We knew eventually this day would come—the day when there is too little snow for snowmobiling and too much for driving. Long stretches of gravel in the open make snowmobiling difficult and long stretches of semi-packed foot-deep snow in shaded areas make it treacherous even for a 4-wheel-drive pickup. The temperature was up around 60 again today and was no lower than the upper 30’s last night. Snow is melting. If it stays warm again tonight, we’ll lose a lot more.
In a day or two, we can visit Lily again. We want to get there as soon as possible to weigh the cubs. That is if they will let us weigh them. We also want to see how Jason is doing after the long trip yesterday. We said that the new bed at the white pine was 0.26 miles from the den, but that would be straight across an open clearcut area with few to no trees for refuge. It’s more likely they safely followed the forest edge around that area, making the trip 0.42 miles according to Google Earth. For a cub reluctant to follow, that seems like an impossible trip. We wish we could have seen it. We have seen mothers carry cubs in their mouths before. Maybe there was some of that.
Here are a few more pictures from yesterday.
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A Lily fan asked what we would do if a bear was hit by a car. We’d have to be there to see. Stories about research bears that were hit crossing the highway are in the updates for April 15, 2010 (http://www.bearstudy.org/website/research/daily-updates/881-bears-are-making-tracks.html), and July 4, 2010 (http://www.bearstudy.org/website/research/daily-updates/962-holiday-traffic-.html).
Another story that isn’t in those updates happened in Vermont in 1987. Lynn was there meeting with some bear biologists when a call came that a bear was hit and lying beside the road a few miles away. Dr. Steve Stringham and Lynn jumped in Steve’s pickup and found the bear lying immobile but breathing, a strong heartbeat, and no broken legs. Lynn thought of his wife Donna who had been hit head-on by a drunk driver and had been in worse shape than the bear appeared to be. He asked Steve if it were okay to give the bear a chance. Lynn was stronger back then, and he carefully lifted the bear into the back of the pickup. As Steve and Lynn drove back past the spot, they saw people with guns beside the road looking for the bear. With the permission of Vermont Fish and Game Law Enforcement, Lynn carried the bear a third of a mile back into the woods in a designated spot. Steve returned daily to check on the bear and bring water and food. Lynn doesn’t remember if the bear ever ate anything, but on the third day the bear saw Steve coming and chomped its jaws in fear. The next day, it was gone. Did they do the right thing? That’s the kind of question that would have as many opinions as there are people. Lynn’s wife is still alive now more than 23 years later, and we hope the bear recovered just as well.
In the Readers Digest contest to win money for Ely, we stretched our 6th place lead over 7th place to 149,000 votes with a total for Ely of 309,096 votes! That means we are solidly in the money, which are the top 6 positions. The link to vote 10 times in a row each day is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
Please check for recent ‘bearstudy’ video uploads on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center