This last year's been extremely odd for black bears in New York, culminating in many more cubs than usual, though many are skinnier than they should be.
"We've seen more cubs than ever before," Ed Reed, senior biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation told Rochester's WHEC-TV.
North Country Wild Care's Trish Markisaid: "We saw five of them running around Glens Falls the other day."
More cubs may seem like a good thing for the species, but most of the cubs are much smaller than the 50 pounds they should weigh — coming in at 15 to 20 pounds instead. This could mean they won't survive the winter.
The rash of skinny cubs comes from a population boom after last year's season WHEC-TV reports:
The summer of 2011 had a bumper crop of berries and other bear food, so females were fat and had more cubs than average over the winter. With an unusually mild winter, the cub survival rate was high. But the summer of 2012 was very dry in parts of the state, making food scarce and driving bears into towns to forage in trash cans. The fall crop of acorns and beechnuts was also poor in many places, Reed said.
"There were a lot of cubs added to the population and not much food," Reed said. "Now we're seeing those cubs turning up, and some of them are pretty small."
"We're trying to tell people this is a natural thing and if they see undersize cubs, leave them alone. Don't feed them," Reed told WHEC-TV. "Some won't make it through the winter, but that's how nature works."
That could be really bad for the black bear population in New York State. Many of these young and small cubs probably won't make it through the season, especially since signs have indicated that this winter may be brutal.
Some cubs are being taken in by the Kindred Kingdoms Wildlife Rehabilitation center, run by Jean and Len Soprano. Soprano says many of the cubs seem younger than usual, or seem to have been born in larger litters — they aren't starving, just small. Still, large numbers of small cubs could mean fewer bears make it through the season.