small decorative bear cub

Who is he?

The bear cub is the baby of the female bear and the male bear. At birth (generally in mid-winter, between January and February), it is tiny: it weighs barely 300 to 500 grams, the size of a grapefruit! It is born blind, hairless, and totally dependent on its mother.

Ultra-fast growth

• Mother's milk: The female bear's milk is extremely rich in fats and nutrients. Thanks to this, the bear cub grows at an impressive speed in the warmth of the den.
• Spring outing: When it discovers the outside world for the first time around April, it has already multiplied its weight tenfold and looks like a small, energetic stuffed animal.

Learning and Play

The bear cub spends between 1 and a half and 3 years with its mother. This is an intensive learning period where play plays a crucial role:

• Playful antics: By wrestling with its siblings or climbing trees, it develops its strength, balance, and reflexes.
• School of life: Its mother teaches it to hunt fish, dig up roots, find berries, and protect itself from dangers (including adult male bears, which can be dangerous for it).

Diet

Like its parents, the bear cub quickly becomes an opportunistic omnivore. Even if it starts with its mother's milk, it quickly learns to eat insects, wild fruits, grass, fish (like salmon for brown bears), and small mammals.

The symbol of childhood

Worldwide, the bear cub has become the absolute icon for toddlers through the stuffed bear (the famous Teddy Bear). It embodies gentleness, comfort, and protection, comically contrasting with the powerful predator it will become as an adult.