Little visitors love to eat, play and sleep

They’re certainly not teddy bears. The 32 scratches they put in Mike Wyche’s hand during a feeding make that clear.

But razor-sharp claws aside, two 10-week-old baby black bears at Cat Tales Zoological Park have been giving zoo workers and visitors a show since they arrived Tuesday.

“They have one focus in mind when they’re awake, and that’s to eat,” said Wyche, the general curator for the facility, which mostly hosts large cats. “They’ll play a little with each other and then fall asleep. They’re a lot like human babies.”

The two bears are at Cat Tales on exchange from Yellowstone Bear World in Rexburg, Idaho. Born of the same litter, the cubs are part of a training program for zoologists. Students at Cat Tales will learn to feed the animals and teach them how to stay within an electric fence.

“It’s a good experience for students, because when you’re going to a zoo school you won’t always be exposed to babies,” Wyche said.

The bears are about 15 pounds each and drink 10 to 12 ounces of formula every six to eight hours, Wyche said. A zookeeper is keeping an eye on them 24 hours a day. Black bears grow to be between 100 and 800 pounds as adults.

The bears are in a nursery, but they’ll head out to a bigger exhibit “after they get a little more stability under their feet,” Wyche said. In October the cubs will head back to Bear World.

Visitors are invited to visit the zoological park to see the babies.