Bear Cubs Will Not Be A Part Of The Grandfather Mountain Experience This Season, Say Officials

There will be no bear cubs in the Grandfather Mountain wildlife habitats this summer, and probably not for many summers to come.
The management of Grandfather Mountain made the decision not to allow its bears to reproduce -- because baby bears grow up, and because responsible options for placing maturing bears are becoming increasingly scarce.
Grandfather Mountain is at capacity with a total of 13 bears in residence. Since 1992, all bear cubs raised in the Cub Habitat which were not held back to grow up in the adult bear habitat have been released into the wild by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
“We started the release program at a time when the wild bear population was down,” explained Habitat Manager Tanya Cline. “Now the wild bear population has jumped dramatically while human development continues to sprawl into bear territory.
With the wild bear population growing and available bear habitat shrinking, there are more and more nuisance bears encroaching into neighborhoods, raiding bird feeders and overturning garbage cans,” she said. “We do not think it is responsible of us to introduce more bears into this overcrowded system.”
For the time being, the Cub Habitat has been closed to visitors so that last season’s cubs will have less exposure to humans. In the coming weeks the yearlings will exchange enclosures with Pumpkin (24), Elizabeth (23) and Carolina (10) so that the second bear habitat can reopen to the public.
Grandfather’s three yearling cubs, Nellie, Alley and Little Bill, will stay with their mom in an isolated enclosure into the summer months when officials from the NC Wildlife Resource Commission will release them into the wild. Officials will relocate the yearlings to a sanctuary deep in the Pisgah as far from Grandfather as possible, hoping that their homing instincts will not draw them back to the Mountain. The three will be released together if at all possible.
“It’s true that guests will no longer get to see cute, cuddly bear cubs,” said Cline, “but relatively few of our guests ever did get to see cubs when they were ‘cute and cuddly’ because they are at that stage for such a short time. Cubs grow so fast; going from 10 ounces to 80 pounds in a year’s time.”
Cline went on to comment that even in years when Grandfather did have cubs on display, guests were not always able to catch a glimpse of the little ones. Mothers usually try to keep their cubs away from humans, and cubs often spend most of their days high in the trees.
“The change could actually improve the visitors’ experience,” she said, “because it will increase the likelihood that our guests will actually get to see a black bear.”
Grandfather management took the first step toward population control in the bear habitat last summer when the Mountain’s one male bear, Kodiak, was given a vasectomy. Vasectomy was felt to be more humane than castration because Kodiak’s hormones will remain in balance and his life will continue more naturally.
Grandfather’s population of 10 adult bears (ranging in age from six to 24) will be allowed to shrink naturally over the coming years. Grandfather management will consider introducing cubs again after that population drops significantly.