Adventurous baby black bear wins 2026 Courageous Cub Award

One little bear cub in Southeastern Alaska’s Tongass National Forest is a true model of bravery. The park’s rangers have awarded the unnamed black bear (Ursus americanus) cub with the 2026 Courageous Cub award for persevering when he got himself in a little pickle this summer. The cub belongs to a forgetful mother bear named Dory, who had two cubs this season. 

“This little cub of Dory’s went on a big adventure. He got lost, ran down the trail a half mile and approached visitors as if to ask, ‘Are you my mommy?’ Then got scared and ran off in the wrong direction,” the Tongass rangers write. “Hours later he came running back up the trail sniffing out where mama was.”

Black bears like this family have a very keen sense of smell. It is debated just how far away they can smell, but it is at least two miles and could be up to 20. Fortunately, the cub was able to use some of that sniffing power to find both Dory and his other sibling.

Meet the bears of Anan Creek

The rangers at Tongass National Forest are currently awarding the Anan Bear Awards to the 39 bears spotted at the Anan Wildlife Observatory in Alaska over the summer. 

Tongass is the largest national forest in the United States. It covers most of southeastern Alaska, including the state’s capital city of Juneau, and includes Mendenhall Glacier (a popular destination for Alaskan cruises), numerous hiking trails, eagles soaring above, and plenty of bears on the hunt for food. One of the hotspots is Anan Creek, home to one of the largest runs of pink salmon in Southeast Alaska. This makes the creek a very popular dinner spot among black and brown bears.

According to Friends of Anan, at least 39 bears feast on the salmon at Anan Creek. The population includes 31 black bears and eight brown bears (Ursus arctos). Similar to their chunky counterparts farther to the north in Katmai National Park, the bears return each summer to feast on salmon and teach their cubs how to fish in order to survive. And also like the fat bears of Katmai, every bear here has their own habits and quirks. 

The U.S. Forest Service tracks and documents every bear spotted at Anan, while explore.org’s cameras broadcast live streams of their behavior.