As Lily and Hope played vigorously in their den shortly before 2 PM, hands and a camera suddenly appeared at the den entrance. Lily responded with full defensive bluster. She hadn’t heard Lynn’s approach. She lunged to the entrance, slapped the ground, and exhaled explosively. Lynn snapped a picture but had forgotten to turn on the flash.
Lily’s response foiled Lynn’s ill-conceived plan. He and Jason were there to wipe off the camera lens. Lynn thought he and Jason would quietly approach the entrance and snap a picture of Lily with the cubs before she came out to see him. They wanted to see if Jason the bear was indeed brown. Bad plan. Fearing a stranger, Lily responded with full defensive bluster. Lynn spoke to her. It wasn’t enough. She continued her bluster. Lynn got a blurry picture of her long nose, which is how bears look when they are upset. They don’t snarl. They don’t show their teeth. They just make the muzzle long and narrow.
Lynn kept talking to her. She came fully to the entrance and looked at him with a normal face. Lynn had removed his hat so she could recognize him better, if that makes any difference with the different clothes humans wear. He offered her a grape. She recognized the situation and gently took it from his fingers.
She tried to squeeze out the entrance but the packed snow was too tight. She gave up briefly. Lynn offered her more grapes. He hoped she and Hope would both come out. Finally, Lily squeezed out.
Lynn gave the grapes to Jason to occupy Lily while Lynn tried to interest Hope in coming out. Hope eventually took a grape from Lynn’s fingers but wouldn’t come out.
The cubs screamed. Lily grunted and went back to the entrance but returned to Jason (the human) and the grapes when the cubs calmed down.
Lynn and Jason hadn’t brought many grapes, figuring the bears’ stomachs were shrunken. The grapes ran out. Neither Lynn nor Jason dared put a hand in the den to clean the lens. They didn’t dare when Lily was blustery. They didn’t dare when Lily was at the entrance being timid and nervous. Tomorrow, maybe they can take someone braver, or maybe things will go differently.
When they left, Hope finally came out too late to do any good except to give good views of her playing with Lily.
Videos of todays den visit are posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOLJNuHffwU, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tYkr6VMJ7g, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KroxOQ67U-U. Yup, that's right—THREE videos!
Just over 5% of those from Minnesota who signed the petition self-identified themselves as either hunters or from hunting families.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center