Skip to main content

Welcome! Be sure to visit the NABC website as well.

Faith and a Good Memory - UPDATE August 3, 2016

One of the bears this morning was Faith! We compared her with pictures in the Bear Catalog in detail—the faint eyebrow patches, the shape of them, her muzzle color, her behavior. It is Faith. Mallard and reflectionMallard and reflection - 8/1/16We should have accepted it totally when one of the Community Feeding Stations pointed her out a few days ago. But even if we are late in being true believers, it feels good now to know Faith is fine and should have cubs this coming January in her distant forest with hardly any roads and no residences. I didn’t think to snap a picture until it was too late. It is interesting but not new that this bear that was exposed to people from the time she was a newborn cub dispersed to an area with no people.

A Lily Fan found a link to the old Marlin Perkins program on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom from around 1980-1982 Sleeping Bears of Kawishiwi. The video has no ads, so this half-hour program is only 22 minutes. A mistake I made during the filming led to events I’ll never forget. We’d filmed for 9 days doing “look sees” and “drive bys.” Finally, it was time to visit the den of a bear I named Donna. Herring gull taking offHerring gull taking off - 8/1/16The crew was flying out to the Galapagos the next day. In the afternoon, we drove, snowmobiled, and snowshoed deep into the Superior National Forest. We got to the den, and I discovered, “I forgot the drugs!” I hurried to the snowmobile and drove like mad back to the highway, jumped in the pickup, and drove like mad to the U. S. Forest Service Kawishiwi Field Laboratory near Ely. I grabbed the drugs and was driving too fast when I passed a radar trap. Light was fading. We had to do the shoot that day. I kept going, hoping the police car was not behind me out of sight on the curvy road. I was getting on my snowmobile when he pulled up. I told him Marlin Perkins was waiting with light fading at a bear den. I politely gave him my driver’s license and asked if he could put the ticket on my windshield. He said okay, and I drove faster than I thought anyone would dare on the narrow trail. The cameraman had driven a snowmobile to the highway in case I needed any help. I wished he hadn’t because I knew he could never keep up with me. On a straightaway, I glanced back. He was two feet behind me! I later asked him how he dared to do that. He mentioned that he made movies of professional skiers coming down challenging slopes, going over jumps, etc. as he filmed skiing backwards in front of them. I couldn’t imagine anyone doing that. I can’t remember his name now, but it’s probably in the program credits.

Heading out to go with Donna to watch and hear Pat and Donna Surface of Spiritwood Music play and sing. He said some Lily Fans were coming.

Thank you for all you do.

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


Share this update: