According to the most recent website blogs, it has definitely been confirmed that Lily's 2 new cubs are a male & a female. So the naming process has begun. Lily fans can submit names up until noon this morning, I think.
Here is a post from the website, if you are thinking of submitting a name...
We thought about a nice name to go along with the theme of Hope, but then thought about Hope being special and having the only name that diverges from the naming theme of this lineage—bear foods.
Lily is named after the Calla Lily that is so beautiful and white. Lily’s light face helped inspire that name for her. Lily’s brother is Cal, also in the Calla Lily theme. Her other brother is Bud, named after rosebuds. The calla lily is a major bear food. It grows in marshes and the leaves remains succulent all spring, summer, and fall. That means many of the nutrients are in a digestible fluid form. Bears stop eating blueberries sometimes to go down in marshes to eat these green leaves. It’s amazing, too, because the leaves contain oxalic acid crystals that cause human mucosa to swell and become irritated. Somehow bears tolerate the crystals. Wild calla (Calla palustris) is one of the favored greens in the forest. Bears only occasionally eat rosebuds.
Lily’s mother is named June, full name Juneberry, a favorite berry in early summer. Lily’s aunt was Hazel, which produces the most abundant nut of this region. It is one of the very top bear foods. A good hazelnut crop means females will get fat, stay out of trouble, and have good cub production the ensuing winter. In years of abundant hazelnuts, people wonder where all the bears went.
The female in June’s most recent litter was Jewel, short for Jewelweed, another favorite green. Also called Touch-me-not, it grows in damp soil. It is one of the few greens, like wild calla, that they eat in spring, summer, and fall.
Here’s a list of local bear foods in case it stimulates creativity in continuing the naming theme for this lineage...
3-leaf Solomon seal cow wheat pincherry
acorn cranberry raspberry
alder cones dandelion raspberry
alder-leaf buckthorn dewberry red maple
American fly honeysuckle downy arrowwood red osier dogwood
ants fawn red pine
ash fomes fungus rose
aspen goatsbeard round-leaf dogwood
bald-faced hornet gooseberry snowberry
bedstraw grass snowfleas
bilberry grub strawberry
birch hawkweed sweet early coltsfoot
bird hawthorne tent caterpillar
blueberry hazelnut vetch
bull thistle hazelnut violets
bumblebee highbush cranberry water parsnip
bunchberry horsetail wild calla
carrion interrupted fern wild lettuce
caterpillar (Sphinx?) jewelweed leaf wild sarsaparilla
catkins June beetle grubs wild sarsaparilla
cattail juneberry willow
chokecherry large-leaf aster leaf woolgrass
clintonia mountain ash wooly aphid
clover peavine leaf yellow jacket
