If the predicted 6-9 inches of snow falls between tonight and Monday morning, will the bears think of their den and return? Lily and Hope briefly returned at least once today. We couldn’t see standing water in the den, so the den might not be any wetter than where they’re resting.
Their resting spot is unusual because it is not at the base of a big tree—typically a white pine over 20 inches in diameter but sometimes a cedar like are in their swamp. White pines and cedars both have strong, rough bark that little cubs can safely climb. They often fall from trunks with smooth bark or flaky bark. The cubs, especially Jason, are probably holding up travel to such a tree through the snow. A refuge tree for parking the cubs often has a sunny south view where sun reflects off the base of the tree and melts the snow doubly fast, giving an area of bare ground at the base for a resting spot.
With all the snow, we thought flooding would be a bigger problem than it is, but the melt has been gradual, and temperatures for the next week suggest more of the same.
A Lily fan discovered this newspaper article from http://www.examiner.com/green-culture-in-mankato/mn-accepts-applications-for-bear-hunting-research-bears-are-still-unprotected. It sounds a lot more sympathetic toward protection of radio-collared bears than the radio host who interviewed Judy Herzog a few days ago.
With the cards stacked against us like they are in the DNR, a person would normally give up pushing for protection, but right is so strongly on our side that it seems like we should win in the end. So we keep trying. We keep believing that the commissioner, the governor, and/or the legislature will eventually recognize the importance of these bears to thousands of students and citizens and see how much that outweighs the slight inconvenience to a very few hunters in the study area, many of which will also be on the side of protection.
In the Readers Digest contest, we are strongly in 6th place and flirting with 5th, registering a hard-working 13,000 votes a day. The site for casting 10 votes (all at once) a day is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
We got a wonderful letter today about the good job Donna Andrews did lecturing about bears in Mariposa, California, a couple weeks ago. It made us proud of her to read it.
A big thank you to all who contributed to the big birthday bash today at the Bear Center and all who came. Your cards again were so good. We don’t know where you find such perfect cards or how you make them. Thank you for the thoughtful presents. We can see the love and meaning that goes into all this. We end up feeling cared for and appreciated, and it feels good—encouraging.
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