Observations indicate Lily is pregnant - UPDATE January 16, 2010
We have been flooded with emails from people who believe they have seen cubs. At this point we do not believe Lily has given birth. There certainly has been some interesting activity in recent days, but we do not believe she has delivered cubs.
There are indications that she is pregnant. The swollen genitals observed by Dr. Rogers during his visit to the den on Monday Jan 11th are one indication. The licking she has been seen doing is another. We have seen—and others have reported—slightly swollen mammary glands and bare areas around her nipples. She has been observed pawing at her chest and licking her nipples. These are all good signs.
Per a veterinarian, she will likely become noticeably restless prior to giving birth. She will pass a mucus-like ‘cervical plug’. This can be passed all at once or in pieces over time. If she has already begun to pass portions of this plug that could account for the licking we are seeing. Her mammary glands will swell and she is apt to pull out the hair around her nipples. As stated above, some have noted this already.
Her mammary glands are arranged in pairs. One pair is situated vertically on each side of her chest, and a horizontal pair on her lower abdomen (we’ll try to post pics of this soon)—for a total of 6 nipples. Look for them when she shows us her sparsely-furred belly. See what you think.
The cubs will be nearly hairless when born so should appear much lighter than Lily. She will likely keep them closely tucked beneath her and we may not even see them – but we should hear them. They will cry if they are cold or hungry. When cubs are comfortable and content they make a motor-like humming sound. There will be no doubt about the fact there are cubs in the den! Be sure to watch the Caring for Cubs video here to learn what to look and listen for. The video shows June caring for Lily and her 2 brothers in a den back in 2007. Lily was 5 weeks old in that video—her newborn cubs will be much smaller!
Many folks have commented on her biting things—and have suspected she is eating stillborn cubs. We do not believe this is the case. Bears are incredibly flexible and when she is sitting her hind feet are out in front of her. We think some of what folks are hearing and seeing is her chewing on her hind feet. She will shed all her footpads in the den and they may be itchy and uncomfortable. She will actually ingest these pads, which would account for some of the chewing.
Additionally, she is denned under a log and there are roots and chunks of wood in there with her. We think she is biting, pulling and chewing on roots and wood. This could account for some of what we are seeing.
Bears do a lot of grooming when they are out of the den, and we are seeing that they groom in the den as well.
This is very exciting for ALL of us—we are learning along with you! We have a small crew here and we are not always able to watch, so we are interested in hearing what you are observing. Please feel free to email your observations to