Lily - October 13, 2011The bears are waiting, and we are waiting. Lily and Faith are still in the same small area, probably slowing down their metabolisms in preparation for entering a den. This is much like Lily did last year before she finally entered a den on October 22. They are still in the cedar swamp which took over an inch of rain yesterday in addition to runoff from surrounding uplands. Lily’s GPS readings showed no change. They remained in place. Today, Lily’s GPS readings stopped for several hours, so we visited her and Faith to turn Lily’s collar upright. The rain from yesterday has already absorbed into the soil.
Lily’s mother June seems to be resting, too, although her GPS locations are so tightly clustered that we wonder if she made a new den less than 200 yards from a secure rock den she has used before.
Braveheart and Jo and their cubs are still moving around, especially Jo. Braveheart’s locations are clustered about 300 yards from a den she tried for several days last year.
Faith - October 13, 2011Looking for Shirley last night and this morning made us appreciate the GPS units that greatly enhance our data. It took 2 hours last night and nearly that long again today to only approximate her positions. We again thank David Wright, the BBC cameraman who introduced us to these useful units in 2008, and we thank Jim Stroner of Digi International for increasing their usefulness to us.
The time saved by these devices in the field (while getting far more data that ever was possible before) is allowing us more time to write manuscripts and prepare for the Education Minnesota Conference coming up in a week.
We are also grateful to the 5 people who entered photo contests and are each giving their $100 prizes to the Bear Center to reduce the debt. Thank you to them and to all who voted for their pictures.
"Who me? I wouldn't THINK of touching the telemetry equipment." Faith - Oct 13, 2011We continue to get your kind and supportive cards in this time of regrouping after the loss of Hope. As one Lily fan expressed it for Hope, “There is still much work to be done and I will walk with you forever.” Others are suggesting memorials. One suggestion is the bronze statue that we hope happens. Another is planting white pines for future cubs to climb and escape danger. Another is scholarships for people who want to learn about bears or go into professions that would help bears or would help others learn about bears. One man just pledged two $500 scholarships for that and is talking about more scholarships for interns at the Bear Center or the Wildlife Research Institute in the spring. All are indications that Hope continues to walk and educate with us. She was the poster child for bear education, which is continuing through your efforts and ours.
We noticed there were questions about donations not showing up on the thermometer. All donations through paypal that are designated for debt reduction register automatically--sometimes with a 15-20 minute delay. If the donor does not select debt reduction, the paypal donations still come through, and we later manually register them to the thermometer. Checks are also registered to the thermometer manually. As of yesterday, everything was current. We cannot say thank you enough for the unexpected help you have given the Bear Center and the WRI. Every donation goes entirely to education or research. We have no fundraising personnel we are paying. It all goes to what you give it for. We know we don’t say thank you enough and seldom say thank you to individuals. That would mean either hire someone to do that or make us unable to do the work for the bears that this is all about. Just please know that we feel deep gratitude to you and optimism for the future. The main way we say thank you is by working as hard as we can to continue sharing knowledge about the bears.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center