10G6 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



comfortable nest; but when they stay out late and then den in 

 a hurry, they do not take the trouble to fix up their nests at all. 

 At such times they simply crawl into any convenient shelter 

 without gathering so much as a bunch of moss to soften their 

 bed. Snow completes the covering, and as their breath con- 

 denses and freezes into it, an icy wall begins to form, and 

 increases in thickness and extent, day by day, till they are soon 

 unable to escape, even if they would, and are obliged to wait in 

 this icy cell till liberated by the sun in April or May." 



Nevertheless, it seems that the Bear does not truly torpify 

 in hibernation. 



It is remarkable that no one yet has found two adult 

 Blackbears in one den. Mother and half-grown cubs have 

 been taken in the same winter quarters, and, of course, the 

 mother with the new-born cubs is the regular thing, but never 

 two old ones together, a fact that speaks for the unsociability 

 of the species. 



BREED- The breeding of Blackbears was for long shrouded in 



mystery. 



It was formerly believed that Bears would not breed in 

 captivity, but modern methods and care have disproved this. 

 We now have very full data on the breeding of captive Black- 

 bears, and many of the mysteries have been dispelled. 



The fullest history of a breeding pair, so far as I know, is 

 that by Arthur B. Baker. It is a complete record" of a pair 

 of Blackbears from their first to their fifteenth year. The 

 male was captured as a cub in Central Michigan, July, 1888, 

 and the female, of the same age, was taken about the same 

 time on the south shore of Lake Superior. They were kept 

 captive at R. H. Lodge's Park, Cuyahoga Falls, near Akron, 

 Ohio. 



The first litter was born when the parents were 4 years 

 old, that is, the union took place when the old ones were 

 3^, and this is probably the age at which normally they begin 



"A notable success in the breeding of Blackbears by Arthur B. Baker, Smithsonian 

 Misc. Coll., Vol. 45, No. 1434, pp. 175-9. January 7, 1904, Washington, D. C. 



