North American black bear cubs at Woburn Safari Park take their first steps into the drive-through reserve

The four North American black bear cubs born at Woburn last year have taken their first steps into the Safari Park’s main reserve!

They join the other seven bears in their 12-acre drive-through enclosure, ready for visitors to get up close over the summer months.

The cubs – two males called Harvard and Colorado, and two females called Aspen and Maple – were released into the main enclosure after living and bonding with mum Phoenix in a separate enclosure for just over 16 months.Keepers left the entrance to the secondary “nursery” pen open before the park opened to visitors to give the cubs a chance to get used to their new surroundings under the watchful eye of the keeper team.

All four cubs were a little hesitant at first, but after some gentle encouragement from their experienced mum, they entered the 12-acre enclosure one by one.

Colorado – who is the bravest and most confident cub according to keepers – was the first to take the plunge and venture out into the big unknown, with duo Harvard and Maple following close behind. Aspen was the last to emerge, and could be heard calling out to the group who had carried on ahead to explore, but quickly plucked up the courage to join in.

Mum Phoenix was excited to explore her old home and quickly set off into the main enclosure. After looking after the youngsters for so long, the first thing she did was have a long, well-earned back scratch on her favourite tree – communicating her return to the other adults through scent-marking, and enjoying the equivalent of a “mummy massage” to get any hard-to-reach itches and aches built-up from parenting four boisterous cubs!

Unfortunately, a reunion with the cub’s dad Xanthos isn’t on the cards, as he sadly passed away following a short illness not long after the babies were born.

Over the next few weeks, visitors can expect to see all four curious cubs out and about in the Kingdom of the Carnivores section of the Road Safari, exploring their new home and getting to know their surroundings independently for the first time.

Visitors will easily be able to spot the cubs apart from older siblings Georgia and Koda and the rest of the sleuth they’ll share the large enclosure with as – despite more than doubling in size since their first appearance – the cubs are still significantly smaller than the adult bears and still have a lot of growing to do.