These photos were from a very special day in the field as a guest with the ME IF&W bear crew who were conducting den visits as part of a 33 year study. I was not the photographer -- I passed my camera to a biologist -- as I got to hold the cubs! These brothers had distinct personalities -- one never uttered a sound, the other was vocal from the start. Before the photos, and inbetween getting weighed and measured by the biologists, they were zipped inside my down coat with me. This kept them warm and placed a limit to their natural instinct to keep climbing.