Faith Lynn’s dawn check on Jewel and family yielded enough of a glimpse to know they were still together. At that time blossoms were just starting to open on pincherry, with blossoms every bit as abundant as the Juneberry blossoms. Later in the day they were fully open. We remain hopeful for a good food year, remembering the bumper crop after the cold winter and late spring of 1996. Leaves were finally opening on some of the latest trees to leaf out—black ash (Fraxinus nigra) and large-toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata).
Pincherry in morning lightLater in the morning, Sue Mansfield properly introduced Mike Johnson to Lily and together they changed Lily’s GPS unit. Lily knows Sue and wasn’t so coy as she was with Mike yesterday. But before coming, she circled them and sniffed every branch they had touched, smelling Sue’s scent and smelling the scent of the guy she had avoided yesterday. With Sue there, it was okay to approach and get the treat and the GPS transfer. Sue left Mike with Lily. Her cubs were up a tree. Cubs are content to sleep or play with each other up in the safety of a tree for hours while their mother goes off to ‘ingest fuel’ (i.e. forage) for making milk. After about an hour the cubs came down from their white pine and nursed. Lily and cubs finally went off foraging, and Mike left for home.
End of the roadFaith has repeatedly spent time in some very remote areas this spring. When we saw her approaching an accessible area today, Sue and Bec headed out to change Faith’s GPS batteries even though her old ones still had a few more days in them. After driving miles on logging roads, they found Faith’s signal and hiked in until they were very close. Rather than possibly scare her off, Sue and Bec chose to hold and let her come to them. After over 20 minutes of calling to her, Faith circled around to the trail Sue and Bec hiked in and followed it to them. Once she made the decision to approach, she was calm and the battery swap went without a hitch. Thank you, bear!
Blueberry blossomsSeeing Jewel with the confident yearlings reminded us how that all changes at family break-up. Yearlings are extremely skittish without mom. Some spend excessive time up trees. Samantha’s 41-pound male yearling that showed up alone last evening saw Lynn and ran. “It’s me bear” didn’t cut it last night. He kept going. This is the same yearling that was calm and confident with Lynn touching him a few days ago when Samantha was still around. The skittish period many yearlings go through makes it hard to walk with them even though they grew up knowing the researcher. The first year on their own is a period of sparse data. We cross our fingers each year that the radio-collared yearlings make it through hunting season so we can attempt to walk with them as 2-year-olds. Personalities differ.
A Lily Fan sent us a link to a news broadcast about a mother bear that was going after a Jack Russell Terrier, which is a fairly fearless breed and may have initially gone after the mother or her cubs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joT2h2UxPi8. The bear chased the dog into the house and was partway into the door when the woman who owned the dog kicked her. The woman ended up with a small wound that broke the skin. The bear immediately ran away. The take home message is that these rare aggressive encounters often involve unleashed dogs. Dogs on leashes are fine. Dogs that go after bears sometimes end up involving their owners.
Pincherry in full bloomWhen talking about bears, many people say, “They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.” Generally true, but if a person thinks his safety depends upon a bear being afraid, he is likely to get scared if he sees a bear that has learned to ignore people, i.e., is habituated. What people often don’t realize is that these non-fearful bears are likely less dangerous than fearful ones. The assumption that a bear would like to “get you” if the bear only dared is just wrong. Along that line, another Lily Fan, by coincidence came across something Lynn wrote some years back that gives some insight. Myth: When bears lose their fear of people, they become more likely to attack.
On a completely different topic, you might have noticed the nice jump of $7,421 on the new building thermometer on bear.org today. That’s your donations during the month of April and includes your generous fund-raiser for Lynn’s birthday. It took this long to show up on the thermometer because when Razoo sent the check a couple weeks ago it was for over $23,000—obviously wrong. Razoo double-checked. It included fraudulent donations from New Zealand or somewhere. But the right amount is now deposited. That, along with your donations in honor of Pat Boone, are much appreciated. Thank you.
American CrowAs we write this, the melodic sounds of gray tree frogs and American toads are coming in the windows. Out the window earlier today, the special brave crow ate well. The pair of Black-capped Chickadees had wet bellies around noon like they were both bathing on this warm 70F day.
What we’re waiting to see are more big males. RC’s friend Loppy is the only big male we’ve seen, which is unusual. Loppy is losing weight. Big males often lose a hundred pounds in mating season, which is as much as they can lose overwinter.
A May 25 video of Jewel, Herbie, and Fern is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8ot2fGNZos.
After this was written, Samantha arrived with all 3 yearlings. The family is back together—for now at least.
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.