Bear News – Big News July 2026

As the mating season slowly comes to an end, our bears are showing some interesting behaviors and reminding us just how unique they can be.

Like many wild male bears during mating season, Lucky has prioritized romance over meals. His attention has been focused on following and courting Holly rather than spending time eating. This seasonal behavior is common among wild bears as males travel extensively in search of females, disregarding food intake.

The American black bear is known for having a distinct personality and our bears demonstrate that everyday. While bears share many common instincts and behaviors, individual preferences and quirks make each one special.

For example: bears are opportunistic feeders and will readily consume bird and turtle eggs when available. At our facility, the bears receive animal protein in the form of a chicken egg daily. Lucky has a preference for store bought eggs and not farm fresh. He has rejected farm fresh eggs since he was a yearling. The egg also must not be broken or cracked; he must do that himself or he will again walk away. A particular behavior of Tasha is Tasha’s “tub time“. Our bears enjoy their water tubs to cool off and lower their body temperature. Tasha does spend time in the water, but we also provide her with an extra tub, without water, for her to sit in. Tasha has always used a tub to recline, rock herself, and suckle on her paws. This particular behavior was once unique to Tasha only, but now Lucky and Holly mimic the behavior. Wild bears most likely don’t have tubs, but they do have cool pools of lake water or streams to cool themselves and shaded trees to rest.

Holly’s quirky or special behavior is her initiation of play on behalf of the staff, not other bears. She will dump her water bowl (sometimes as much as 50 gallons full) after it is filled, looking directly at the staff. This is an invitation to spray her with the hose and play. Holly rarely goes into the pond to cool off but uses the smaller overflow stream to splay and chill, or “sploot”. Splooting is when bears will press their stomach to the ground and spread their limbs as a way of cooling their body temperature. Holly’s weight will begin to go up in mid–July, as that seems to be when she starts her transition into hyperphagia.

I’m sharing a few new pictures that show different enrichments we are currently doing with the bears.

As summer is now in full swing we are still in need of several items on our Amazon wish list. Our current need is for pecans, dried cherries or cranberries, white clover grass seed, and rye grass seed. https://bear.org/support-us/amazon-wishlist-2/

We will see you for the Bear Birthday Bash on July 18th! 

Thank you for all you do,

Sharon Herrell, Sr. Bear Keeper