The big excitement today was seeing Braveheart and putting a radio-collar and GPS unit on her. She left her last collar deep inside her rock den. We haven’t seen her for over 8 months but she was the same as ever. She is the bear in the Minneapolis Star Tribune photo by Brian Peterson at http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/105081984.html?page=3&c=y . It’s one of our favorite pictures of working with a bear.
As a bonus, we were able to determine the sexes of her male and two female cubs that are shedding their brown baby fur and showing black foreheads, legs, and sides. They are growing in the long fur that will make them look like big cubs by September. A video of Braveheart and her cubs is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OtQx86DIzs.
Lily is working the clearcuts, probably for ant pupae and greens. All the bears appear to be in safe locations according to their GPS locations on our computer screen.
Finally, the “Bear Family and Me” DVD set is on the Bear Center web store at http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=841&category_id=8. This is the full-length beautifully filmed BBC version of all three episodes. It brings home the 2010 story of Lily and Hope in a way that our videos and updates could never do. The set of three 1-hour DVD’s will bring tears, laughter, and learning as the bear family drama unfolds.
Today, we posted a thousand dollars of what you matched a week ago, making the thermometer show that the Bear Center debt is now under $54,000 with another $1,000 to come from General Mills. Thank you so much Team Bear, the anonymous donor, General Mills, and all who participated!
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center