June - April 17, 2009Tonight’s 3-minute flashback to April 17, 2009 finds June looking for food in a still-frozen alder swamp. Her cubs are high in a tree. She is looking for wild calla (Calla palustris) leaves and stems. June has found this plant in the swamp before, she knows they are here and is sniffing noisily, but can she really smell food under ice? She is turning over ice and pawing the mucky bottom for them until she gets a whiff or glimpse of the bright green and brings it up. It’s about the only fresh green food available. http://youtu.be/eQWD4yEkJwE
But just because bears eat them does not mean they’re okay for humans. Wikipedia says, ”The plant is very poisonous when fresh due to its high oxalic acid content, but the rhizome (like that of Caladium, Colocasia, and Arum) is edible after drying, grinding, leaching and boiling.” It’s a favorite bear food all summer long. We’ve seen bears stop eating blueberries to wade into swamps for wild calla. Another favorite food that contains oxalic acid is tent caterpillars (Malacosoma disstria).
At the Bear Center, Holly had to deal with the pesky vole again She had finished fluffing her bed and had tucked her head for a snooze. 3 minutes later, the vole foraged to within a couple inches of her ear. Even a vole has to sound loud that close to a bear. Their hearing is over twice as keen as a human’s. In a flash, Holly raised her head and slapped at the vole as the vole sped away with astonishing reaction and speed. This is about 4 minutes and 43 seconds into the 10-minute video. http://wildearth.tv/videomark/holly-slaps-vole-january-25-2015
Also at the Bear Center, Maureen O’Brien is making fast progress with help from Peter Johnson.
For volunteers, we have a new position available, Closed Caption Interpreters, who will help by adding descriptive text and closed captions for the visually and hearing impaired so they may be able to follow along with the many videos we have uploaded to YouTube. You can read the full position description here: http://bear.org/website/open-volunteer-positions/1024-closed-caption.html. There is no previous experience necessary, if you are computer literate and have good spelling and grammar skills we will train you. We are looking for several volunteers and possibly a team leader to work directly with the video editor. If this interests you, submit a volunteer application at http://www.bear.org/website/volunteer.html. If you already have an application in our database, it is not necessary to resubmit one. Just notify us of your interest at
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center