Characteristics and Habits 71 



place and approaches it after the cubs are born, an ex- 

 perience that I have had more than once in the moun- 

 tains. The Messrs. Lodge, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 

 have supplied their bears with artificial hibernating 

 dens dug in the side of a hill where their bear pit is 

 situated. These are supplied with ventilating shafts, 

 and the owners, for a number of years, have been able 

 to determine the exact date of the birth of a litter, 

 by listening for the querulous voices of the cubs. 

 These gentlemen, by the way, have endeavored in all 

 possible regards to approximate natural conditions in 

 furnishing accommodations for their captive animals; 

 with the result that they have been among the few 

 successful raisers of Black Bears. I will have occa- 

 sion to refer more than once to the records which these 

 gentlemen have kept during their twenty years' ex- 

 perience. 



For some time, then, after the cubs are born, the 

 family continues shut up in the winter den; but, unlike 

 the grizzly, they frequently, toward the end, leave 

 their shelter before they are ready to abandon it for 

 good. I have seen cases where a Black Bear mother 

 and cubs came out in deep snow, and after wandering 

 about for several miles went back again for a full two 

 weeks before coming out for good. In some cases the 

 mother will come out on these preliminary excursions 

 before the young are able to walk. But they do not 

 either habitually or finally abandon the den until they 



