All of our twenty-five yearling bears are doing well.  The curators have moved Clarence Bear and Bailey Bear into Acclimation Pens.  Their smaller pens were “getting on their nerves” – in other words, they showed signs of stress.  Yearling bears hate being confined, especially after they start to recover and feel better.  The Acclimation Pens are much larger and give the little bears a chance to climb and experience some of the activities of bears, while still being under observation while they continue medication and controlled food intake.  Because Bailey Bear escaped from the Acclimation Pen before, it has been thoroughly checked for security.  We are sure that she won’t be able to escape again.  Not only that, since she has been back she has experienced the good ABR diet, and has been eating very  enthusiastically, so she may decide that this is a good place to stay for awhile.

Skipper Bear is eating and moving around much more.  He has been at ABR for a week now, and has made good progress.  If you recall, he was in such a fragile state that it was not at all certain that he would live.  Now he is eating a slightly more varied menu and is cleaning his bowl at each feeding.

Skipper is able to stand and hold his head up. This is progress.

Here are some other yearlings – these are unidentified, because often, if the ear tags are not visible it is difficult to identify the bears, even for the curators.

A yearling sleeps up in a tree.

Another yearling in another tree.

This yearling is munching on a peanut.

Look at the right side of the bear’s mouth.  That is a peanut shell being ejected.  It is most interesting to watch a bear eat nuts.  We might think they would just chomp the whole thing, shell and all, but in fact they spit the shells out of the side of the mouth.  There is a space between the front teeth and the molars, through which they can spit out the shells. Just another fascinating bit of “bear trivia.”