Each March Pennsylvania Game Commission crews check on black bear dens around the state.
The goal is to monitor the health of the state’s bears, estimated to number about 20,000 these days, a record high.
Here are a few photos and a video from a den visit conducted this past week in eastern Cambria County. Check back here at everybodyadventures.com and in the Tribune-Review soon for a complete story on these den visits.
Bear photo 9 Game Commission veterinarian Justin Brown checks on a female black bear that had “nested” in a blown-down tangle of trees. She had three cubs, two males and a female.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Cub Day 3A Once tranquilized, adult bears have their faces covered with a piece of shirt sleeve to keep them calm.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Bear photo 3 These three cubs were all pulled from one den.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Bear photo 8A Everybodyadventures.com and Tribune-Review outdoors editor Bob Frye with a yawning bear cub.
Bear photo 11 All bear cubs pulled from dens in March are weighed inside a plastic shopping bag hung from a scale.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Bear photo 12 Bears cubs are outfitted with numbered ear tags. Biologists look for those when bears taken by hunters are registered at check stations. They say it’s a way of estimating survival and population sizes.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
