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Black Bears - Minnesota / Lily

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Kinderchick:
According to the most recent website blogs, it has definitely been confirmed that Lily's 2 new cubs are a male & a female. So the naming process has begun. Lily fans can submit names up until noon this morning, I think.

Here is a post from the website, if you are thinking of submitting a name...

We thought about a nice name to go along with the theme of Hope, but then thought about Hope being special and having the only name that diverges from the naming theme of this lineage—bear foods.

Lily is named after the Calla Lily that is so beautiful and white. Lily’s light face helped inspire that name for her. Lily’s brother is Cal, also in the Calla Lily theme. Her other brother is Bud, named after rosebuds. The calla lily is a major bear food. It grows in marshes and the leaves remains succulent all spring, summer, and fall. That means many of the nutrients are in a digestible fluid form. Bears stop eating blueberries sometimes to go down in marshes to eat these green leaves. It’s amazing, too, because the leaves contain oxalic acid crystals that cause human mucosa to swell and become irritated. Somehow bears tolerate the crystals. Wild calla (Calla palustris) is one of the favored greens in the forest. Bears only occasionally eat rosebuds.

Lily’s mother is named June, full name Juneberry, a favorite berry in early summer. Lily’s aunt was Hazel, which produces the most abundant nut of this region. It is one of the very top bear foods. A good hazelnut crop means females will get fat, stay out of trouble, and have good cub production the ensuing winter. In years of abundant hazelnuts, people wonder where all the bears went.

The female in June’s most recent litter was Jewel, short for Jewelweed, another favorite green. Also called Touch-me-not, it grows in damp soil. It is one of the few greens, like wild calla, that they eat in spring, summer, and fall.

Here’s a list of local bear foods in case it stimulates creativity in continuing the naming theme for this lineage...

3-leaf Solomon seal cow wheat pincherry
acorn cranberry raspberry
alder cones dandelion raspberry
alder-leaf buckthorn dewberry red maple
American fly honeysuckle downy arrowwood red osier dogwood
ants fawn red pine
ash fomes fungus rose
aspen goatsbeard round-leaf dogwood
bald-faced hornet gooseberry snowberry
bedstraw grass snowfleas
bilberry grub strawberry
birch hawkweed sweet early coltsfoot
bird hawthorne tent caterpillar
blueberry hazelnut vetch
bull thistle hazelnut violets
bumblebee highbush cranberry water parsnip
bunchberry horsetail wild calla
carrion interrupted fern wild lettuce
caterpillar (Sphinx?) jewelweed leaf wild sarsaparilla
catkins June beetle grubs wild sarsaparilla
cattail juneberry willow
chokecherry large-leaf aster leaf woolgrass
clintonia mountain ash wooly aphid
clover peavine leaf yellow jacket

susha:
It must be so much fun to watch the cub action with your chicklets, KC!  I haven't been able to check in on these guys for a couple of days and just watched the little videos of the family on Youtube :o  They are all so beautiful I could hardly stand it!  Lily is so calm, Hope so attentive and the babies so cute!  

Kinderchick:
The Kinderchicklets were thrilled to be able to witness lots of loud noises and action in Lily & Hope's bear den this morning! :D They especially enjoyed the squealing sounds coming from the cubs, when they wanted to nurse. Some of the 'chicklets remarked that they sounded alot like squealing piglets! 8) And one little boy remarked that Lily looked as big as a house, when she stuck her snout outside the bear den to munch on some snow! :o

Kinderchick:
I have been reading the daily research blog updates and yesterday, it was determined that one of Lily's newborn bear cubs is a female. :) They were able to determine this by the colour of the cub, females being darker in colour than males. In addition, the fact that the wee cub flashed her "privates" at the camera, gave them a pretty good idea too! ;) They think that the other cub is probably a male, because of it's colour, but won't know for certain till he/she flashes! ;D LOL!

Kinderchick:
A few of the Kinderchicklets were very excited to hear some moaning in the den and to see a baby bear this morning! :D

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