Many NY bear cubs too skinny to survive winter | News

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - After a season of scant berries and beechnuts, scrawny bear cubs have been wandering into some upstate New York towns searching for food before hibernation.
    
A state wildlife biologist says some won't make it through the winter because they don't have enough fat. Biologist Ed Reed, with the Department of Environmental Conservation, says he's never seen so many cubs in populated areas.
    
Reed says cubs normally weigh an average of 50 pounds this time of year, but biologists have seen a number of them weighing 15 to 20 pounds.
    
He says 2011 had a bumper crop of bear food, so females were fat and had more cubs than usual. The big cub population, coupled with scant food in 2012, has led to numerous sightings of runty bears.

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