Lily, June, and Juliet are broadcasting locations just fine and are safe.
Jo dropped her radio-collar and GPS unit and will be very difficult to find and get a collar on again. Bad.
Dot dropped her radio-collar and GPS unit out in the middle of nowhere but was seen without it. Glenn and Nancy managed to get a collar on her, but there is no GPS unit on the collar. They will retrieve her dropped one tomorrow.
Donna is still radio-collared, but her GPS unit stopped working, so that is another problem to solve as we strive to put together the presentation and poster for the International Bear Conference in a week. Members of the research team will step up.
A Lily fan asked why we aren’t worrying about Ted getting Honey pregnant. Mainly, it’s because he’s had five mating seasons (2007 through 2011) to do it and has shown no affirmative action. We wonder why. Does he feel brotherly rather than loverly after spending 10 years in a 20 x 40-foot pen with her before coming to the North American Bear Center in May 2007? Could it be that bears have to have the right feelings for their mate beyond simple procreation? We know they have feelings because females that run into their mates months after mating season often respond differently to them and even nibble their necks.
Ted and Honey’s history at the Bear Center has been complicated and out of sync. When Honey sidled up to Ted during mating season and rubbed her hindquarters on him, Ted didn’t respond. When Ted did pursue her, she retreated over and over again while Ted followed bawling loudly like a foghorn. We considered it a moan of frustration, hoping that we weren’t anthropomorphizing too badly. When they run into each other outside mating season, Honey does not respond to Ted like wild females we’ve seen respond to their mates.
Today, Ted followed Honey around the pond, stopping at one point to stand on his hind legs and mark a tree. His ability to stand on his hind legs is a tribute to the Bear Center staff who put him on a 5-year weight reduction program. He weighs about 580 pounds today. But he’s not doing that well in his love life. He ran toward Honey who vocalized loudly, ran away, and then whirled to face Ted defensively. Not the actions of a couple that have much chance of mating. Sometimes, Ted will sit down and moan after such an incident. We wish we knew what is going on in their heads. But we aren’t expecting Ted to father any cubs soon. We also don’t think Lucky will do much better with Honey, considering how defensive she is toward him, too. Lucky mostly ignores Honey but did fight with Ted (without visible injury) seemingly over Honey. Brandon Ross from England is making written observations of their interactions. Maybe he has an idea. The video that Curator Donna Andrews took of their interactions today is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4pjAW77Szc .
There are 16 hours to go in Team Bear’s drawing to fund Honey’s refuge pen in case a miracle would happen and she’d have cubs. The pen will also allow workers to abide by USDA rules and have the bears locked up when they are making repairs in the enclosure. Details about the drawing and how to participate are at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=20986. Thank you to all who have participated so far!
Thank you, too, 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
174,608 votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park! And you are also helping Little Ocmulgee Park maintain 2nd place after the help they gave us last year. Lily fans make a difference. To vote, go to http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard and vote over and over.
Looking at the quilt you sent, looking at Olatz’ new book about Lily and Hope in the second half of 2011, looking at the food you send to us and the bears, the beautiful poetry, and seeing so much more that you do, we are very thankful to be a part of this. We’re looking forward to meeting as many of you as we can at the Lilypad Picnic in a couple weeks.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center