Throughout the morning, Lily, Hope, and Faith foraged in the best clover patch we know. This afternoon, after the rain stopped, they moved north while June moved south. They are now 1.1 miles apart. Peace reigns. A video of Lily and family tearing into logs on May 20 to feed on grubs is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVzxeeJEtiY.
In another part of the forest, Juliet and her 3 yearlings and Jo and her cub have been sampling each other’s areas near the towns. Today, Juliet moved one way and Jo moved the other to end up over 3 miles apart. Jo and her cub moved 1.1 miles. Meanwhile, we are keeping an eye out for Braveheart so we can get a radio-collar and GPS unit on her and meet her cubs.
A Lily fan learned of a mixed age litter in Wisconsin and sent us pictures. As usual, there is one yearling plus the new litter (3 in this case), adding support to the idea that one cub is often not enough to prevent ovulation. We would love to know if the mother left the single cub last year and went off and returned like Lily did. But all we know is that the single cub survived to become the older sibling like Hope. We would love to know the relationship between the yearling and cubs in that family. But getting that data is extremely difficult unless it is a trusting family like Lily provides. The Wisconsin mixed age litter is pictured at right. Yearling is in the background.
Today, T. R. asked what we are learning from Lily, Hope, and Faith. Where do we begin? We wrote the following as a brief summary he could use in his blogs and Facebook page. A Lily fan suggested we include it in an update. We wrote,
Dear T. R., We learned more about diet, habitat use, travel, daily activity patterns, den construction, behavior in dens, labor and birth, care of cubs, cub development, natural causes of cub deaths, relations between Lily and her mother June after family break-up, establishment of territory, vocalizations, body language, memory, reactions to predators and other stimuli, what leads to rare mixed-age litters, social relations in a mixed-age litter, and bear-human coexistence around a rural community. For all of the above, we are monitoring seasonal changes in behavior and how it compares with behavior in other years under different food and weather conditions. We are learning about how bears live. We use GPS and telemetry data plus direct observation when possible. Interesting comparisons are between these bears and bears we studied previously without direct observation. Basic movements, activity patterns, and territoriality are the same but the observations add details impossible to learn any other way. Having animals get accustomed to observers and ignoring them is nothing new. Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey did it years ago. The information that method is now providing for bears is giving new insight, refuting misconceptions, and educating the public. The more people know about black bears, the more willing they are to vacation in bear country and the more willing they are to coexist with bears. With limited hunting and public education, Minnesota's bear population has more than tripled. That is good for bears, people who enjoy seeing bears, and hunters. The more that people are willing to coexist with bears the less they bother the DNR with complaints about bears.
T. R.’s Facebook for registering your comments to protect the research bears is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-Minnesotas-Research-Bears/160331730697185. The more comments the better from anywhere. We especially need comments from hunters. T. R. will bring your comments to the officials.
Pincherry blossoms are now fully open (above). Green-up was late this year and extra early last year. Leaf buds that opened on trees this year on May 11th opened on April 18th last year. After the leaf buds burst this year, cooler weather slowed progress as you can see on the birch sapling pictured at left. Balsam poplar trees and black ash trees have yet to open their leaf buds. Temperature reached 68 today to speed things up.
A repeat from yesterday because of its importance is the need for everyone everywhere to urge the people below to support Representative Phyllis Kahn’s language in the final bill by emailing and calling the people below. Representative Kahn was able to include an amendment on a 69 to 63 vote in the House for the DNR to send letters asking hunters to spare radio-collared bears in the study area. The bill now goes to the conference committee (the legislators below) where Kahn’s amendment could be removed. A word of support from Commissioner Landwehr or Governor Dayton could save it.
A word of support from Commissioner Landwehr or Governor Dayton would probably assure that the amendment survives the committee. We’ll see if the power of Team Protect, Lily’s army, and T. R.’s blogs can make a difference.
Another need is for Minnesota residents to call, write, and/or email their state representatives and state senators to let them know you favor protection for these radio-collared bears. To find your local legislators, here is a legislator finder http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/.
If you haven’t already signed the petition to make the black bear Minnesota’s state mammal, the petition is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/BlackBear-MNState-Mammal/.
Somehow, you are finding the votes to keep the International Wolf Center in the big money. You got the Wolf Center back up to 9th place, just 11 votes ahead of 10th place and only 170 votes behind 8th place. Places 6 to 10 each get $100,000. There are just 3 days to go in the voting at http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/411543539-international-wolf-center?src=twitter. Each person can vote only once by May 25th.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
P.S. – As of 6:00 PM CDT Lily is back in the clover patch!