps alongside his sister.
Jessamine comes out of hiding and joins the other two yearlings.
The three yearlings nap together.
Two hours later, they moved to Jessamine’s daybed to start the night.
After midnight they moved over to Beignet’s daybed.
At 8:30 am, they were still asleep in Beignet’s daybed.

What a life! The curators have observed that the yearlings spend as much as 80% of their time sleeping these days. It appears that this is their hibernation schedule. Sounds like a good plan to us, especially during wet, dreary winter days.