Finished unpacking groceries, parbroiling & will be glued to Lilly & cubbie. I have yet to see him. Am hearing strange sounds almost like someone is laughing

Update – January 23, 4:36 PM ET

Today at 3:40pm

Lily has one job now—keeping her cub warm and fed. Instead of exiting the den periodically, Lily will spend the next couple months hovering over the cub and responding to each vocalization.

If the cub sleeps quietly or makes the pulsing hum of contentment, Lily holds still. The motor-like hum means the cub is nursing successfully. Sometimes, when a cub is just warm and comfortable, it hums too, but more quietly than when nursing.

You may also hear the sound of Lily licking. She needs to lick the cub to stimulate urination and defecation. Lily consumes the cubs body wastes and recycles those nutrients. Once we start seeing the cub in the den we may witness this behavior.

If the cub squawks, Lily moves. It means the cub is cold, uncomfortable under her, or can’t find a nipple. A little squawk elicits a little move on Lily’s part. A big squawk can elicit more movement. There may be other differences in the cries that we haven’t figured out yet, but I’m sure Lily knows. You can learn more about bear vocalizations and what they mean on the North American Bear Center’s website at http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/ ... ation.html.

It might be weeks before we can determine the sex of the cub. Once the cub has matured a bit and is more visible in the den we may get a peek. Without litter mates competing for milk, this little cub should grow fast and may weigh 9 pounds when they leave the den in the spring.

One viewer reported coyotes barking and howling. Coyotes and wolves live in the area but are not a worry. In our 43 years of research, we’ve found tracks at dens of injured bears, and a pack of wolves did kill a mother and cubs in a less secure den back in 1972, but wolves and coyotes mostly ignore healthy bears like Lily, especially when there is only one den entrance to defend. We hope Lily is not disturbed, but she would do a great job defending herself and the cub while thousands of viewers cheered her on.

As researchers, we watch and report. If we interfered, we wouldn’t learn anything. To learn more about the research associated with this project visit the Wildlife Research Institute’s website at http://www.bearstudy.org

seems we posted update simultaneously.... I removed mine.
finally got to see her head so can now orient how she is resting for the moment.....

she is on her left side, with her back to the cam.her head is directly below the word LIVE in the top bar.
I seem to have no sound at the moment, so cannot report on sounds.

6:50pm

thanks JKR and Jwinx for the update! better twice than not at all

7:40 cub is awake and making various noises....."screech"....soft nuzzling....soft cries......
probably actively nursing, losing nipple, and reattaching?? maybe.

7:51 cub is now rhythmically sounding like a quietly baah-ing lamb!! soft sounds....

Lily showed her sweet face for a second

~1:50AM den time

Cub was quite fussy for a couple of minutes. Lily responded by rearranging herself until the cub quieted.

Edit: didn't get a decent s'cap but she is still positioned basically as in Pat's photo above.

Good morning,

6:06 a.m. CDT,
Cub is awake and giving orders. Lily is responding but she's

ETA: Watching Lily while the cub feeds, it appears to me that Lily is having uterine contractions due to breast feeding (which is a good thing for Lily). If so, then she will probably feel some discomfort for yet a while.