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Voices and Names – UPDATE March 16, 2013

Quality family timeQuality family timeAt 2:44 PM, we once again had a chance to see how Lily responds to strange voices, even when one of them hollered at Lily to wake up.  Actually, their voices were a little like Lynn’s, so it wasn’t a perfect test of strange voices.  One of the men spoke of being there before so we suspect he’s one of two men who first found the den on February 23rd.   That time and this time he came right up to the den—close enough to bump the camera tube—unlike another man and his grandchild who visited a week later but kept a respectful distance from the den.  

Lily attempts to rest while cubs playLily attempts to rest while cubs playIt sounded like they tried to take pictures today.  No harm done.  Lily was facing away from the entrance and kept nursing her cubs.  She looked up over her shoulder a couple times, but never made a bad face or said a bad word according to the archived video.  Lily Fans were watching along with us and alerting us to the situation.  Thank you.

Female cub teething on males snoutFemale cub teething on male's muzzleIt was harrowing for us, though, worrying what would come next.  We hope they don’t spread the word.  We ourselves are staying away, and we want disturbances from others to be at a minimum.  Not that it bothers Lily much, but we want unadulterated data.  In the past, we have thrown out data from days we visited, just to keep the behavior data pure.

Lily gives you and joins inLily gives up and joins inAgain we have 2 videos of Lily and her cubs.  We have been seeing so much good play from them that our video editor can’t seem to choose clips for just one!  Part I is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKa7MYRL0hA and Part II is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCJ2595A6AY.

Female gets special attentionFemale gets special attentionWe need to get those cubs named!  We know their sexes, we can tell them apart (most of the time), and we’re beginning to learn their personalities.  So, we dug out the long lists of cub names submitted in previous years and chose 10 names for each cub.  Now we need your help!  To vote for your favorite names, go to http://www.bear.org/website/cub-naming.html and cast one vote for each cub.  Voting will remain open through March 23.  Have fun!  We certainly will as we watch the votes tally up. 

Thank you for all you do.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center

All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.


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