This picture of Lily and Hope at their den as taken October 25--we thought you would like to see them again.
Today we watched a video stream test of the den cam equipment displayed on a test webpage created by WildEarth. The camera was set up at PixController in Pennsylvania and we could hear voices and see feet moving past. The den cam feed had ads—both a 30-sec full-screen pre-roll ad and periodic ads at the bottom of the image. We’re asking questions about that. The agreement, as we understood it, was no ads on the video stream to bear.org. We hope that gets resolved. Among other problems, the ads cover the data and time that volunteers around the world will be using in their record-keeping.
On that subject, Janet Dalton and Lynne Cann have once again volunteered to coordinate the Den Watch data collection. They did this last winter, and it was a big job. They know how to do it, and we couldn’t hope to find anyone better for this job. Special thanks to them for taking on this task.
What we now need is dedicated Den Watch volunteers to carefully observe the den cam and record data into an Excel spreadsheet. The goal is for each volunteer to cover one hour—so at least 24 people are needed per day to cover all hours. The wee hours might best be covered by people in convenient time zones in other countries.
We are modifying the Excel spread sheet used last year to include Lily, Hope, and cubs(!). The codes are also going through a review to make sure we are collecting the most useful data. To volunteer, please send an email to
We learned today that the names of Lily fans who donate to the Ely Area Food Shelf will be listed in the newspaper sometime in January. We were wrong about which paper will carry the names. The paper is the Ely Shopper which goes free to every house in the region.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center