We tried to put a radio-collar on Hope again. The two semi-successful attempts so far this summer ended with her taking the collar off in short order each time. Since then, we haven’t been successful in getting it on at all.
The pictures show the story—from her skeptical look at the collar and the person holding it to her almost playful look after we gave up.
We remembered her reaction last year when little Hope so vigorously resisted being fitted with a collar as a cub. For comparison now, having failed to put the collar on Hope, we wondered if Faith would be more cooperative. She was. We put it on with only moderate resistance from her, and she ignored it once it was on. A far cry from Hope’s immediate attempts to remove it once she found we got it on the two times earlier this year. And that was after she got used to wearing a collar for over 3 months last summer. We hope she eventually will accept our placing collars on her, adjusting them periodically, and changing batteries in her GPS unit should we be that lucky.
Faith’s lack of reaction is a good indication that we’ll be able to give her a radio-collar in the spring before family break-up and learn her movements in relation to Lily and (hopefully) Hope as the three of them iron out land tenure issues among themselves and their close kin June and Jewel.
Our next task was to catch up to Juliet and replace her GPS batteries before she moved deep into the boonies. She was moving steadily that way 2.52 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes (1.08 miles per hour). Where she had to cross a road, she held up long enough for us to intercept her and make the battery change so she can continue sending her locations to our computer every 10 minutes.
Next, we wanted to check on Braveheart and her cubs, but Braveheart was leading them away faster than we could catch up, so that task will have to wait.
The blueberry season seemed short this year. We didn’t see a single blueberry or wild sarsaparilla berry in the woods today, although round-leafed dogwood berries are ripening and looking like a moderately good crop.
Meanwhile, you are racking up mega-votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park at http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 , moving us 5,000 votes closer to 1st place (319,305 votes behind) while 3rd place caught up a couple thousand votes (752,343 votes behind us) with 3 weeks of voting to go.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center