Holly Becoming a Force - UPDATE August 29, 2015
Honey is having a harder time asserting her position over Holly. In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt-ETgzkrhY Holly shows she knows her abilities and has little to fear from assertive Honey. Holly approached Honey who then came after her, but Holly was agile enough going backward to avoid Honey and didn’t go far. Honey tried to chase her away several times, and Holly just maneuvered out of the way time after time until she was in a corner. Honey made many fast movements toward Holly but never touched her that I could see. Sharon came to intervene, but Holly had things well in hand. Honey followed Sharon, probably looking for food, while Holly investigated the scale for leftovers. I suspect Holly will have the upper hand soon.
In the news is a bear that approached a woman near Burlington, Connecticut, and sniffed her leg. Yes, the bear was too bold, but it meant no harm and did no harm. Authorities will likely kill the bear. Here’s my read. The bear was curious and is overly comfortable with people. It wanted to sniff her but was cautious enough to hesitate when the woman moved. Finally, she stood still enough for the bear to sniff her calf. As it sniffed, it opened its mouth to use its vomeronasal organ to detect a greater range of scents. The reporter characterized that as showing its teeth. The bear then left. The woman was thankful to be alive. From what the woman said, authorities looked at her cell phone video and pointed out that the hairs on the back of bear were standing straight up. However, bears don’t raise their hackles. In late summer, under fur grows in, propping up all the fur to stand straight up, making some people, including some authorities, to misinterpret a bear’s intentions. One of the most popular parts of my standard lecture is the meaning of bear vocalizations and body language.
Compare that bear’s approach to what people see in Eagles Nest Community where people have hand-fed bears for over 50 years. Strangely, bears here seldom or never approach people like that except in the yards where they expect to see people and in situations where a few of the bears have learned to accept people under certain conditions.
A problem here is that the DNR has been telling the media for several years that we train bears to go up to people for food. Strangely, they couldn’t come up with one witness to back that up in the hearing. But with the accusation out there, we are attempting to come up with solid data on the subject. Last September, volunteers logged many hours walking bear trails near community feeding sites at this time of year when bears are overly hungry getting ready for hibernation. Not one volunteer was approached. We then found residents who had together spent over 10,000 hours hiking and jogging in the territories of habituated bears over the last decade or more. They seldom saw bears and never had a problem.
Today, Jim Stroner got a nice look at sweet Lorie (Samantha’s yearling) at a community feeding site. He shared it with us for this update.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center.
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.