A Beary Good Snow Day
Orphaned bear cub at Finnish reserve sees snow for the first time, likes it!
Your hed gif shows a bear cub experiencing snow for the first time. Never has there been a more excited bear. His rolling and hopping like a puppy just slays me. Sadly, the news indicates that animal protection services held a surprise inspection of the Kuusamo Big Game Center in Finland (where the source vid was filmed) and found deficiencies in the standard of care for the bear and other animals. As of a story I found from October of 2023, there still appears to be ongoing court proceedings to determine if the center can keep operating, with a lower court finding that while the center violated animal protection standards, the infractions were not severe enough to merit closure of the facility.
In my search for winter bear related content, I found this interesting video. Did you know that mama bears have their babies during the winter hibernation cycle? No, they aren’t actually giving birth while sleeping: hibernation for bears is a sort of nap-rest cycle. They are awake for some of it, giving birth in the case of pregnant bears. The low activity cycle of winter’s lean months is an advantageous time for having cubs as they will wean off their mother’s fat reserves in the shelter of a den and will then be stronger when they emerge in the spring. Interestingly, female bears may become inseminated several months before the winter starts, but they will only become pregnant if they have an adequate amount of fat stores to feed themselves and their offspring during the winter hibernation period. There is another advantage of the mother-bear’s low-activity cycle: because mom isn’t moving around, she is also less likely to accidentally step on and injure her cubs.
Cute
That is a happy bear cub. So adorable. And TIL about bear pregnancies! Who knew? Once again Martini shares the knowledge and the cute, thank you!