Tony Ross Doty McDowell Doty McDowell 42 Game Commission staff often attaches radio collars to female bears to help in studying bear reproduction. In cases like these, the collars also help to locate bears that potentially could foster orphaned cubs. Since there were four orphaned cubs - too large a number to place with a female bear that already has cubs of her own - we selected two females and made plans to place two orphaned cubs with each. The first placement in eastern Elk County went off without a hitch. The female was still denned up with her own two cubs, and the orphaned cubs were placed into the den. But the second female and her three cubs already were out of their Cameron County den. We'd need to stay on the move to keep up with the bears, so we placed the two orphaned cubs in a backpack for the hike. As we moved closer, Game Warden Wayne Hunt kept track of the bears'