On this day of blue skies and 70’s temperatures, it was a quiet day bear-wise. The bears didn’t make any spectacular moves. They are in safe places, and we didn’t worry.
We saw Bow and her cubs looking good (pictures). Also, we saw Boy Named Sue and said, “It’s me, bear,” and he gave us a heart rate—124/minute, quite usual for a yearling sized bear. He is about 85 pounds.
We would love to get weights on Lily, Hope, and Faith, but so far they haven’t gone anywhere where there is a scale to step on. Another video from our time with them on June 3 is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoXpT1Ig6Fc.
We have been collecting information from hikers in the study area to see how often they have been approached by bears. By all predictions, bears that are habituated and food-conditioned should be causing problems with hikers. Yesterday, at the Rigatoni Dinner, we talked to another person who hikes this area. She has been hiking in Lily’s and June’s territories for many years and will send us details. While hiking, she has seen only one bear, and it was crossing a road far ahead of her.
There is a huge need to replace fear and misconceptions with facts. There is also a need to quantify danger. So many times, people predict dire consequences based on misconceptions or lack of data, when actual data may show a much more benign picture. In this great community, most people have long ago learned about real bears and are not paralyzed by the usual hype. Lily, Hope, and Faith have helped tell the story, too. A man yesterday was saying how nice it is that these and other bears are showing people what black bears are really like. It allows people to feel more comfortable in the woods and enjoy living here more.
Mention of heart rates above reminded us how grateful we are for the fresh hazelnuts and pecans you send us from Nuts Online. We think ‘thank you’ every time we take a heart rate or need to adjust a radio-collar or change batteries in a GPS unit. The nuts you send make that possible. A handful occupies a bear long enough to do the work. The nuts take the place of captures and tranquilizers in our kinder and gentler trust-based research. With our advances in research, we are learning so much more with so much less disturbance to bears than in the old days. Thank you so much.
We found our fundraiser to match $2,000 from an anonymous donor and her employer, General Mills, conflicts with a fundraiser for sun bears. We all felt sorry about that. Team Bear has postponed the matching funds fundraiser to June 17-19—a week after the sun bear fundraiser.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center