Katmai bear cub spotted with a paw full of porcupine quills

The rugged brown bears (Ursus arctos) of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska may be well-positioned at the top of the food chain, but that doesn’t mean the smaller animals don’t pose any risks. Size doesn’t really mean much in the face of a porcupine’s 30,000 sharp quills.

Bear cub 901jr learned this first hand. The baby was spotted on explore.org’s livestream with a paw covered in spiky quills. As they learn about their surroundings, curious cubs will investigate pretty much everything. That curiosity can lead them right to a porcupine. Fortunately, the quills should eventually come out. 

Cub 901jr’s mother is a medium-sized bear named 901. She has blond-rimmed, triangular ears, and her fur is typically golden brown in early summer and turns to a more grizzled brown by late summer. She was spotted in June with two spring cubs, but one of her cubs has since died. 

So far this season, mother bears have killed two cubs in separate incidents only a few days apart—and on camera. While there is no one answer as to why mother bears are killing cubs, some experts suspect bear adoption, food scarcity, and fights for dominance all play a role. 

The bear cam livestream along the Brooks River and at Brook Falls show the park’s famous brown bears as they feast on salmon to bulk up for the long winter ahead. Every year in late June, brown bears return to Brooks Falls for the salmon migration. By late summer, the nutritious fish will spawn and then begin to die. The bears will then move to the lower Brooks River in September and October to eat the dead and dying salmon near the river’s mouth. An adult male bear can go from roughly 700 pounds when the season begins to over 1,200 pounds by the fall. 

After spending the summer putting on the pounds, Katmai hosts the annual Fat Bear Week tournament. The public can vote online to crown Katmai’s fattest bear of the year. Bear 901 reached the final round of last year’s fierce competition.