Three of us approached Blackheart's den about noon to find her sitting up looking at us.  She soon snuggled down onto the cubs, and we heard them nursing.  A few minutes later, she sat up and revealed all three cubs moving easily about between her front legs--the all black male, the female with the white V, and the unknown cub which today turned out to be a female with a broken V.  All are active, robust, and apparently healthy.  We estimated their weights at 6-8 pounds.  Blackheart will probably lead them from the den in the next couple weeks.  Blackheart already is acting more alert and active than previously.  Tracks in the snow showed where she left the den briefly in the last day or two to defecate the fecal plug which builds up during winter.  Even though bears have no food intake, they continue to create a small amount of feces from cells that die and slough off from the inside of the digestive tract.  The same thing happens in starving humans.  By spring, enough has accumulated for a bowel movement.  March 27, tomorrow, is the earliest date that bears have emerged from their dens in the thirty some years of this study.  Both years with that early emergence had essentially no snow.  This year, with a foot or two on the ground, depending on the depth of drifts, Blackheart will probably wait until early April.  Mothers with very small cubs sometimes wait until the first week of May, but Blackheart's cubs are growing so well that early April is more likely for her to emerge.