Anticipation
September 27, 2010 – 8:15 PM CDT
Braveheart made a big move today. She’s now nearly 2 miles from the dug den she keeps revisiting. Go figure. She has been notorious for settling into dens late—and even moving to new dens after the first snowfall. Twice she has settled into new dens so late that snow covered the leaf litter normally used for bedding. Both times she resorted to shredded cedar bark and balsam boughs as bedding material. She’s keeping us guessing.
Jo’s GPS readings consistently came from the deer carcass site today. She’s still hanging tight to her treasure. Once she moves away we’ll revisit the site to see how much of the carcass she ate. What she doesn’t eat, others will. Nothing will go to waste.
Lily and Hope were active during the night last night. Not sure what they were up to, but by this morning they had settled into a new spot—still half a mile from their den. I hiked in to see if perhaps Lily was digging yet another den, but I found them bedded in a stand of young red pines. No sign of a den and no dirt on Lily. They rested, played, and Lily let Hope nurse. I watched closely and found Lily still has milk—perhaps only a few drops—but definitely thick creamy milk.
As I write this I can see Lily and Hope are on the move. Initial movement was toward water—likely to get a drink. Currently they are moving in the general direction of their dug den. Time will tell if they are really headed there or have some other destination in mind.
Juliet surprised us today by visiting her den from last winter. She was there for several hours but is now ¾ mile away and shows no sign of settling down yet.
Things are still looking good for the Ely School District (Ely Esy) in the Care2 school contest! Their lead has expanded to 1341—amazing! The link to vote is http://www.care2.com/schoolcontest/2704/054/.
I came back from my field time with Lily and Hope to find someone had kindly delivered a plate of cold cuts and some pasta salad from the lunch provided to the Bear Center by Lily fans. Thank you! It was a welcome treat.
Thank you for all you do.
—Sue Mansfield, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center