Jewel mouths a cub - March 3. 2012It’s time! We feel confident enough about the sexes, and we don't think we'll be embarrassed later. The cubs have been nameless long enough. We made a snap decision and named the cubs—Herb and Fern. A dear Lily Fan said she didn’t like the name Herb because it sounds like an old guy. Lynn, who picked that name, asked what she has against old guys! Sue, who picked the name Fern, seems to have picked a more popular name. Both are bear foods, like Jewel’s full name Jewelweed.
Cub clings to Jewel's head - March 3, 2012Herbs, or more formally herbacious vegetation, are the main foods of spring and are important foods in summer—especially when berries are scarce. When herbs are popping out of the ground in early spring, bears around here disappear as they gorge on these tender greens filled with nutrition. The nutrients are still mostly in fluid form for easy digestion, and the secondary compounds that soon make most of them unpalatable to bears have not yet developed. As herb leaves become mature, more and more of the nutrients become incorporated into the cell walls as cellulose, which is as indigestible to bears as it is to humans. That’s when bears become more visible again as they have to roam more for their food and may possibly turn more to bird feeders and garbage in some areas.
Jewel nuzzles cub - March 3, 2012
Jewel mouths a cub leg - March 3, 2012Fern was named with the favorite Interrupted Fern in mind. In spring, fern fronds are erupting out of the ground, bears bite off the fronds low, eat the stem, and drop the fiddlehead. Anyone who has knowledge of why they drop the fiddlehead would be doing us all a favor to share it. We heard it has cancer-causing compounds at that stage, but we’ve never confirmed that and are looking for the information. Later, when the frond is mature, they sometimes strip the fronds sideways through the diastema (space) between their canine teeth and the big cheek teeth (molars and premolars). Their first three premolars are reduced in size, creating this diastema which is common among herbivores and some omnivores.
Jewel and cub - March 3, 2012
Interrupted FernWhy bears will eat Interrupted Fern and leave most of the other ferns alone is a mystery. Bears know the difference. When Interrupted Ferns are mature and bears are stripping the “leaves” off the stems by pulling them sideways through their mouths, they do eat the tips, which were rejected at the fiddlehead stage. Mature Interrupted Ferns are not a favorite food but are sometimes eaten. So little is known about why bears make the choices they do. We keep documenting what they do and raising questions about why. Someday, others might follow up and figure out why.
That’s one of the reasons we favor scholarships as memorials for Hope and Jason. More about that later.
A video with highlights of Jewel and cubs from yesterday is online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgGoJOw140E.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center