Interwald:  Lady Bear Blues

For the Beaver Creek Bears, peak mating season is usually June.  However, with the late start to the 2025 Bear Year due to the in-climate weather, mating season along Beaver Creek was delayed a couple of weeks.  The Big Guy (the grumpy, old, large dominant male) was courting Candi (who exotically dances for and with The Big Guy during courtship), as expected.  However, the following photos created confusion (originally published in Beaver Creek Bears Unforgotten, a game camera photo book authored by T.J. Le Duc). 

Females always lead males around town during mating season.  As this was mating season, initially we presumed a female was leading Slick, but could it be a male?

The bear action resumed here a mere ten minutes later.  Slick is in the foreground, but two bears are in the ferns.  A female was resting up on the sidehill (hidden amongst the lady ferns), while Slick and a younger male were apparently fighting for her affections.

Slick was a “nervous nelly,” more anxious than usual with the female resting and relaxing here.  This location has steep sidehills, not a good location for Slick to be if a larger male comes along.

Even the Author moves with a purpose here – nowhere to run if a Beaver Creek newcomer comes along that is unfamiliar with us.  A young male that unexpectedly runs into us will be startled, and there’s nothing worse than a startled Beaver Creek Bear (very unpredictable).

Slick must be thinking: “Look Doll, make up your mind, coming or staying?”  A camera on the other side of this sidehill also captured this bear-love-triangle action.

Our unidentified female was napping in the lady ferns behind Slick, as he moved through.  Notice Slick’s height in relation to the sugar maple center frame.

Again, the previous photo shows Slick’s height (taller than middling bears), even in the midst of the lady ferns.

This pacing behavior indicates this male is nervous, i.e., Slick.  Passive Slick tries to avoid The Big Guy – especially during mating season, as The Big Guy is one jealous lover.  So the female’s lingering and loitering clearly had Slick worried.

This second suitor appears to be six-year-old Dewey (one of the 2019 Triplets) – as noted earlier, both Dewey and Slick have nasal helmet snouts, but taller Slick still has a few inches of Four-Paw-on-Ground (FPG) Height on Dewey.

It took this female (appears to be Candi) forever to wake up and get ready to go – very high maintenance.  But this female is not alone.  Most females are very demanding of the males during courtship, for it is the females’ once-every-two-year break from the constant responsibility of raising cubs.  Note the distinct difference between male and female bear ears above - with bear identification, paying attention to detail is of import.

The images of July 2nd Beaver Creek Bear activity required several reviews to decipher.  Having arrived at a theory of both Slick and Dewey courting a female, we’ll put this one to rest, for now.  As an aside, the female in prior photo appears to have the elongated snout of a pig....hence, she may be the female bear we affectionately call Pigg.