Bear News – MAY 2025

Spring is finally here and the bears are active.

Bear weights as of May 2nd 2025

Lucky 386, Holly 245, and Tasha 317.

Holly has been initiating play, we have seen more and more wrestling and sparring with Lucky each day. It’s so good to see them having so much fun. I know it is entertaining not only our guests but also online guests and mods too.

Holly seemed to stay in her den the longest this year. She hibernated under a large boulder near the back of the enclosure. She at some point moved to another area. The den she was using when Spencer and Macy saw her was near the base of a tree. Dens sometimes flood with the melting snow and bears move to another location.

Holly is 12 years old this year. It’s hard to believe. It seems like we were just socializing her to meet the other bears. Now she’s the matriarch and she does run a tight enclosure.

She recently initiated play with Lucky. It was great to see Lucky actually run and chase Holly.

Their sparring was fun to watch and an excellent teaching tool.  https://bear.org/bear-facts/why-do-bears-play/

Earlier this past week we gave the bears fresh cedar. Aside from the play factor: the cedar keeps bugs away. It’s very similar to humans using bug spray. The bears roll and coat themselves in cedar.

“Black bears have two layers of fur. The first layer is an undercoat that is short and thick. The outer layer is made up of guard hairs which are long and thin. This coat keeps most biting and stinging insects at bay, by not allowing them to get to the skin. However, some parts of the bear such as; the belly, muzzle, nose, and face have significantly less fur. They are not so well protected in these areas. In order to ward off insects, black bears rub cedar sap on themselves. Cedar trees, and more specifically cedar sap, repels insects. Here at the North American Bear Center, we give our bears cedar wood chip piles so they can practice this behavior in captivity. As you can clearly see in the videos below, all our bears seem to thoroughly enjoy rolling around in the wood chips. Excerpt taken from May 27, 2022 update WRI.” 

Lucky bear is 18 years old this year. Another hard to believe fact. He certainly doesn’t act like a geriatric bear. I use that term due to his age but not his mannerisms. After Holly initiating play several times he finally engaged and began chasing her to play. They sparred with each other around the Pat tree. Lucky chased her and actually ran. After play he took a nap on the mound.

Tasha, as most have seen, is standing up for herself and making sure Lucky knows she isn’t going to be intimidated any longer by him. A  few weeks ago I saw the video of Lucky approaching the mound Tasha was behind den 3 and ran to the enclosure. He pursued her into the den. Then another chase and interaction between the two. This was Lucky defending his den.

A few years ago, while the bunkers were still in use, Holly went after Lucky in the same manner while she denned under the boulder den she took from Tasha. After an angry confrontation, she chased him to the bunkers where he dove into his den. This was Holly defending her den. All intentional deliberant behavior and yet there were no injuries.

It’s good to be back and working for the bears. It is time for me to kick in what I’m good at and that is asking you to check out our current needs on our amazon wish list. https://bear.org/support-us/amazon-smile-wish-list/

Our current needs are for:

• Apricots unsweetened 5lb.
• Cranberry 5 lb
• Walnuts 5lb
• Brazil nuts 5 lb
• Pecans 5 lb

We recently reseeded the mound and viewing area with white clover and rye. The bear dens will be done also as soon as we have rain in our forecast. Photography courtesy of staff member Macy.

Thank you for all you do,

Sharon Herrell, Sr. Bear Keeper