All the bears are safe, including Braveheart. Her active signal appeared back in her territory, making us wonder if we missed it or if she was far away. We were glad to hear her and hope we can catch up to her tomorrow to change her GPS batteries.
June moved outside her territory to check a heavily baited area that she repeatedly visited last year. When we notified the guide there about her presence last year, he already had seen her on a trail camera and said his hunters would not shoot her. We hope the same holds this year.
Chokecherries are ripe and are a good crop, like the red-osier dogwood berries are this year.
Keefer, 7-years old, let us get a good look at her and get an ID shot for the record. Her best feature beyond her coloration is her angular cheek bones. Identifying bears is not much different from identifying people, although it takes some getting used to. A study once showed that people have trouble identifying people beyond their own race. It’s the same for people identifying bears. But there are many characteristics that vary. We’re starting to collect photos to illustrate the characteristics, so we’ll come back with more on that one of these days.
To vote for Soudan Underground Mine State Park, go to http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 and vote over and over.
The nuts you have sent over the months are very useful in the contacts we make with the bears to change radio-collars, change batteries in GPS units, taking heart rates, examining bears (including June) for wounds and BB’s, and in initially joining them to observe, video, and photograph their wild foraging and other behaviors.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center