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Bad For Bears - UPDATE May 12, 2015

Wolf - file photoWolf - file photoAs the Yellowstone video goes viral, ABC gains viewers at the expense of bears, dwarfing our attempts to counter it with this http://www.sfgate.com/national/article/Yellowstone-mama-bear-chases-tourists-danger-6256155.php.  All we can do is keep trying to educate.

Here at WRI, red-winged blackbirds are back singing and eating sunflower seed hearts as they get ready to nest even on this day of snow. The picture out the window is of a juvenile that still has some brown feathers and a red shoulder patch that is mostly covered.

In the contest for Best Town, Lily Fans continue to show Black Bear Power, leading Spearfish, SD 5949 to 5185 at http://www.outsideonline.com/1972941/best-towns-2015.

Ecology Hall Preview:

Juvenile Red-winged BlackbirdJuvenile Red-winged BlackbirdA section in the Ecology Hall asks “How Safe Are Ely’s Woods?” with a dozen posters below asking “What About xxxx?” For “What About Wolves?” Wolf Center founder Dave Mech and I came up with these 6 stories that give a flavor of how wolves are. These are the closest wolf encounters we know of.

What About Wolves?

Not a problem. In northeastern Minnesota, the “big bad wolf” has proved shy of people. Not one recorded injury. Below are the six closest encounters we found going back as far as 1965. No wolf targeted a person.

When a Babbitt area logger picked up a dog to rescue it from wolves, one of the wolves jumped up at the dog, tore the man’s shirt, and moved on with the others. The wolves were only after the dog, the man said.

Late season snowstormLate season snowstormIn January 1982, a wolf knocked down a man who was hunting in a snowstorm. The man fired his .22. The wolf fled. The man, uninjured, said the wolf probably mistook him for a deer in the snowstorm.

On June 17, 1978, at dusk, two researchers quietly approached wolves tearing at a freshly killed moose in dense cover. At 20 feet, the wolves went quiet and slipped away.

On June 5, 1993, a researcher howled near a wolf den. Only a hundred yards away, the pack (with pups) answered. Two wolves briefly appeared 10 yards away and left.

Researchers who accompanied bears and deer day and night for over 5,000 hours since 1977 closely encountered wolves only twice—in 1989 and 2010. At 7:51 PM on August 7, 1989, a mother with cubs stood alert, grunted to the cubs, and hurried across Highway 1 to the only big white pine in that area. The cubs climbed to safety. The mother lay at the base. Herring gull flyingHerring gull flyingThe researcher crouched 30 feet away. At 8:52 PM, the mother suddenly sprang up the tree. The researcher turned to see an approaching wolf staring at him. At twenty feet, the wolf lost interest in the unfamiliar crouched form and circled out around him to the pine. It looked up at the bears and continued on.

On May 12, 2010, seven wolves approached a bear that was closely accompanied by 3 observers. One wolf paused briefly to interact with the bear as the pack passed by on two sides.

Lily Fans would be interested that the bear in this last encounter was June, and the bears in the encounter before that were Terry, Mary, and Gerry. The wolf den mentioned was just a few miles from the WRI cabin, and the wolves with the moose were up in the Boundary Waters where I briefly studied moose.

Thank you for all you do.

Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


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