Also, a bear cub crying sounds astonishingly like a human child crying. I had that experience once near a place where one was in captivity at a facility that had college mascots. They had a new one and were teaching it to be able to sleep alone for god knows what reason.
From where I was, 2 blocks away, late one night I “heard” a baby screaming outside. It was enough to get me out of the house and go follow the sound. I was astonished when it lead to the bear enclosure. There that little cub was climbed halfway up the fence, wanting attention.
Animals are weird. It might be very possible that a bear heard the kid, thought it sounded like a cub, sniffed him and left. They someones kill you and other times just get curious. Sometimes they kill cubs even, so who knows?
But a point of order, do bears in that part of the country hibernate? It is January after all?
That’s interesting about the bear cub sounds. I was wondering about the hibernating also. The NC DNR says they hibernate like all black bears but will get up if disturbed.