Two New Bear Cubs at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care; Six Cubs Now Housed

It's getting to be quite the full house at Lake Tahoe Wildlife care, especially now with the addition of two cubs over the weekend.

The cubs came from the town of Bieber, CA, a community 55 miles northwest of Susanville. The brothers saw their mother hit and killed by a car and arrived at LTWC on Sunday. They are in good health, about 5 months old and weigh 22.3 lbs (Bieber 1) and 20 lbs (Bieber 2). They were named after the area they came from, just like the two cubs that arrived last week, Conway 1 and Conway 2 (they arrived from Conway Summit near Lee Vining, CA).

All four new cubs are male and join "Meyers" who arrived on June 21 after being hit by a car in Meyers. The lone female cub at LTWC is "Tahoe" who arrived in April when she was just 10 weeks old and 5.4 lbs.

"Tahoe is loving it," said Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care co-founder and Secretary Tom Milham. "She is spending a lot of time with Meyers."

There are webcams on the LTWC website so anyone can watch as the cubs play, eat and sleep.

Since cubs are born in January and February, the cubs at their new, temporary home in South Lake Tahoe are all about five months old. They will stay at LTWC until this winter when they'll start hibernating. Conway 1 and 2, and Bieber 1 and 2 are from the Sierras and will be moved in January or February by Fish & Game officials and placed in a den. When placed in the den they'll be surrounded by their bedding in Lake Tahoe so they'll wake up with familiar scents. "Tahoe" is from Humboldt County so will be moved around March and released after hibernation.

The cost to feed the cubs is $40/week per cub at this point in time but will increase to $100/week per cub by September.

Currently house at LTWC are the 6 bears, a Turkey Vulture, 2 Grey Horned owls, a Red Tailed Hawk, 2 Northern Flickers, 9 raccoons, a coyote, 5 Western Gray squirrels, a Yellow Belly Varmint, 6 rabbits and 2 chipmunks.