Yesterday, June’s cubs finally let us see what sex they are—male and female. That will likely add a female to the mix of females vying for territory space in a year or so. Lily, Hope, and Faith will be carving out space and June will likely be trying to shift her territory to make more room in her old territory. The little male will likely leave the area as a subadult as is normal. All pictures here are of June and her cubs.
Lily and family are safe in a clearcut deep in the woods, probably hunting for ant pupae. At this time of year, clearcuts usually mean ant pupae. Logs left in the clearcuts become homes for ant colonies, which were slow to reproduce this year due to the cool spring.
At this point, the cubs look brown, but we don’t think they’ll stay that way. Many cubs look brown until they turn black during the mid-summer molt which has already begun. Both cubs already have black faces. Video of June and her cubs is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAHvbp7lJh4.
Juliet gave us a scare. We got a call that a bear was in the town of Soudan last evening. This morning, her signal was in a yard on the edge of town at 7:24 AM. She may have been eating new, fast-growing grass or clover. It’s not always birdfeeders that attract bears to homes. Sometimes it’s lush vegetation.
Then Juliet’s GPS gave no signal for over 6 hours. We feared the worst. We checked on site. Her telemetry signal showed her to be miles from the town at that point. Finally, after 8 hours, her GPS locations resumed showing her to be deep in the woods in an old clearcut. So, as it turns out, all is well with Juliet.
T. R. wrote a blog in support of protecting radio-collared bears at http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/blogs/124385039.html .
An article by Sam Cook about protecting radio-collared bears might be coming out in the Sunday Edition of the Duluth News Tribune.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center