01/06/2024
It's now time for the pregnant mama bears to start having their new cubs.
By now in East Tennessee/Western North Carolina the Bears should have all ready choose a denning site and now its time for the pregnant moms to start having their cubs. (Dens are usually in hollow stumps, up in tree cavities, under root balls, under rocks or wherever there is shelter for them. This particular mama bear denned under a big root ball at the base of a big fallen tree.)
The moms usually give birth to one to five cubs, with two being the norm. New cubs are usually born in January to early February during the mother's winter denning cycle after her gestation period of approximately 7 months. Although mating occurs in June or July, fetal development takes place mainly in the last 2 months of pregnancy after the fertilized egg implants in the uterus in November (delayed implantation). Fetuses develop only if the mother has stored enough body fat and other nutrients to survive overwinter and provide milk for her cubs until she resumes feeding in spring (nature’s way of bear birth control).
At birth, bear cubs weigh only eight ounces, the cubs are blind, covered with fine gray hair, and can barely craw. The little cubs nurse every 10 minutes or so while Mom cuddles them closely, especially in the beginning because they are born hairless. The cubs will be covered in fur in about six weeks and by then the cubs will start to open their eyes seeing their mama for the first time
The mother eats the birth membranes, licks the cubs, and warms them against her thinly furred belly. She moves in response to the cubs’ cries and comfort sounds, she guides them to her ni***es making it easy for them to nurse while shifting her weight so as not to rest too heavily on them. Mama bear doesn’t have it easy though as she now has a full time babysitting job, she sleeps when she can but spends most of her time and energy taking care of her new babies 24/7.
Females with newly born cubs usually emerge from their winter dens in late March or early April when the cubs are at least 3 months old, they weigh 4 to 6 pounds, depending on how much milk their mother produced and how many littermates they shared it with. The cubs will remain with the mother for about eighteen months or until she mates again. Litters are produced every other year. Cubs stay with their mother for the first season and spend a second winter with her. Nursing mothers often lose a third or more if their body weight over winter, while non-nursing bears lose only 15 to 25 percent.
When they leave the den about 3 months after they were born mama first teaches them how to climb a tree while the better developed cubs can immediately climb trees. Their mother defends them, warms them, and nurses them, sometimes sitting and cradling them in her forelegs while licking their heads and nursing them. Foraging mothers come immediately when their cubs cry. If need be, a mother will carry a cub in her mouth to a new location or will gently grasp a crying cub in her mouth to help is down from a tree.
Nature is so beautiful and to be able to witness what “The Good Lord” has created for us to see is priceless if only we take the time out from our busy lives to get out more and enjoy our surroundings. It was a chance of a lifetime and such a privilege to get to take photos and videos of these intimate actions between a mama bear and her new cubs in their den in spring 2017 and to be able to share with others that may not be able to get out or ever see something like this in their life time.
I want to make this clear when I photographed and took videos of this bear family in Spring 2017 I was 80 to 90 yards away which is (240 to 270 feet) on the next ridge over from where they were. I used a zoom lens (that has a X 25.6 magnification power) and also used a crop sensor camera. In processing i then cropped the image in even more as it gives the perception of being up close and personal but I was far enough away as to not disturb mom and her cubs in any way, allowed them their space, kept quite and showed them the utmost respect! After all, this is their home! The set-up I used to capture these intimate photos and videos has a total reach of 1280mm.
This image was shot at an undisclosed location (to protect her, her cubs and their den site) in the East Tennessee Mountains
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