Now, at the end of the second day of the hunt, we head into the weekend with all bears accounted for, including Cookie (pictured). Long searching by the research team saved us the price of an airplane flight. They got a faint signal from her miles from any road and near where she denned last year. Being pregnant, she could den early. In the past, at least one pregnant bear was already in a den for more than a week by this date. We’ll see if 6-year-old Cookie stays in that area or continues to roam awhile yet.
As hunter numbers increased, Lily and family moved to a spot where a hunter had a bait a couple years ago. We worried. Who might be hunting there? We know the hunter who had used the bait site in the past—he has become a friend. We called him on his cell phone. He isn’t hunting this year. Then, what would lead Lily and family to be at that spot. We went to join them to see what was up. Nothing. There is no bait there this year, and by the time we got there Lily had led her family deep into the woods, heading away from us.
How did the hunter become a friend? We met him after leaving a note and free passes to the Bear Center on his truck when he was hunting a few years ago. He called and wanted to know more about bears and our research. We took him to meet June and her cubs. The pictures he took that day were his bear-hunting trophies for that year because a few days later June and cubs showed up at this bait and he passed them up. No one in his hunting group will shoot a radio-collared bear. On the way back today, we ran into his friends who are hunting. We told them about Hope not wearing a collar. They said they wouldn’t shoot any bear accompanying a radio-collared bear. We didn’t know how to thank them.
Later in the day, we caught up to Lily, Hope, and Faith and again got the collar on her for a couple minutes using a new quicker attachment. But she foiled us as usual.
We are thankful to the volunteers who are working so hard, enduring irregular meals and 4 AM wakeups to watch over the radio-collared bears and share the load. We are also thankful to those who are helping to take care of them and us.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center