While on a timber inspection in Carthage last fall, Maine Forest Service Ranger Erik Ahlquist located what appeared to be a black bear den.

This week, he returned to the site with biologists from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and this is what they found.

Maine Forest Service Ranger Erik Ahlquist holds a bear cub in Carthage. Photo from Maine Forest Service Facebook page

The department studies black bears in Maine and you can read their assessment of the population here. Their assessment notes that female black bears give birth when they are in their winter dens and cubs weigh about 12 ounces at birth.

The forest service’s social media posts didn’t say how many cubs they found or whether they woke up mom.