What a joy it was today to see Lily, Hope, and Faith as a family. Who would have thought that such a relationship would develop between Faith and her older sister. Watching Faith ‘attack’ Hope in play, and watching the two wrestle with gentle vigor and then relax with each other makes one wonder what these animals are feeling and if we will ever fathom the true breadth of wild minds.
Hope and Faith are doing so well! Hope is a full size yearling, and Faith is strong and well developed. This was brought home to us when we spotted a much smaller cub in a tree (right) with its mother this evening. Faith shed her cub fur weeks ago and has the straight, black fur of an adult. The smaller cub still had its cub fur, complete with brown fur inside its ears. Faith is developing the longer nose of a bigger bear. The smaller cub still has very cub-life features. We’d guess that Faith weighs about 40 pounds—enough to easily survive over winter and spring. We’d guess the smaller cub at barely 25 pounds and in need of gaining more weight in the next 7-8 weeks if it is to have a good chance of surviving past next spring.
In the voting for Soudan Underground Mine State Park at http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 , you swept past 1.7 million votes, and are less than four thousand votes away from 1.8 million—over three quarters of a million votes ahead of 3rd place and less than 325,000 votes behind 1st place with 22 days of voting to go. You are working!
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center