On Thursday and Friday, Lily had a hard time squeezing into and out of the den. Snow had built up, thawed, and then re-froze hard at the entrance. She had eaten some of it, but more had to go. She fixed that by enlarging the entrance on Friday when the snow was softened by 36-degree temperatures. Today she and Hope went out and in several times.
One thing they discovered outside, in addition to rubber bands on the Den Cam tube, was a plastic end cap that was lost in the snow during the installation at the end of December. It had protected the camera during the snowy walk to the den from the equipment shed. Lily and Hope found it too good to pass up. Both of them mouthed it, and one of them brought it in to join the radio-collar.
On this mild, calm day (28 F), the cubs didn’t have to snuggle up against Lily and Hope all the time. Several times, Faith was wide-eyed in front of the camera. They look good! We had worried that Hope would deprive the new cubs of milk. Now, we think she helped stimulate lactation and actually increased the supply. Whatever the story, Faith and Jason look stronger and more advanced to us than Hope did at this time last year.
Hope continues to mother the cubs, drawing them to her when they stray toward the entrance. Never would we have guessed all we have seen. We’re seeing the difference between speculation and reality, which is what bears have shown us over the years about many aspects of their lives. The diversionary feeding we mentioned yesterday is one example—such a different and more positive outcome than most would have predicted.
The Den-watch Team will supply valuable data to compare with last winter’s data. Den-watchers, don’t forget that daylight savings time started early this morning. The time on the Den Cam should have changed automatically, though. The time at the bottom right of the screen is the official time, but I guess you already knew that.
We wanted something to commemorate this winter with the bears. Linda Gibson created a “Sharing the Love” design for a mug that is otherwise like last year’s with a big handle, white outside, and dark green interior. This is the third mug of that size and color in the series. With the image of the Lily’s family on one side and their remarkable story on the other, this mug immortalizes the shared care of the cubs that we’ve all witnessed. The folks at the Bear Center say it should be available for ordering in the web store in a few days.
At about 11 AM, the protection petition roared past 20,000 signatures. By 1 PM, it was over 24,000, and at 2:45 PM over 27,000. We chose to close the petition down at that point. It has enough signatures to show widespread interest in protecting radio-collared bears and was starting to attract outsiders who are not respectful like Lily fans are. We appreciate that Lily fans have taken the time to better understand the complexities of this protection issue.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center