What a joy it was to watch Lily, Hope, and Faith today. The first thing we noticed is how black Faith is since we last saw her 10 days ago.
Lily was her usual alert self, responsibly scanning the woods for danger while Faith and Hope foraged and played. Faith joined Hope in tearing apart a log for grubs. Then Faith decided it was time to jump on big sister and play. The occasion for us was changing the batteries in Lily’s GPS unit, which she easily allowed in exchange for a handful of nuts.
We got another look at Victor today, a good close look at his pretty brown eye, scarred up nose, and the unusual brown fur around his eye.
Dot, who mysteriously doesn’t have cubs this year, covered a little over 6 miles of forest today.
Meanwhile, Braveheart slipped off her radio-collar as she back-rubbed a utility pole along a powerline. This is a common cause of collar loss. Telephone poles are a favorite scent-marking ‘tree.” We’ve lost track of how many collars we’ve picked up at bases of telephone poles.
Jewel somehow lost her radio-collar, too. Someone reported seeing her without it so we retrieved it from the woods.
All we can do is wait until we run into them and be ready with a radio-collar when we do.
The miracle grows. Yesterday, we couldn’t believe how fast you boosted Soudan Underground Mine State Park into first place. Today, you more than quadrupled the lead, voting at http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard .
Thank you again for your orders of the 3-DVD set of the full-length BBC version of “The Bear Family and Me” at http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=841&category_id=8 .
Thank you for all you do!
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center