Lily and Faith play - Feb 26, 2012Today’s snowstorm kept us inside organizing and pulling together data and pictures for the bear.org Volunteer page which will go online Thursday. Things are coming together. We’ve always been very grateful for the many volunteers we’ve had over the years. However, we haven’t always made the best use of our volunteers’ talents—and, now that we’ve grown, that needs to change. By more clearly identifying our needs and tracking the skills of our volunteers, we can match their skills to the work that needs doing. We feel blessed to have volunteers helping to design and grow our Volunteer Program!
Lily and Faith play - Feb 26, 2012Lily and Faith have been playing long and hard in their den—49 minutes straight yesterday and 45 minutes straight today! The play yesterday started after a nursing bout. Lily seemed to want to end the nursing—but Faith hung on as Lily stood up. A video of their antics is online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzvGI09abQ8.
Jewel and cub - Feb 26, 2012Jewel spent 25 minutes today eating snow. We continue to be amazed at how little bedding Jewel has in her den—and what she has seems to be sticks rather than leaves, moss, or shredded bark. Highlights of Jewel and cubs from yesterday are online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMeZgkuPzLw.
Below is another in the 2005 June walk series. Included are a picture from this walk and several from prior walks.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Date: July 26, 2005
June and cubs feed on pincherry - July 26, 2005
I located June and her cubs south of Eagles Nest Lake 2 at 9:29 AM in an area thick with hazelnut. I could hear her signal but could not see her through the dense hazel. Her precise location became evident when she lunged and blew at me – likely in response to my blundering too close. Generally I hold back once I catch sight of her to let her come to me so she can come to me when she is ready. June came without her cubs and finished off the few nuts and seeds I brought without their help. They showed up just as she turned to leave and followed as she ran off. I quickly lost sight of them in the dense hazel and had to get out the telemetry equipment to locate them. I found June nursing the cubs and she leapt up at my appearance. Our day was off to a rough start. Fortunately things smoothed out and we settled into our usual routine – June meandering and foraging with me in tow punching entries into my PDA. The cubs mainly forage on their own but always seem to know when June locates a particularly good ant log or pulls down a choice berry bush.
June and Pete - July 19, 2005June was active until 10:16 AM and covered .4 miles. Although I found her in a heavy hazelnut area the hazel production seems to be spotty and she did little foraging on hazel. In addition to the few hazelnuts, she fed on Juneberry, raspberry, dwarf bilberry, interrupted fern, and ant pupae. Of note:
- June re-marked an area of bear sign she had marked on one of our earlier walks. She sniffed a jackpine straddle tree, walked a bear trail, back-rubbed a red maple, again walked the bear trail, and then straddled the jackpine she had previously sniffed. These actions were nearly identical to those on a previous walk.
- June and her cubs all fed on a patch of interrupted fern. They bit the frond in the middle and pulled it through their diastema to strip the leaflets off – leaving the center stem intact.
- June found and chewed a deer pelvis bone and jawbone.
- June climbed a snag and worked hard at toppling it – moving around it and heaving her weight as she clung to it. It swayed mightily but did not fall. She finally gave up and moved on. I suspect she was after ant pupae.
June tearing at tree - July 12, 2005It had rained during the night when a cold front moved through so the vegetation was wet – except where I had walked and my clothes had wiped it dry. I was soaked and it was cold. When June stopped to rest at 10:16AM under a 5” DBH balsam fir in an alder/hazel thicket I wished I had brought more layers. The cubs seemed to want to nurse but June carefully lay on her belly making her nipples inaccessible. June got up once to defecate near her bed and then lay down again. Last year I got into the habit of collecting these mid-nap scats immediately so I would be ready to follow her once the rest-break was over. I wasn’t sure how the cubs would respond to my coming so close while they were resting but I decided to give it a try. I spoke calmly and moved steadily so as not to startle them and retrieved the scat without an issue.
The three bears were huddled together as they slept. Pete was the first to wake and he made sure George was awake as well – a quick bite to the ear did the trick. The two commenced to playing on top of June and soon she was on her feet still looking sleepy and with definite ‘bed hair’. She gave herself a shake and headed off a short distance to a more open spot where she nursed the cubs for 6 minutes. She then rested and groomed for another 16 minutes while the cubs played.
June and cub feeding on ant pupae - July 12, 2005At 11:38 AM she began foraging and had not taken another rest break when our walk together ended at 5:30 PM. I did not see her nurse the cubs again – though I lost her for 7 minutes during this period and may have missed a quick bout of nursing. She covered 2.57 miles during this time. Of note:
- June and her cubs fed primarily on ant pupae and berries - choosing ripe raspberry, blueberry, pin cherry, choke cherry, wild sarsaparilla, blueberry and Juneberry as well as unripe, choke cherry, round-leaf dogwood, and downy arrowwood.
- Three times June stopped, changed direction, and ran to a patch of raspberries. I suspect she caught their scent.
- June consistently chews the large seeds of single-seeded fruits. This makes her a seed ‘predator’ rather than a seed ‘disperser’. The general thought is that bears swallow berries whole – and my past scat studies have shown little evidence to the contrary – but June definitely chews her large seeds.
- June and her cubs also fed on hazelnuts. Nuts were pulled from the bushes and ‘shucked’ of their husk within the bear’s mouth or else the nut was neatly extracted from the husk leaving the husk still attached to the bush. I suspect in the latter case the nuts were especially ripe and easy to dislodge from the husk.
- June spent 8 minutes feeding on clover. This clover had been browsed before and she was neatly pulling off the new growth. She reminded me of a sewing machine as her head bobbed up and down with each quick bite.
- June and her cubs spend one hour and 12 minutes feeding along the sides of a new dead-end road. Someday this road will be lined with homes but for now it is lined with raspberries. The family ventured off the road a couple times to choice Juneberry bushes but most of the time was spent on the road eating raspberries. June was very attentive and kept intently looking back up the road.
June and Pete crossed the road. When George found himself alone he began bawling. June and Pete ran back to him, but no amount of grunting on June’s part would console him and he continued bawling until he had crossed the road with them.