Two More Fat Bears Added to the Mix

Maya and crew released two more male bear cubs in Lake Tahoe yesterday, traveling seven miles to an isolated spot, where Cal Fish and Game employees dug dens for the cubs. They tagged them with ear transmitters too, and will be tracking them regularly. This little guy’s head is on Maya’s lap. He’s already begun his snooze.

Fat Little Bear, Part 2

A couple of readers wrote yesterday to ask about Little Bear's den. (See Jan. 3 post.) Maya sent this picture (taken by Doug Updike), showing its enclosure. It's an igloo, much like the ones available at pet stores, with snow packed on top and hay and pine branches lining the interior floor. Maya is on the left, and Jeff Brown, station manager at UC Berkeley's Sagehen Creek Field Station, is on the right. Little Bear is tucked inside and snoozing through the storm -- as I type this, wind and rain is raging in Northern California. Up to 10 feet of snow is predicted in the Sierra.

Fat Little Bear Tucked Into Bed

Our daughter, Maya, is a full-time student who also works part time for the California Department of Fish and Game. Yesterday, she and her boss (and a truck full of cohorts) drove to Truckee to begin preparations for the release of a bear cub, whose mother was hit by a car and killed. Those preparations included tranquilizing the little fellow (who actually weighs 80 pounds), then snuggling it into a hibernation den – a cozy villa lined with straw and pine boughs – in the hope it will sleep for the rest of the winter. It was tagged with a transmitter, so that biologists can track the bear’s progress when it wakes up.

The cub is the first of five that Fish and Game will return to the wild this winter.