Another day of activity in and out of the den! Out of the den, Faith tried hard to follow Lily and surprised us with her steadier walk. Lily collected a bit more bedding, and then relaxed in the bed she dug in the snow a week ago and nursed Faith. Jason joined his sister for one excursion but slept through her second. But maybe Jason was just tired. In the den, Hope turned her attention to the camera after having her nursing attempt rebuffed. With the camera recessed like it is, she wasn’t as effective in coating the lens with her licking attempts as before. Maybe we have to leave it recessed like this and see some of the tube.
At the Bear Center, the bears reminded us of Lily and her family. All were out. Ted and Lucky were playing like it was the middle of summer. Lucky took a sliding swan dive on to the ice of the pond and squirmed around like when he was a cub. All three were good enough to step onto the scale and show us their weight losses, since the end of October.
Lucky was the biggest loser, percentage-wise, with a loss of 21.6%. He went from 328 down to 257 pounds. Ted came in second at 17.4%, going from an even 700 pounds down to 578, the lowest weight we’ve seen him. Honey lost the least at 13.8%, going from 492 down to 424.
As people continue to work behind the scenes on protection for radio-collared bears, we believe something will happen, but will it be enough? A very welcome effort would be letters from students telling officials what the radio-collared bears mean to them and what they have learned. The letters wouldn’t have to make pleas for protection, just telling their interest in following the radio-collared bears’ activities is enough. Any letters from educators to newspapers could open some eyes, too.
Meanwhile, you held on to 6th place amidst stiffening competition in the Reader’s Digest contest. Way to go. The site for casting 10 votes a day is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
Please check for recent ‘bearstudy’ video uploads at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center