ELY - A black bear named Lily give birth to a cub about 11:45 a.m. Friday as 24,000 people watched online.

Viewership jumped to 48,000 after news of the birth was reported.

Lily is in a den at the North American Bear Center in Ely.  Biologist Lynn Rogers says the birth is a video first. Rogers and his North American Bear Center put a camera in Lily's den that streams her activity live.  Rogers has been studying bears for 43 years and never seen a birth.

 Rogers doesn't know if the cub is male or female. He says a bear's first litter is typically one or two cubs, so a second cub was possible. But by Friday evening, he said, so much time had passed he thought it unlikely the 3-year-old Lily would deliver a second cub.

It's hard to capture a black bear birth live because they don't usually den near where live cameras can be set up.

The live video stream can be viewed at http://www.bear.org/website/visit-us/lily-den-cam.html.

The Bear Center's website appeared to be overloaded by the huge amount of interest Friday afternoon.  The video can also be seen at http://www.wildearth.tv/static/wildearth/channels/we_bear_den.html?streamId=wwbearden01.

(Copyright 2010 Red River Broadcast Co.  All rights reserved.  This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  AP contributed to this report.)