Jewel - June 26, 2011
Jewel & Jordan - Spring 2009With Lily and Faith showing minimal activity yesterday, the main action was in Lucky and Honey’s den at midday. Lucky was sneezing. Honey woke up and did her usual nervous blowing and clacking. She went outside the den and kept it up, mixed with huffing in moments of dissipating fear. Then Lucky asserted himself. He lunged toward the door and slapped the ground—a defensive, nervous behavior bears do when there is a reason they can’t leave—like Lucky being in his den. Eventually, Honey came in and did more displays of nervous tension. Lucky lunged again and slapped the ground maybe a foot from her—behaving very differently from the submission he showed during Honey’s eruption toward him last week. Donna Andrews said that Honey seemed almost submissive after that as she quietly and slowly raked bedding and settled down to sleep. Today was peaceful.
We’re anxious to get the Den Cam in Jewel’s den to either see what a non-pregnant bear does or how she differs from Lily in birthing and care of a litter. The Den Cam should be in this weekend, and, if Jewel is going to have cubs, we’ll likely know a couple weeks after that. Excitement mounts as we think of how much Lily and her family have shown us that we never would have expected and wonder what will happen with Jewel. And what will happen next winter with Lily.
A side nature note: the omnivorous black-capped chickadee will eat sunflower seeds and a little suet in addition to their wild diet of frozen insects, spiders, the eggs of both, plus berries. They also scavenge at wolf-killed deer carcasses. But we didn’t know they would feed on a dead mouse. We have watched as they pecked at the back of the head yesterday—perhaps to get at the brain—and at the throat today.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center