With exhaustion setting after 4 days of getting up at 4 AM and going to bed after 10 PM, we’re thinking in terms of stamina. We get up that early to see where the GPSed bears are that are sending us locations every 10 minutes. Then we organize into teams to monitor those bears from roads and to find the radio-collared bears that do not have GPS units. We head out well before hunting starts a half hour before sunrise.
We monitor the radio-signals from roads rather than by walking with the bears. Hunters have asked us not to walk with the radio-collared bears because it might disturb other bears coming to their baits. By law, the radio-collared bears are legally protected if we walk with them and inform hunters that they are research bears. However, we’re trying to cooperate with the hunters and hope they will cooperate in return, as the DNR has asked them to. Hunters have asked us to trust them. At this point, we can only rely on hunters’ ethics. We know you are hoping and praying for the radio-collared bears’ safety, as are we here.
Yesterday, we worried when a resident living in a wooded area on the west edge of Tower complained to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) because Jo and her cub were on his property. We worried because the recent DNR press release focused on radio-collared bears, terming their benign behavior “aggressive.” And we worry about the long-term implications of such labeling of radio-collared bears (Ursula and cub pictured above).
The press release did not state how uncommon complaints are in the study area. It takes two things to generate a complaint, what the bear does and how the person feels about it. A great thing in this community is that most people enjoy seeing bears and do not complain at the mere sighting of one. The years of diversionary/recreational feeding gave many residents of the Eagles Nest Community a chance to meet benign bears and learn what black bears are like. We don’t know of another community in the area that has diversionary feeding except Orr—home of the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary where bears are fed. Problems are low around the Sanctuary, too.
Today, Jo and her cub are in a safe place, as are all the radio-collared bears.
You have Soudan Underground Mine State Park over a million votes ahead of 3rd place at http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard with 2 days to go.
Thank you Lily fans and Team Bear for the tasty and abundant food that greets us when we regroup after an early morning monitoring the radio-collared bears across the study area. On opening day (Thursday), it was 2.5 gallons of wild rice soup. On Friday, it was sandwiches and chips. Saturday was a meat tray, veggie tray, and crackers, plus 20 box lunches from Subway and some power bars, all from Lily fans. Today, it was 6 large pizzas that made us badly overeat. Very much appreciated!
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center