Tiny Bear Cubs Experience Their First Beach Day, Digging Up Snacks and Wrestling With Each Other

Mother bears have a lot to teach their cubs before the cubs are ready to go it alone. Black bear cubs stay with their mothers for about 17 months. During this time, they learn everything they need to know about hunting and foraging for food from their mother. Black bear mothers are vigilant, keeping a balance between teaching their cubs how to safely gather food and protecting them from threats. One incredible video from BBC Earth shows how one black bear mother instructs her babies to head to the coast for a satisfying meal of shellfish.

Why Bears Head to the Beach

The North American black bear (Ursus americanus) once roamed across nearly all forested regions in North America. Today, you can still find them in much of Alaska, Canada, and at least 40 states in the U.S. Black bears live in mountain regions, forested areas, and along coastlines. Bears are opportunistic feeders, eating both meat and plants. The bears that live near the coast will head to the seaside to gather crabs, starfish, and other crustaceans hiding under the rocks.

In the video from BBC Earth, a mother bear has led her two cubs to the coast during low tide for their first visit to the seaside. The narrator explains they have a limited amount of time to collect food before the tide rises, making the area impassable. According to the narrator, during spring, 75% of the bears’ diet comes from foraging at the beach.

Showing Cubs What’s Edible

The mother bear in the video leads her cubs along the rocky shore. They need to keep up because when the tide comes in, the shoreline will be gone, overtaken by the water. Of course, they are young bears, and we can see them frolic and roll around with each other. Despite their play, they carefully watch how their mother uses her paws to overturn rocks.

After seeing their mother, the cubs try it for themselves, overturning small rocks along the shoreline. Underneath the rocks is a feast of crabs. The bear’s sharp claws and teeth make eating the crabs easy work, although the little cubs choose smaller crabs than their mother.

Nutritional Benefits: Why Coastal Foods Matter

The seafood diet that the bears forage along the beach provides ample amounts of protein, which they won’t get from foraging for berries and other plants in the forest. Also, in the spring, the berries and other plant life that bears eat have just begun to emerge. Springtime feeding at the beach is more than just supplementing their diets with protein. At this time of the year, the bears need to leave the forest to find food elsewhere.

And finally, bears in the spring need to replenish what they lost during hibernation. This is when they are looking for protein-rich, high-calorie meals to rebuild muscle and regain their fat reserves.

Beach Hazards for Young Bears

The bears along the rocky coast need to do more than learn to read the tides to escape getting trapped in the rising water. They need to look out for threats. As the young bear family is feasting in the video, the mother bear suddenly senses a dangerous threat, signaling to her cubs to flee.

A fully grown male black bear lumbers into view. It’s his territory, and he doesn’t want to share with the mother and her cubs. The mother knows better than to try to fight. The male is twice her size. Encountering a male bear is incredibly dangerous for the young cubs. Male black bears will kill and eat bear cubs. These cubs ran to the safety of a tall tree and luckily were not pursued by the male bear.

Learning the Timing of the Seasons: Beach vs. Forest Foraging

Mother bears teach their cubs how to head to the coast for food, and they show them everything they need to know about foraging in the forest. Bears will overturn rocks in the forest and eat the protein-rich insects underneath. They know where to find berry patches and can eat up to 30,000 berries per day during berry season.

The cubs learn from watching their mothers how to adjust to the changing seasons. In the spring, they forage at the coast. However, in the summer, the forest plants and berries are plentiful. In the fall, the seasons shift and the mother bear shows her cubs it’s time to pack on the pounds to get ready for hibernation.

When Bear Cubs Leave the Family

When the cubs are about 17 months old, the mother is ready to mate and have a new litter of cubs. She chases the babies away, but they are ready now to make it on their own. Cubs will often stay in or near the mother’s territory for at least a few years, or longer. She may recognize them and let them have parts of her territory. The male cubs usually move on after a few years, while females may live near their mother’s territory their entire lives.

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