When this female showed up in the spring with her three two year old cubs, we were all surprised. In the past, it seemed she would disperse them immediately out of the den at this age. But here she was and we weren't sure if she was going to hold onto them later into the season, maybe even another full season? She took her cubs into a tight drainage mid May called King Creek. We receive a report of a dead bear cub and I immediately know it's one of hers. We hike in 2km to retrieve the cub and find fur and scuffle marks, indicating a battle had taken place. Investigating the scene we find two sets of adult tracks trending deeper into the ravine as the male would of followed the female to mate. A necropsy was done on the cub and the evidence and damage was that from a large male grizzly.
It took a few days but the two remaining cubs started to emerge, but strangely enough they were not together. In most cases cubs will stay together during this season and into the next. With her GPS collar we could keep tabs on the mother bear who remained in one general area, with relatively little to no movement for well over a week, almost two. It had some fearing she too had parished from possible injuries from defending the cubs. Finally on June 3rd, she emerged unscaved and doing well, she was mating. We hiked back to this location to look for additional clues on why she and her possible mate stayed almost bedded in one location, maybe a carcass?
We only find plenty of digs and lush vegetation with several day beds.
Over the next 7 months the two 2y/o cubs never paired up with mom or even themselves. Even though these two were seen quite often they were never a real issue which was another surprise as two year old subadults usually are. By late October they both looked great and ready to den. As for mom, she had put on some incredible weight for heading for hibernation. In 2020 she showed up with 2 cubs of the year, and her now 3 y/o sub adults were once again back on the landscape and thriving. Hope you enjoyed their story!