Are separations common?
August 18, 2010 – 7:11 PM CDT
Late on yesterday, Lily and Hope separated somehow, and Hope spent the night alone up a big red pine with Lily bedded in a cedar swamp over half a mile away. This afternoon, they were back together (photo).
Other mothers ‘lose’ cubs from time to time, too, as has happened several times this summer in families other than Lily and Hope. On Monday evening, Annie grunted repeatedly for her 3 cubs to come down from a big white pine. Annie is not part of Shadow’s clan but is a familiar bear in the eastern part of the study area. We’re not sure of her age, but this is at least her second litter. Two of her cubs came down. That seemed to be enough for Annie. She took off with them, leaving the laggard still in the tree. Wednesday morning, it was still alone near the tree and didn’t seem concerned. We’ll see how long it takes that family to re-unite.
Lily is patient with Hope. When Hope wants food that Lily has, Hope protests and Lily backs off. If Hope has food, Lily doesn’t even go near her.
Lily was good enough to get on a scale today, unseen, and provide an automatic record of 223 pounds. The scale automatically records the weight and takes a picture of the bear. There is no mistaking Lily’s light muzzle and radio-collar.
June has been elusive lately. For nearly three days, we’ve tried to catch up to her to change the batteries in her GPS unit, but she remained so far from roads that we knew we’d never catch up to her if she were moving away, and we’d waste the day trying. The batteries expired about 7:04 AM yesterday. This evening, she came close enough to a road to make contact possible. We made the change, and the stream of locations she sends to our computer continues.
What makes June’s movements of special interest is that she is defying all the predictions that most people would make for her behavior. Their predictions might make human sense, but they apparently don’t make bear sense. Her behavior shows how much there is to learn. She would be perfectly comfortable visiting some of the feeding sites that residents of this community have set up. About a dozen households have been feeding bears in this area for over 40 years. There she could maximize caloric intake with the least expenditure of energy in accordance with the statement often made about bear feeding behavior. Instead, she is out working her tail off establishing a more remote territory and feeding on totally wild foods. We want to learn more about the social factors associated with her shift in territory this past year or so. One factor is making room for Lily, Hope, and Jewel in her old territory. Another factor is the resistance, or lack of it, she is finding as she tries to shift into new areas. Another interesting fact about June is that she now frequently comes within a quarter mile of the campground at Bear Head Lake State Park but has never gone closer that we know. This bear who is comfortable with people is avoiding them in her travels.
The Education Outreach continues to move forward as people generously donate objects for the traveling boxes and donate work on written material.
A few minutes ago, you topped a million votes in the Coca-Cola Favorite Park contest to put Bear Head Lake State Park in the lead by over 402,000 votes. This was going to be a news item on Fox News 21 out of Duluth this evening, but a triple homicide in Duluth pre-empted the story. They’ll do the story of your voting efforts in a week or so. By then, it’ll be closer to the end of the contest.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center