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Friday, January 22, 2010

Lily the Bear Has Her First Cub


10:38 AM- Hey! I just have to post a quickie and tell you to try to watch the Bear Den Cam. Lily the Bear seems to be in labor. She is in a den near Ely, Minnesota and is restless and uncomfortable. Go to Lily's Den Cam

bear in den

10:16 PM- Lily had her baby at 12:38 EST. This is definitely the big event in my day. I spent WAY too much time glued to the web cam. You might have trouble figuring out what you are seeing. Lily is sort of upside down, with her head in the lower left. The big white blotch in the lower right is just the edge of the den. In the middle of the picture is her haunch. She is lying on her right side. The smaller gray triangle is her muzzle- see her eye to the lower left of that?

bear cub armHere is the great part! This is when they knew they really had a cub. This is just a closeup from the picture above. Did you see it already? Look at that little arm reaching out to touch mama bear on the nose! If you look at the video (see it on You Tube), you may be amazed, as I was, at how loud that tiny bear is! Although less than a pound and smaller than a can of pop, it sounds oddly like a human baby crying.

To see more about Lily, I blogged about her over at North Country Trail News.

I sense from the lack of comments that many of you don't find opposite tree branches as exciting as I do. (wink) That's OK. But I think I'll take another day off from the trees and go back in history tomorrow. In 1985 I had the privilege to go to Haiti for a short-term mission trip. With encouragement from Chuck at Secondary Roads, I will tell you a little bit about that trip.



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm watching the birth on YouTube since the Den Cam is not working..
Thanks for sharing!

RNSANE said...

Well, I'll take you advice and stop off to see Lily.

Ann said...

how cool

Rick (Ratty) said...

This bear den cam sounds fascinating. This is one of the things we nature lovers have internet for.

This is my first comment back online. I'll try to catch up with your posts about the branches soon. Just from the quick glance I got so far they look very interesting.

wenn said...

interesting! i will watch it right away!

Secondary Roads said...

My bad for not commenting. I've been reading with interest about opposite and looking forward to alternating. I can see that pattern in the trees around our place. Oh, and I'm looking forward to the account of your Haiti trip.

Duxbury Ramblers said...

Watched Lily on u tube, wonderful.

betchai said...

it is a great experience even just watching the video Sharkbytes,thanks for sharing/

Sharkbytes said...

Hi Icy- Yes, it got overwhelmed a couple of times. At one point while I was on it said there were over 22,000 people watching!

Carmen- have you seen the baby yet?

Ann- I agree, it sure got my attention.

Ratty- you are sure right about that. Nothing like a reality TV bear baby to get us glued to the screen!

wenn- glad you like it

Chuck- This is your "fault." Now that I've started, I hope I can condense it enough. But I haven't pulled that scrapbook out for a long time. I'm really amazed at how long ago it was, and yet how recent it feels.

Duxbury- Pretty cool! Do you have bears where you are?

betchai- actually the video makes it possible to see the interesting part, and skip all the boring minutes of watching a slightly moving mound of fur!