More Black Bear News

>With so much publicity about Mother Bear Lily and her cub named Hope, check out a mother bear with 5 (yes, FIVE) cubs. This was forwarded to me by a friend from Maine....

 

 BLACK BEAR QUINTUPLETS
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> Black bears typically have two cubs; rarely, one or three.
>
> In 2007, in northern  New Hampshire, a black bear Sow gave birth to five
> healthy young. There were two or three reports of sows with as many as 4
> cubs, but five was, and is, very extraordinary.
>
> I learned of them shortly after they emerged from their den and set
> myself a goal of photographing all five cubs with their mom - no matter
> how much time and effort was involved.
>
> I knew the trail they followed! do on a fairly regular basis, usually
> shortly before dark. After spending nearly four hours a day, seven days
> a week,
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> for more than six weeks,
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> I had that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and photographed them.
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> I used the equivalent of a very fast film speed on my digital camera.
> The print is properly focused and well exposed, with all six bears
> posing as if they were in a studio for a family portrait.
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>    
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> I stayed in touch with other people who saw the bears during the summer
> and into the fall hunting season. All six bears continued to thrive.
>
> As time for hibernation approached, I found still more folks who had
> seen them, and everything remained OK.  I stayed away from the bears as
> I was concerned that they might become habituated to me, or to people in
> general, and treat them as `approachable friends.  
>
> This could easily become dangerous for both man and animal.
>  
> After Halloween, I received no further reports and could only hope the
> bears survived until they hibernated.
>  
> This spring, just before the snow disappeared,
>
> all six bears came out of their den and wandered all over the same
> familiar territory they trekked in the spring of 2007.
>
> I saw them before mid-April and dreamed nightly of taking another family
> portrait, a highly improbable second once-in-a-lifetime photograph.
>  
> On 25 April 2008, I achieved my dream.  
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> When something as magical as this happens between man and animal, Native
> Americans say, We have walked together in the shadow of a rainbow.  And
> so it is with humility and great pleasure that I share these
> exhilarating photos with you.