The 6-9 inches of snow that was forecast ended up being a brief blizzard and then melting. Maybe an inch.
The floor of the den looks darker, which we think is wetness. Meanwhile, the family is staying put in their spot away from the den. It looks and sounds like the cubs are okay. We wish we could see better now. The bit of motion through the trees looks like business as usual with Hope probably pawing at the cubs. Everything looks fine. We’ll see what they do over the next few days of chilly, drizzly weather until it gets up into the 40’s again on Thursday. We are imagining that Lily, and maybe Hope, are doing what June did to Bud, Cal, and Lily during a week of wetness back when Lily was a cub in 2007. June was constantly licking drops of water off them, just like Blackheart did to Dot and Donna (both still living) in her den back in 2000, as was caught on film for “The Man Who Walks With Bears.” Watch the video of June caring for her wet cubs at http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/mothers-raise-cubs/75-dealing-with-water-in-the-den.html.
We are taking advantage of the lack of ability to see much on the cam by catching up on other things. Sue is organizing data for analysis for a paper on cub survival according to litter size. The gist of the data seems to be that litters of two or three do well but are subject to starvation in years of poor natural food. Litters of four tend to do less well than litters of three. Litters of one can have special problems like we saw with Lily and Hope.
Lynn is creating new exhibits for the Bear Center. One on Bears versus Wolves will be interesting with lots of information on how wolves and bears get along, or not, from observations from airplanes during decades of research, with additional information supplied by The Wolfman, Dr. L. David Mech, co-founder of the International Wolf Center. Randy and Sharon Herrell are creating a beautiful platform for this exhibit and will deliver it from Detroit, Michigan, in the next few days.
Another exhibit is on the Ice Age and the mega-predators that black bears faced back then. To help illustrate the exhibit, Sharon Herrell and Ella Ingram have ordered replicate skulls of some of those predators. These include a skull of the largest bear ever—the giant short-faced bear, the largest lion ever—the American lion which was about 25% bigger than any lion today, the dire wolf, which was bigger than any wolf today, and the saber-toothed cat, which has no modern counterpart.
We have to get these exhibits done before we are open daily starting in May.
Bearwalker aired again this morning on Animal Planet. Outdoor News is running a response by Lynn to some of the misconceptions that are out there about the research. It is in the big Sports Show edition, which is a prime issue. We thank the editor for the opportunity.
We’re still eating the great food you sent for the party yesterday, and we’re still reading your encouraging birthday cards. Thank you again!
You have Ely securely in 6th place in the Readers Digest contest to win $10,000 for the town. The site for casting 10 votes (all at once) a day is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
Thank you for the donations you sent in for Lynn’s birthday. They got the debt down to under $80,000 dollars taking us all another step closer to starting on the Education Building.
A Lily fan sent a link to an article in the Timberjay with comments below it. The article and comments, and place to comment, is at http://timberjay.com/stories/The-battle-over-bears,8108#comments-post .
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 are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center