Out in the woods today, June was feeding on ant pupae and raspberries, and a dropping elsewhere was filled with red-osier dogwood berries.
In the North American Bear Center enclosure, Lucky was busy eating red-osier dogwood berries and raspberries. What is doubly interesting about that is the fact that Lucky had to learn what to eat on his own. By the time berries ripened in his first year of life, he had spent time in captivity, was about to be euthanized, and then was brought to the North American Bear Center in July. He had no teachers. Nevertheless, in the forested enclosure he is selecting the same berries that bears are selecting in the wild. The video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?
A video of June and cubs feeding on ant pupae is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?
A common misconception is that mothers teach their cubs what to eat. Everything we have observed tells us that bears, including cubs, know what is good when they smell it or taste it. An example of that is when bears that grew up in the wilderness must turn to garbage and bird feeders in years of scarce natural food. They don’t have to learn to sort through garbage or to eat sunflower seeds. Somehow they immediately know what they want.
An example in our presentation at the International Bear Conference was 3 bears that had spent their lives in wilderness moved 56 to 67 miles to the outskirts of Duluth, Minnesota, when natural food scarcity forced them to travel unusual distances.
Planning is mushrooming for the Minnesota Education Association Annual Conference. The Education Outreach Team is coming up with ideas to make the North American Bear Center’s presentation and booth have more and more of an impact. What a great and enthusiastic group. One member said, “The Bear Center is just beginning its educational journey with children. I can't wait for the NABC and Bear.org to be the gift to our children.”
Another big day of voting for America’s Favorite Park at http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556. Your 60,199 votes in 24 hours brought us 6,695 votes closer to number 1 and moved us 23,241 votes farther ahead of number 3.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center