So far, so good
Update September 1, 2010 – 9:03 PM CDT
The first day of the bear hunt is over. We don’t know of any study bears killed—collared or non-collared.
We tracked movements of the bears wearing GPS units by computer. We also went out and joined June, Lily, Hope, and Juliet long enough to verify that everything was okay. To do that, we and the BBC split into teams. We think that the opening day falling on a Wednesday means a slow start to the hunt. We saw no evidence of hunters today.
Several research bears made significant moves within the last couple days. Ursula, Braveheart, and June moved deep into their territories. All most certainly are pregnant and likely have headed off to den. Hopefully they’ll settle into dens soon.
You pulled off a big victory in the Coca Cola Parks contest. This article http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/aug/26/battle-parks-smokies-contest-vote/?partner=RSS says people are stunned that a park with 1 percent the visitors and 1 percent the area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park could pull off this upset. They seem baffled how it happened. Word is out, though, that you did it. Congratulations!
You’re trying hard in Kohl’s School Contest, but that one is more of a challenge with voting set to end Friday. Your strong efforts again have made a lot of people realize that the radio-collared bears have a lot of friends who are willing and able to help the region where the radio-collared bears live and educate. Congratulations for the effort!
Speaking of education, there was rejoicing today as the Education Outreach Project Preview went up on bear.org front and center on the home page. There is a lot happening behind the scenes on that in committees coordinated by Corelyn with strong leaders and talented teachers contributing so much. Congratulations big time on this giant effort.
Corelyn is also asking teachers who used the Den Cam in their classes to fill out a short questionnaire that can be found near the top left corner of the home page of bear.org. She has nearly a hundred so far and needs more.
Related to education, a development committee is forming to raise money for the Education Outreach and generally expand our education in many directions. Education is the key to solving so many issues with bears worldwide, and Lily’s fans are building unprecedented momentum.
We’re watching in awe as Lily’s fans step forward to help in so many ways.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center