Biscuit with a bit of fresh snow on the volcano. She is looking a bit worse for ware after a several day ordeal with at least two different very large male brown bear. She has lost much weight as well as hair.






Much of the long winter hair that she had in our June 18th entry is gone. Normally she would have kept most of this hair for a few weeks longer.






Biscuits behavior with me is no different after her estrus except that she looked and acted very tired. We were careful not to disturb them during the time she was hanging out with the males, but not because they would be dangerous.

(Click on any Image to see a higher resolution version)

At the time of Maureen's last entry we had not seen Biscuit for several days. Then a couple days ago (June 23rd), we spotted her while on our way back from a hike up to the pass. She was in Chico Basin with a male who was almost silver tip, which is an unusual coloration in Kamchatka. It was exciting to think that if things progressed we might see a day within one year, when she will have cubs. As we watched we saw that he was trying to keep her from leaving the basin by herding her. Biscuit was still a bit afraid of him and he acted like a cutting horse when she took it into her head to go somewhere that she wanted to go.

After investing a few days making friends, he was being careful not to loose her to another male. We have watched this procedure often enough to understand the pitfalls subordinate male bears run into trying to keep a female to themselves long enough to bred them. The process takes four or five days. He was big, but not as big as many others we see here. We were careful not to let our scent get to him because he would probably be very afraid of us and this would have added to his problems as well. After all, we wanted this to happen this year. Eventually they worked their way onto the side of the mountain where we could watch from the cabin, so we went home and kept a eye on what was going on until dark. Our guess from the way Biscuit was acting she would be bred the following day.

The next day was windy, rainy and the clouds were low. Once when the clouds lifted we saw the male asleep on a big snow bank but Biscuit was not in sight. With the lay of the land the way it is in Chico Basin, she could be close to where he was and we would not see her during these short glimpses through the mist. Finally, at 8 pm there was a brake in the storm and we went to a ridge where we could overlook the whole area. From there we lucked out and actually saw her being bred.

The next morning, the whole area was full of bears and they were all moving about. During the day we counted 9 different bears in Chico Basin, including Brandy and her cubs Lemon and Lime. It was good to see them again. Biscuit was now being courted by a huge black male. By that time she was not even afraid of this monster either, the hussy. We saw them playing together for a while and she looked like a cub beside him. Although we did not witness it, we are sure he also bred her. Bears are like dogs in that they can have cubs in the same litter, sired by one, two or three different males. Being that female bears get to make love a couple days every three years you can't blame them for making the most of it when they have the chance.

This morning all was calm so I went right into the basin to see who was there. I found Biscuit grazing calmly and the first male we had seen with her was asleep in a shallow end of a pond about 200 meters from her. I watched for half an hour, careful not to disturb either of them. When he finally got up, he wandered in the opposite direction Biscuit was going so I was not able to get his photo. They both looked frazzled it seemed like the courtship was over and he was leaving the area. I stood up to let Biscuit see me. She walked slowly over and started to eat sedge grass below the big rock I had been hiding behind. I took a few photos showing how she had lost much of her winter hair and looked much slimmer. She had an overpowering smell of musky bear while normally we can only smell her very faintly.

Her fertilized eggs will not attach themselves to her uterus until she is in her den in November this fall. The eggs are in some kind of suspension until that time and are sloughed away if all is not well at denning time. This is the way nature protects female bears. Her welfare is put before her cubs, so only if she is fat, healthy and unstressed in any way will she then become pregnant, 4 1/2 months after she was bred.

I am sure she will be in great shape so her cubs will be born in her den about January 15th, 2003. Because the gestation will be only about two months long, the cubs are hairless, blind and about one pound in weight at birth. Biscuit will be awake but will lay quite still with them in the den for another four months while they suckle and stay warm in her thick coat. By the time they emerge from under the snow, sometime in May, they will be 6 to 10 lbs. We hope to be here when that happens.

- Charlie