Bear News – JUNE 2025

Bear Weights:

Lucky:  399 lbs.

Holly: 247 lbs.

Newsworthy events at the North American Bear Center:

Welcome to our 2025 interns and the Bears’ Half-birthday, June 26 -29th voting for piñata’s. On June 30th the bears get their piñata’s.

This month’s bear news includes Holly’s attitude, Lucky’s willingness to play and lastly, Tasha’s calm demeanor.

Black bears are a matriarchal hierarchy; the oldest female is known as the matriarch and usually holds the largest portion of a territory. Her offspring often have a smaller territory within the matriarch’s territory. The matriarch defends her territory from all females including her own offspring.  Females in northern Minnesota may have a four to six mile territory while males may have several female’s territories in his range for mating purposes. This range may be as much as one hundred miles.

The North American Bear Center has 2.5 acres. Holly readily defends this area from Tasha as she is the matriarch.  Her defense is so intensive that she is aware that wild bears come near the area outside the electric fence. Although they can’t get in, Holly does her job by checking the perimeter inside the enclosure continually.

The natural instinct of the male bear is to pursue with zest the females during the end of May and the month of June. At the Bear Center estrus begins with Holly. Currently Holly and Lucky are in full courtship mode. This year it was initiated first by Holly. Lucky was lethargic and hesitant at first but Holly didn’t give up. She began to wrestle with him which then ignited the spark in Lucky and they have been in the courtship ritual for about 10 days. Read more about mating courtships:

https://bear.org/bear-facts/courtship-and-mating/#:~:text=Couples%20often%20play%20and%20rest,Both%20sexes%20are%20promiscuous

Lucky never fails to impress our guests with his handsome face and mellow personality. We have been so fortunate to not only have his attention when we’re out cleaning the dens but also watching his comical antics such as sitting on the fallen tree or in his tub.

Tasha’s bear manners and her overall personality enlighten our guests. The speakers on our very popular Behind the Scenes Tour may often ask our guests to observe and note the confidence Holly displays and the gentle attitude that Tasha displays. One of the reasons we do not have a weight on Tasha is because she will not put all four feet on the scale. She will put three on it but leaves the fourth dangling or firmly planted on the ground. We are not sure why but it is for sure she does not want to be weighed.

Bears overall have different personalities just like people have different personalities. They may like each other, have disagreements or they may not. They also have different food likes and dislikes. Each bear is unique in its own way and personality.

I’d like to address why I ask for quality dried fruit and nuts on our Amazon Wishlist.

Mental stimulation for captive bears is a primary concern for all bear staff. Any animal caregiver regardless of whether the animal is small like a lemur or large like a bear needs to continually be motivated to problem solve. By manipulating the enrichment toys we give them each day it keeps the bears’ mind working and triggers the need to succeed. They manipulate each item to provide the satisfaction of getting the food out. At the center, Lucky sometimes gets frustrated but almost as quickly as he gives up, he is back at it with a different approach and he gets the results he wants which is getting the treats. We continually provide different and sometimes challenging enrichments for mental stimulation. It is always a food reward. In the same manner we hide food in the main enclosure. The bears use their sense of smell to locate and their paws and tongue to collect the treats. If you’d like to help us provide the treats, our list is on Amazon: https://bear.org/support-us/amazon-wishlist-2/

Thank you for all you do,

Sharon Herrell, Sr. Bear Keeper