Lily Dominates June
August 23, 2010 – 8:37 PM CDT
A few updates ago, we wrote that Lily had established a territory. Today, we saw Lily display her dominance within her territory. Lily and Hope were foraging when June (Lily’s mother) appeared. The wind was wrong and June was over a slight rise. Lily didn’t notice her at first.
We remembered previous encounters between Lily and June. Less than 200 yards from today’s encounter is where June chased and bit yearling Lily in the ‘Bearwalker’ documentary about this time two years ago (in 2008).
This past May, June made friendly sounds while approaching Lily and Hope, but Lily fled, abandoning Hope the second time.
So, we wondered what would happen today. We watched in suspense as Lily continued to forage unaware of June 35 feet away. Neither could see the other. Suddenly, Lily threw up her head, spotted June, breathed deeply a couple times with her mouth open to fully scent the situation, and rushed toward June. Deep breathing like that is a sign of danger, and Hope ran away into a dense cedar swamp. Cedars trees have excellent bark for climbing and are second only to white pines as refuge trees.
June didn’t contest the area. She skedaddled into dense brush. Lily paused where June had been and sniffed the ground for over a minute. It is likely June urinated as she left in a hurry.
An hour later, Lynn and Gordon Buchanan radio-tracked June to her resting place. On this hot (84 F), humid day, they found June nestled in damp moss in a shady cedar swamp so dense they walked past her maybe 15 feet away. When they realized the radio signal was behind them, they met up with June who patiently let them put yellow, pink, and chartreuse streamers on her collar and take her heart rate (92/min).
About 5 PM, we checked on Juliet and her cubs Sharon, Shirley, and a Boy Named Sue and found it was nap time. All four were high in a red pine on this windy day when it sounds like danger in all directions. The tree was covered with claw marks. It evidently has been used as a refuge tree for many years. The repeated use has torn away the scaly portion of the bark, leaving strong bark that makes climbing easy for cubs. Two of the cubs descended but were so nervous looking in all directions with each gust of wind that they soon took refuge up the tree again.
Meanwhile:
The Education Outreach group continued to pool their thoughts across the nation.
We started putting up signs asking hunters not to shoot radio-collared bears.
Lily fans extended Bear Head Lake State Park’s lead to over a half million and picked up on South Carolina’s bear baying issue and are acting on it.
Fans have also began voting in the Kohl Care School contest to bring $500,000 to Ely schools at http://apps.facebook.com/KohlsCares/search. The Ely zip code is 55731, and each person can vote up to 5 times for each of the two schools that come up. We have been waiting for information from the Ely School Superintendent’s office to provide more details on this contest, but you are beginning to get behind this worthy effort already. What a great group.
We found a way around our computer issues and managed to get the August 21 video of Lily and Hope posted at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html. Thanks for your patience—enjoy!
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center