Lily, the Internet-famous mother black bear, appeared to begin labor about 6 p.m. Thursday evening in her den near Ely, and gave birth to a first cub at 1:51 Friday afternoon, with another following at 3:03 p.m., according to bear researcher Lynn Rogers.

Lily is among bears being researched by Rogers, of Ely. She and her yearling cub, Hope, are in a cedar-swamp den in northeast Minnesota.

A tiny camera in the den is connected to solar-powered batteries. A cell phone connection transmits images from the den to South Africa, from which they are sent out over the Internet.

Lily is a 4-year-old bruin who gave birth a year ago to Hope — unusual because Minnesota black bear sows usually have twins, and sometimes triplets.

Typically, black bears have cubs every other year. But Lily was separated from Hope for a while last summer, and that might have brought the mother bear into heat, and she was subsequently bred, Rogers said.

It's also possible a single cub nursing didn't provide enough stimulus to prevent Lily from coming into heat.

Bear researcher Lynn Rogers, foreground, with a group of volunteers on Dec. 30 setting up a tiny camera inside a bear den near Ely, the winter home of "Lily'' and her yearling cub, "Hope.''

Either way, it's unusual for a yearling cub to be with his or her mother when new cubs are born, and Rogers and other researchers are eager to see how Hope responds to her new sibling or siblings.

About 9,000 viewers were online worldwide watching the birth.

My story published in Thursday's Star Tribune about the bears can be read here.

The live "den cam" can be seen here