In the last 24 hours, Lily, Hope, and Faith have traveled almost exactly a mile. Faith is lucky she’s not trying to follow Juliet, who made her 3 yearlings walk at least 6.2 miles in that time. The other two mothers with new cubs were stay-at-home moms again. Jo stayed within a 285-yard diameter area, while June stayed in a 322-yard diameter area. We’re leaning toward a male and a female for the two big cubs with June.
June ate a vole and some snow fleas today but no vegetation. There is no spring vegetation coming up yet in the heavily forested area where they are, so we suspect they’ll be moving on soon.
At the North American Bear Center, Lucky found a way to take advantage of this 60-degree day. He enjoyed a good squirm in his new pile of cedar chips and followed up by cooling off in the pond http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHTjqcjQwYg. Honey decided to air out the shredded blanket she snuggled with for the winter (picture).
Green-up continues with elderberry bushes leafing out, but bears don’t eat that kind of berry around here. These are the first leaves on bushes or trees we’ve seen this spring. Birds continue to arrive. The new one today at the field station was a pair of Chipping Sparrows. We heard a Black-throated Green Warbler and a Winter Wren while out with June today. The next Black Bear Field Course starts tomorrow, and again the group will be surprised to see snow. The last of the piles beside the road are shrinking but still over a foot deep in the shade.
The link to show support for making the black bear the state mammal is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/BlackBear-MNState-Mammal/ Anyone, anywhere, of all ages can sign it if you have a web address. Only one signature per web address.
In the Readers Digest contest to win money for Ely, you still have Ely strongly in 6th place. The link to vote 10 times in a row each day through May 16 is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN
And you were driving the debt down again today as part of Team Bears Mother’s Day Special Event Presentation. It’s now below $65,000! Team Bear says they have crossed the threshold to Level 4 and one lucky winner will now receive all 4 prizes. It ends tomorrow morning (Sunday) at 11 AM ET. Thank you Team Bear and all who are participating.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center