With less than 2 days to go before hunting starts, we were busy attaching ribbons and ultra bright strips of indestructible plastic to the collars, changing GPS batteries, and making another attempt to radio-collar Hope.
Lily and Hope were bedded in cushy cool moss deep in a cedar swamp (left). They were not interested in us and eventually walked away. Faith tarried a bit but quickly joined them.
We found Braveheart and her 3 cubs in a similar location and changed Braveheart’s GPS batteries. Jo was in upland with her cub high in a jack pine when we changed her GPS batteries (right).
On the way, we came across one of the signs advertising the $5,000 drawing if no radio-collared bear is killed or injured. Thank you to the people who established the fund, made the signs, and put them up as an independent effort.
The bears look gaudy with all the visible brightness attached to their collars. If a person can ever say it would be impossible for a hunter to miss the array of hot pink, yellow, orange, and green ribbons, we think we can say that now. We took pictures of many of the bears as a record. Tomorrow there will be more last minute preparation.
Today also was a media day with more calls and a TV interview about the DNR’s “aggressive bear” press release yesterday. The TV station was KBJR channel 6 in Duluth. The parts of the interview selected and the whole take on the subject was disappointing. It kept referring to aggressive bears when neither of 2 interactions the DNR mentioned involved any aggression, and in the clip of Lynn talking it's hard to tell that he is saying that people shouldn’t be stopping their cars and throwing food to bears feeding on roadside vegetation, especially in the period when berries have dried up. We were glad to see Ely Mayor Roger Skraba throw in his good two cents and to see residents speaking up for bears here. You can see a shortened version that doesn’t include the Mayor or neighbors at http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/video/Ely-Residents--128712018.html but the words below the video tell what the Mayor and neighbors said.
You have done us all proud in your voting for Soudan Underground Mine State Park, keeping us solidly in 2nd place at http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 with 7 days to go.
We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best in the weeks ahead.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center