Many of us went to bed last night knowing Lily’s den was empty but figuring we would wake to the familiar den full of bears. It didn’t happen. This morning the ground around the den was covered with fresh snow. No tracks. We scanned with the PTZ camera for any sign of Lily and family. Nothing. Folks were hearing them, we just couldn’t seem to find them. We finally left the camera aimed at the den in hopes a bear would wander back. That’s just what happened.
At 1:18 PM Lily appeared near the den. She sniffed around the entrance and left. We clumsily tracked her with the PTZ camera to the patch of conifer woods where she and Hope spent time yesterday. Then a movement caught our eye—a cub in a tree! With the PTZ repositioned and zoomed in on their bed site, we could see Lily and Hope playing, Hope exploring, Lily wandering—and at one point a cub venturing out onto the snow pack to greet Lily. Eyes strained to make bears out of the shadows, but occasionally the shadows moved and bears materialized.
Lily and her family have spent considerable time out of the den in recent days—even portions of several nights—but this was their first full night out of the den. And they weren’t just out of the den… they were away from the den. Is this it? Is the den history, or will they be back? Time will tell.
We predicted Lily would be forced out of her den in a spring melt, but the den is still mostly dry at this point. So why did Lily leave? Interestingly, this den departure date is nearly identical to last year’s. Last year Lily and Hope bedded outside March 30 and 31 and moved away from the den to a white pine bed tree on April 1. Is this coincidence? Last year we thought it was because there was no snow to hamper movements. This year there is still plenty of snow. We wonder if Hope sped up Lily’s need to leave the den.
Lily and Hope spent much of yesterday away from the den. The cubs mostly stayed near the den but Faith at one point followed Lily and Hope nearly to the patch of woods where they are now bedded. Jason, who seems less adventuresome, held back. He’s the one Lily was tugging to encourage him to follow yesterday, but he returned to the den. All of us watching yesterday were relieved when the whole family calmbored into the den last evening and all 3 young ones nursed.
This is a preliminary sequence of last night’s events—pending a review of the archive footage:
8:23 PM – Lily became blustery—perhaps at Hope. She blew 3 times and then left the den. Hope followed. Faith and Jason soon fell asleep.
9:48 PM – Jason woke he began fussing.
9:53 PM – Jason left the den screaming at the top of his lungs, the woods echoing his cries.
9:56 PM – Lily and/or Hope came back to the den grunting concern. Jason’s voice quieted and then faded away.
10:16 PM – Lily stuck her head in the den and we briefly thought she was going to pull Faith out. But Hope barreled in and next thing we knew both Lily and Hope were in the den, Lily was nursing Faith, and Jason was outside.
10:18 PM – Jason screamed and Lily and Hope rushed out. Faith soon followed.
We listened closely and heard bear vocalizations. Everything quieted down and we imagined them bedded just outside the den on a warm night. But come morning they were nowhere to be seen.
This evening, as this was being written, Lily and Hope ventured back to the den a couple times. We heard branches breaking and imagined them foraging on catkins or buds. Will they return to the den? In 2007, June left her wet den with 3 cubs during an early melt, but returned a week or so later when the weather turned cold again.
You are managing to maintain Ely’s 6th place in the Readers Digest contest. The site for casting 10 votes (all at once) a day is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
Please keep checking for recent ‘bearstudy’ video uploads on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u. There will be a delay in creating new videos but we will post them as soon as possible.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center