As Lily and Hope vie for the right to hold and groom Jason and Faith, you and we are working hard for protection. We are offering to limit protection to bears in nine townships between Ely and Tower, limit the number of radio-collared bears to 25, and revisit the law in 5 years. Currently 9 are radio-collared, but that number will grow to a 12-15 when we re-collar Lily in a few weeks and possibly collar Hope, Shadow, Jewel, and Juliet’s two yearling females. All are females and all are part of the single clan we are studying—all descended from a 21-year-old matriarch named Shadow. Females are the only ones that hold territories, and part of what we are studying is the social organization in this area.
Today in the den it was Faith who held both Lily and Hope’s attention. She got a thorough scrubbing and grooming much like Jason did yesterday. Both Lily and Hope leaned out of the den to eat snow – Lily several times. Video highlights from today are posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlvEhYAnxtE (Part 1) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_D95Nzch5E (Part 2).
At this writing, the petition has an even 12,500 signatures representing 132 countries. Amazing!
Action item! The Northland News Center is conducting an opinion poll on protection of radio-collared bears. The poll is located about halfway down the right side of the webpage at http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/. Please register your vote in the poll! The accompanying story can be found at http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/iron-range/Are-Bears-Headed-to-the-Legislature-117512988.html .
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center