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Sophie, RC, Shadow, Monarch - UPDATE August 7, 2016

Sophie showed her face at a community feeding station, but her two female cubs, still unnamed, were camera shy. SophieSophie

At another community feeding station, RC and her cubs were dining together when RC went on alert. We heard nothing. I say silently from a human perspective. Bears have at least twice the hearing we have and can hear over a broader spectrum. They pick up sounds too faint for the humans I’ve been with to hear. All but one cub moved quickly to the base of a big red pine. There were no white pines close by. Then the last cub broke off feeding and hurried to join the family. Rambler, Valentine and RCRambler, Valentine and RCSomeone remarked that she heard nothing to trigger the fast move. I said that the usual sound is just deeper breathing that we’d have a hard time picking up, but cubs run for safety when they hear it. Then Shadow came quietly into view.

ShadowShadowI wondered what would happen next. I’d heard that last night RC and Shadow had fed only 10-20 feet apart until it got too tense and Shadow deferred to her daughter with cubs. Often the one with cubs wins out in these standoffs, but in the case today, RC had already eaten a lot and Shadow was coming in hungry. Shadow moved to the security of a big red pine where bears at this feeding station often nurse their cubs and take refuge. RC positioned herself 30-35 feet away with the two bears facing each other but sitting down. Shadow clacked her jaws in fear, but it was RC who moved on in the direction her cubs had already taken.

Shadow facing RC RC facing Shadow
Shadow facing RC RC facing Shadow

 

Along the way, Shadow looked my way with my lens zoomed to 400 mm to see how her graying is progressing.Shadow's gray faceShadow's gray face

That particular feeding station is where Shadow has felt most comfortable for decades. The landowner purchased the land from the person who had long fed Shadow. From what the former landowner told him, Shadow is older than the 29-years we estimated from the cementum annuli in one of her tiny premolars. Our estimate from the annuli is conservative because it can be difficult to read the annuli of a bear that is no longer growing. Even with our conservative estimate, Shadow has already set a record for the oldest black bear to produce cubs, beating the record of 26 when she produced Spanky at 28. We hope she makes it through the upcoming hunting season for which the DNR removed a gate to give hunters easier access to our study area. If she is killed, or she can be radio-collared and tracked to her place of death one of these years, we can get a more accurate age Monarch release at NABCMonarch release at NABCfrom the more widely spaced annuli in the root of a canine tooth. We don’t want her treasure trove of data to be wasted. When the DNR’s old bear died at 39, the death was not discovered for two months, making the carcass much less valuable for documenting the aging process and cause of death.

At the Bear Center, the first monarch butterfly to hatch was released today.

Thank you for all you do.

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


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