Synergy?

I mentioned that Eric has been reading The Big Honey Hunt and Faith is in Little House in the Big Woods. I read through the Berenstain Bears book with Eric three days in a row before I picked up the Little House book to flip through while Faith told me about the chapter "Summertime." I noticed something very familiar about one of the illustrations.

Here is the picture of the bee tree from The Big Honey Hunt:

And here is a picture of a bear eating honey from a bee tree in Little House in the Big Woods:

I have never actually seen bees living in a hollow tree, so I guess it's possible that bee trees generally look this much alike. But I can't help but wonder if the Berenstains, writing and illustrating in 1962, were influenced by Garth Williams's illustrations for the Little House series, circa 1953.