Den Shed - ready and waiting!Field work today was leveling the den shed we installed last night and testing cell phone signal strength at various bear dens. More testing will be done in a couple weeks when additional equipment is available. We are including Juliet’s den in hopes that permission might be obtained for a Den Cam there. Of the bears available, she is the best choice in terms of potential data, solar power, and cell phone strength. We are holding off putting Den Cams in other dens (besides Lily and Faith) in hopes of eventually putting one in Juliet’s den. We’re working on that.
Meanwhile, we set up a Den Cam in Lucky’s den yesterday and will be setting up Den Cams in Ted’s and Honey’s dens before long. All will broadcast to TV monitors in the Bear Center, and the most interesting will go out to the cyberworld. We doubt Honey will have cubs, but she is one we’ll be watching.
Often when we say “we,” we mean one or the other of us alone or it may include other members of the team like Jim Stroner, Jason, Glenn, Nancy, Linda, neighbors, volunteers, and Bear Center staff. We think of the whole effort as a team effort where people step forward and do what is necessary. We all pull for each other to get things done.
The 2012 Calendar of Shadow’s clan has pictures of 33 members of her clan (including cubs) plus 4 big males that are de facto honorary members through mating with Shadow’s females. We figure fathers are kind of members in a way.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center