An amazing mother

With four legs and lots of black fur. :-)

This is oldish news, but I just discovered it, so - and please excuse this lousy pun - bear with me. The black bear, Ursus americanus, is a medium-sized species of bear which lives in north America. The females normally have two cubs in each litter. This is rather typical of bears in general, as we know ... two seems to be the optimal number for your average bear mother to care for, regardless of species. But sometimes black bears, at least, have significantly larger litters. Check this out. A mother bear with five cubs. :-o

All I can say is that she must be a fantastic mom, because, look at this:

She raised all five successfully. Wow. That bear must be one tough cookie. :-D