A sow and 3 cubs

KDX

KDX

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I was driving down the hiway south of Candle Lake today and saw a black bear on the edge of the bush. I turned around and saw her run across the road followed by 3 cubs. Is it unusual for a bear to have 3 cubs?
 
Not really. The sow will have up to three cubs. I'd say she was healthy, food was good and she had a good hibernation period. The problem for all cubs is surviving weaning, not getting killed by the boars and then getting through winter. Their first year on their own is very hard because they need to find territory that isn't already occupied - hence all the surprised suburbanites calling animal control for wandering bears in their neighbourhoods.
 
3 is common. If you see a LOT of 3's or more, it's a strong indication that last year was a very good feed year and there'll be a lot of young'ns running around looking for their own territory before long.

When food is plentiful and conditions are good, bears have more kids and start having them at a younger age as a rule.

Sometimes you get a really good year or two followed by a really tough year. That's when you can expect to see a lot of young bears kicking around causing trouble. There isn't enough food and the bigger bears will chase them off and they don't know where to go and they start getting desperate.

But even in mediocre years, a few sows will have triplets.
 
With all the young bears looking for territory, would you expect more confrontations with campers?
I was at Heritage lake, just north of Candle, camping in a tent. The CO stopped by to let me know there was a bear migration coming thru that night and wanted to make sure I was prepared. Since I was spear fishing (and cleaning fish) all day, I spent the night in the car rather than the tent.
 
With all the young bears looking for territory, would you expect more confrontations with campers?
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Absolutely. Young bears lack the fear of humans that most bears develop quickly. MOST will still avoid humans, but it's fairly common to see a few that are a little pushy.

ESPECIALLY if they've been bounced by a larger bear. It's quite common in the bear world for a big bear to beat up a medium sized one - and for that medium sized one then to seek out and beat up a smaller one. Bears have a slight 'bully complex' going on :) so a small one might well be acting a little 'tough'. If you look at a lot of the bear attacks, (black bear only here) it's often younger bears or older sows who've stopped having kids. They're more likely to be hungry, a little desperate, and a little agressive.

They also take very little pounding to drive off or kill, which is nice :) you don't need a monster gun to flatten a 100 lb black bear like the one that just killed that lady biking in bc.
 
They also take very little pounding to drive off or kill, which is nice you don't need a monster gun to flatten a 100 lb black bear like the one that just killed that lady biking in bc.
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Lack of firepower is not an affliction I suffer from. :)
 
I stumbled upon triplet Grizz cubs when hiking backcountry once. They looked just big enough to be on their own, probably their first summer away from mama, and all still together. She was no where around thank goodness. I spotted them first coming out of the trees, but halfway across a little clearing, they winded me and spent no time getting out of there. Three little blonde care bears. No camera, boo-hoo
 
Always good to see more bears around. There's very few here this year. I haven't heard of one in town or at the dump this summer. Last year there were 9 Grizzlies in our dump and Blackies all over town!
 
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