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ALBANY - After a season of scant berries and beechnuts, scrawny bear cubs have been wandering into some upstate New York towns searching for food before hibernation.

"We've seen more cubs than ever before," said Ed Reed, senior biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Reed said cubs normally weigh an average of 50 pounds this time of year, but biologists have seen a number of them weighing 15 to 20 pounds. They're unlikely to have enough body fat to make it through the winter, he said.

The summer of 2011 had a bumper crop of berries and other bear food, so females were fat and had more cubs than average over the winter. With an unusually mild winter, the cub survival rate was high. But the summer of 2012 was very dry in parts of the state, making food scarce and driving bears into towns to forage in trash cans. The fall crop of acorns and beechnuts was also poor in many places, Reed said.

He said the fluctuations in food supply and wildlife populations are nothing to worry about.

"We're trying to tell people this is a natural thing and if they see undersize cubs, leave them alone. Don't feed them," Reed said. "Some won't make it through the winter, but that's how nature works."