CHENGDU, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Videos of an Asian black bear mother feeding her two cubs were captured in Wolong National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province, the reserve said Friday.
A total of 20 pictures and 10 videos were taken by an infrared camera at an altitude of 2,100 km. This is the first time that such a scene has been captured in the reserve.
The four-minute videos show that the two cubs followed their mother to a tree and seemed to be looking for something. Then the cubs approached their mother, eager to feed. The mother then sat on the ground to feed her cubs, with her arms embracing them. The mother bear also touched the cubs' heads, nibbled their ears and licked them.
"We can tell from the videos that the mother bear and her two cubs are all very healthy. It is possible that some other wild animal has left a scent that aroused the mother bear's interest to sniff around the tree," said Shi Xiaogang, with the Mujiangping protection station of the nature reserve.
The Asian black bear is the most widely living bear species in China, and has very strong adaptability, said Li Sheng, a researcher with Peking University's School of Life Sciences.
According to Li, female bears usually give birth to two to four cubs in winter, and the two cubs captured were probably born last winter and are becoming familiar with their living environment and learning survival skills. They will leave their mother to live on their own in six months to a year.
