On this day of heavy rain, the bears kept foraging, although Lily and family laid low in a cedar swamp since about 9:30 this morning. Today is her day and she decided to spend it resting! Picture of Hope (left) taken rainy June 23.
Jo was good and stayed deep in the forest. Her foraging area was made more interesting by the lecture we heard a couple nights ago about the new Vermilion State Park. Both Juliet and Jo use the state park, and a young female named Curly denned there in 2008. Today, Jo foraged by an area the lecturer identified as a special Native American chert site for obtaining that special rock for making spearheads and arrowheads.
Between June 22 and 24, yearling Shirley moved eight and a quarter miles from one end to the other of the area her mother Juliet showed her as a cub and yearling.
Three of the Amigos are back together again. RC’s yearlings Jim and Bill and Juliet’s yearling Boy Named Sue peacefully hung out together this evening. But we haven’t seen RC’s yearling Doug since June 17 and are wondering if he dispersed from the area as yearlings often do this time of year. Ty, the 2-year-old member of the group (from Bow) has developed other interests. On June 24th, he was with 2-year-old Jewel (June’s daughter).
Round-leafed dogwood is in blossom and looking promising. In a good year, a bear can eat 30,000 of these berries in a day. We made that ball park estimate by counting the number of seeds in a dropping and multiplying it by the number of droppings per day as determined during 24-hour walks with bears. Round-leafed dogwood berries are a main food in late summer, especially after juneberries, wild sarsaparilla berries, blueberries, and cherries have waned.
We are looking forward to the Lilypad picnic in less than a month. In England, Lily fans who couldn’t make the trip across the pond held their own picnic as is described in this article Picnic was a bear necessity http://www.tewkesburyadmag.co.uk/news/evesham/9108165.Picnic_was_a_bear_necessity/. Way to go UK Lily fans.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center