Despite the 86-degree heat and humidity, Lily and her family celebrated the 4th by eating ant pupae and berries. Ripe berries include wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana and F. vesca), American fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis – below left), dewberries (Rubus pubescens – below right), and the first juneberries (Amelanchier spp. – Faith eating left).
Hope surprised us by eating green pin cherries (Prunus pensylvanica). She even climbed a small aspen so she could better reach the pin cherries. Her sister Faith ate a few green blueberries (Vaccinium spp.), which were an easy reach for her. Lily and Hope forage separately—perhaps to avoid direct competition. Faith is welcome to join either of them, but at this stage is great at finding her own food too. A video of their berry-feeding will be posted later tonight on the bearstudy YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u.
June celebrated by moving to an accessible area where we could easily change the batteries in her GPS unit. What a great bear!
While there was some bear activity today, much of it was confined to relatively small areas with long periods of rest due to the intense heat. These bears have not yet shed their winter coats. As the sun went down, we saw more movement from those with GPS units.
Thank you again for your orders of the 3-DVD set of the full-length BBC version of “The Bear Family & Me” at http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=841&category_id=8 .
The miracle of your voting grows! Soudan Underground Mine State Park now has over 81,960 votes, compared to 18,307 for Little Ocmulgee State Park (that helped us in an earlier vote), 13,144 for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and 8,996 for Bear Head Lake State Park. One of the goals of the voting is to demonstrate that the radio-collared bears bring big benefits to this region, and we can best do that by focusing on Soudan Underground Mine State Park this year. To vote, go to http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard . In this contest, we can vote over and over as many times as we can. The Lily Power you are showing with the outstanding first place position of Soudan is amazing.
Thank you for all you do!
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Late Breaking News!
Donna bear has been seen with 3 cubs! This is a first for her. She has had 4 litters of 2 cubs each and mysteriously skipped having cubs last year.