All the radio-collared bears are okay. That includes all 7 of the GPSed bears: Lily (4) and family, June (10) and 2 cubs, Jo (3) and 1 cub, Ursula (6) and 2 cubs, Braveheart (9) and 3 cubs, Dot (11), and Juliet (8). It includes Juliet’s yearlings Sharon and Shirley. We presume it includes Cookie (6), who was in a safe place yesterday; and Colleen (8) and her 2 cubs who were deep in the boonies yesterday, as usual. And we hope it includes Donna (11) and her 3 cubs. You remember we picked up Donna’s radio-collar where she had been marking a tree some days ago.
Juliet has spent time in a couple small areas the last couple days. Last evening returned to the area we noted her resting in for 47 hours before that. She arrived there by 7:20 PM last night and is still there. Her movements these past 25 hours were all within an area only 116 yards in diameter. We visited her briefly to check her collar today and didn’t see evidence of a den where she was at that moment.
Bear hunting activity has slowed. We didn’t hear a shot today and are feeling quite relieved. Bear hunting continues through October 16, but hunting will mostly switch to small game hunting around here with the opening of the small game season this weekend.
We thank everyone who has worked to protect the radio-collared bears. That includes hunters who relieved us by letting us know they would not shoot radio-collared bears. It includes the DNR and Commissioner Tom Landwehr who sent out letters to all the hunters in this area asking them to spare radio-collared bears. It includes the anonymous individuals or group that put up $5,000 that some hunter will get if the bears go unscathed through October 16th. It also includes those who wrote blogs like T. R. Michels and people who wrote columns like Dennis Anderson of the Minnapolis Star Tribune and Nancy Tubbs of the Timberjay. Nancy is also chairman of the board of the International Wolf Center, our sister organization in Ely when it comes to educating about misunderstood wildlife. As you know, it very much includes the volunteers who have worked so hard here for the past 2 weeks and the Lily fans who kept us all fed the whole time. Today, the great food you ordered arrived for lunch before the volunteers departed for home. We hesitate to thank people like this because we know our old brains have skipped important people.
The column Nancy Tubbs wrote is at http://timberjay.com/stories/Bear-hunters-researchers-and-the-three-goals,9011 if we didn’t include that before.
The Pagami Creek forest fire has become the largest fire to hit the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness here since 1918. This week, it expanded from 7 square miles to 158 square miles, covering 10% of the BWCAW according to the Northland’s News Center at http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/enews/breaking/Pagami-Fire-Grows-To--129728278.html. If there is one bear per 1.5 square miles, this would affect 105 bears. What do they do? We have never had a radio-collar on a bear in a fire, but we assume most would flee or get in the water. Unfortunately, animals of many species will perish in the fire. It chills us to even write that. We prefer to think of the berries that will follow the fire due to increased sun and nutrients and how that will increase bear reproduction. Lily, Hope, Faith, and all the radio-collared bears are unaffected by the fire.
Locally, people are talking about never seeing the forest drier than it is right now. After July and August having only 49% of the usual rainfall and practically no rain so far in September, leaves are wilting and dying. Marshes and swamps are becoming so dry we hardly get our feet wet. Bears have to look harder than usual for puddles to drink from. It’s the same for us. To travel light, we often rely on puddles for water. We don’t drink from flowing streams or lakeshores that have wave action because the current or waves stir up giardia. In the puddles or in the middle of lakes, giardia sinks, so we drink with no problem. This summer, most puddles dried up.
A scat showed that the bears are eating wild calla leaves and fruit (seeds pictured above) in the dry swamps and are eating hornet larvae (larvae skin pictured at right). Hornet nests will soon be empty as the last of the larvae emerge and the hornets find places to spend the winter underground. Temperature highs in the last couple days have dropped from the mid 80’s to the mid 40’s, and fell to 26 last night.
Tomorrow, work begins on the waterfalls at the North American Bear Center. The first step is to drain the pond.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center