A friend shared a picture of a black bear with her cubs following close behind and asked if the cubs are too small for this time of year. The answer is no. Black bears give birth in late January into early February to cubs and the number of cubs depends on a few factors.

The age, health and the amount of food consumed before entering the den, all contribute to the litter size. Typically, mama bear gives birth to 2 or 3 cubs, but 4 to 5 cubs are not uncommon and in a rare instance even 6 cubs in one litter has been reported.

When born, black bear cubs can weigh a half pound and up to one pound depending on the size of the litter. These little bears are born hairless and blind, but within 4 to 6 weeks although blurry, their eyes are open and at this time they have also developed around one inch of dense fur.

Depending on the weather conditions, the mother and her babies could emerge from their den late May or early June. At this time because of the nutrients in their mother’s milk, they will continue to nurse up to 6 or 7 months. But during this time mom will teach her little ones how to forage by digging up the ground for roots, clawing tree bark looking for insects and eventually what berries and other fruits are safe to eat.

By the time the cubs are a year old, females can weigh 30 to 50 pounds and the males 50 to 70 pounds. In 18 months, the mom is ready to mate again, and her cubs will leave her and start searching for their own home range/territory that could be over 100 miles from their birth location.

Although the mama and her babies were seen by our friend late morning, the prime time for black bear moments usually are a few hours before sunrise and a few hours after sunset. But like deer you never know when any animal can come out of the woods/forest in front of you. Hopefully, if you didn’t know about black bear cubs this article helped.