This evening I was walking toward the ranger station when I met one of the Law Enforcement rangers, who asked me if I saw the cub. I got excited because we had only seen one sow with cubs. I asked where he saw them. He said it was walking down the beach I could probably get ahead of it and get a good look at it. When I said it, he said that it was only a cub.
Sows are very protective their cubs so I was a little doubtful that there was a lost cub. I placed myself in a safe distance to view what was coming down the beach. After a few minutes of waiting I saw the cub. It was too big for a spring cub but it was not big enough to be alone. Sows nurse their cubs for two years. This cub looked to be a yearling. He looked lost and kept looking back over his shoulder. Sometimes being a biologist is hard to do. This was one of those times. It was so small and frightened looking that I wanted to go and hug it. I wanted to take it home and give it a salmon and a glass of milk. But the biologist in me said it is all a part of nature. Either he was separated from his mom and she is frantically looking for him, which by the way would not be good if I was holding the cub,or something happened to the mom. I am hoping that the sow finds this little one as on its own at this young age it will either die of starvation or be eaten by something bigger. Its chances of survival without mom are slim.
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