Can you spot the bear cubs in this photo? A California hiker nearly missed them
.png "A hiker at Yosemite National Park in California recently spotted a black bear and her well-hidden cubs.")
It’s never a good idea to get between a mother bear and her cubs, but what if the little ones are nowhere to be seen? Well, you might want to look a little harder.
Just because you can’t spot them doesn’t mean they aren’t around, a hiker at Yosemite National Park in California recently learned.
Ruth Indelicato was exploring Yosemite earlier this month when she spotted a black bear at the edge of a treeline, dwarfed by the towering trees around it, photos show, but hard to miss as it lumbered through the lush grass.
She kept a safe distance, Indelicato said in a Facebook post, zooming in on the adult bear with a powerful camera lens.
But even with her impressive lens, Indelicato took no notice of the tiny, tired cubs sleeping on tree branches high overhead.
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“How did you even see them?” one commenter asked. “They look antlike.”
Indelicato’s post, which has been shared more than 300 times as of Sunday afternoon, drew many similar questions and comments from people surprised that bears could be so tiny.
“They look like kittens,” wrote one.
“Those trees are huge! The cubs look like the size of squirrels in comparison,” said another.
Indelicato admits she would have missed them if another park visitor hadn’t pointed them out to her.
“We didn’t see them at first - so small!!” Indelicato said. “I never saw any so small - they must have been just born.”
Well-hidden as they were, some were worried for the safety of the cubs.
“Very cute!! Hope they don’t move much though!” one comment said.
And another wondered “how will (their mother) get them down? They look too little to climb so high.”
While Indelicato didn’t witness how the cubs got onto their respective branches, whether their mother placed them there or they went up themselves, black bears are gifted climbers from a young age.
Often, they practice on small trees and branches before moving to bigger challenges, according to PBS.
This story was originally published June 6, 2021 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Can you spot the bear cubs in this photo? A California hiker nearly missed them."