Back at work
September 29, 2010 – 10:09 PM CDT
Lynn is glad to be back after a beautiful wedding and proudly walking his daughter Kelly down the path on a mountaintop near Boulder, Colorado.
He returned to find the bears still baffling us with their movements.
It is clear that the old notion that bears slow down in fall, find or make a den, and go to sleep is not quite that simple. Like everything else we have studied, there is variability. Some may follow the common notion. Others make dens as early as the month of June, often making several dens before choosing one.
Lily made a new den a few days ago. We’re waiting to see if she actually uses it. She spent the day a mile and a quarter away from it, in an area where she started 3 dens last fall. But in the last hour (now 9:26 PM), she and Hope have moved halfway back to their freshly made den. If she is moving to it, this is 3 ½ days earlier than she moved to her final den last fall. Picture of them sleeping together is from yesterday.
Braveheart is nearly 2 miles northwest of the known den she has visited several times.
Juliet and her 3 cubs is on the move, heading toward a rock den she used 2 years ago when she was with one cub. You know that story from the Bearwalker documentary. That year, both of her female cubs died and she denned with the surviving male cub. We wonder if this den will fit all three. Does Juliet know that, or will she have to check it out? Or will she veer north to eat grass on a big lawn where she has fed under the cover of darkness before. Part of what we are learning is how some of these bears can coexist with people unseen.
Jo has now left the deer carcass and moved 1.75 miles to her current location—less than 250 yards from her den of last year. But we don’t think she can fit into it any more.
Yearling males may be the latest to den. We saw June’s yearling son Jordan today, and his heart rate was still high. It was 97 when we first saw him when he was a bit keyed up and 90 a few minutes later when he was relaxed.
While we were checking bear activities, you were voting to keep Ely School District in the lead, stretching the lead to 1,422 (1,979 to 557). To vote, go to http://www.care2.com/schoolcontest/2704/054/.
The Education Outreach Project continues to move ahead as people write lesson plans, make items for the Black Bear Boxes, and explore new directions.
You and we are still working on protection for radio-collared bears wearing ribbons in the study area. People who think protection for these radio-collared bears is the first step down the slippery slope toward protection for all bears are spreading rumors and working to scuttle the research altogether. All we are doing is asking protection for our few study bears. If the DNR wants to protect their radio-collared bears, too, so much the better in case our study bears roam like Cal did. We believe hunters should look for collars before they shoot. Waiting for a clear view means fewer wounding losses and less chance of shooting a researcher who is accompanying a study. Leaves are still on the trees and bushes, and visibility is poor except where shooting lanes are cleared around bait sites. Protecting the research benefits hunters as well as science, education, and the regional economy.
We believe that all of us working together—hunters and non-hunters alike—can make this happen.
Meanwhile, we will benefit the Ely School District by voting and will build an Education Outreach Program that could exceed the value of everything else we are doing together.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center