Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you are having a really good day.
When Katie and I went to Wyoming with GrandDad and Polly, we saw a grizzly bear and her cubs. The cubs weren't very old, so they probably would not be afraid of us. You see, the mother bear has to teach the cubs to be afraid of predators , and others that will hurt them-- and people unfortunately sometimes harm bears. If the Cubs get too close to a skunk, or a porcupine , mama bear will give them a really good swat. Sending then head over heals away from the danger. Maybe your parents spank you sometimes, but you need to know it's to help you not make the same mistake again. When we saw the cubs, I had to keep Katie from trying to go play with them, because mama bear was close by, and would have charged out to hurt Katie, thinking Katie was going to harm her cubs.
Anyway, back to what mama bear does for her cubs. In the Fall mama bear will really eat lots, and lots of food. Mostly berries and salmon. She will gain 40 or 50 pounds, and then she will dig a den in the ground where she will spend the winter. It will be on a hillside, so rainwater will drain away from the den, and it will face North, away from the Sun, because she wants the entrance completely covered in snow to provide as much insulation as possible. If the den faced South, that's the direction the sun comes from in the winter, and it might melt the snow. She even makes a bed of pine boughs so she will be comfortable.
In her den she will do what they call "hibernate", which is just a fancy word for sleep. And I don't mean sleep all night, I mean sleep all winter -- right up to Spring. In the meantime, while she is sleeping in the den she will wake up in time to give birth to two or three Cubs. But she will stay in the den while she feeds them her milk, and while they grow big enough to run and jump on their own. Then, at some point in time she will bring the Cubs out of the den to start "how to be a bear" school.
This is when she starts to teach them what food to eat, and where to find it. For instance, she knows that grubs are good food for them (uggh), so she will teach them how to find ugly, slimy, gross looking grubs under old logs, or big rocks. Or maybe how to dig up mice or other rodents from under ground. Or how to find the best berry patch. And most importantly, how to pin a fish to the bottom of the stream, or how to knock it onshore, when it can be caught easily.
Unlike us rabbits, who are smart from the very beginning, it takes mama bear up to two years to teach her cubs enough for them to make it on their own. But I guess that's faster than humans. GrandDad says it took 21 years for Katie's mom to make it on her own. But actually I think that GrandDad just didn't want for Katie's mom to move away 'cause he was going to miss her lots, so he kept coming up with things to teach her about life.
Your mom and dad are teaching you about live right now, just like mama bear and her cubs.
Keep your chin up.
Robert P. Rabbit