Jewel tucks nose behind paw - Jan 16, 2012Watching Jewel rearrange bedding and just being a bear, Sue quietly said, “Jewel of the Northwoods.” I (Lynn) thought how appropriate that was and what a Jewel she is for bears. This bear, whose gentle nature and individual trust allows thousands to see how bears really are, can make a difference for bears around the world. Because of her, people may think twice about Asian bears in tiny cages being milked for their bile. Because of her, people may care a little more if habitat is shrinking and the world is warming to the detriment of endangered bear species. Because of her, people may be a little more tolerant of bears walking through their yards as human populations expand ever deeper into bear habitat.
When will Jewel give birth? We give up. We can’t predict. Perhaps bears are as different as humans in their labor before birth. We’re all learning together.
Jewel paws at bedding - Jan 16, 2012Today, we watched as Jewel went from periods of very deep sleep to periods of restless activity; grooming, licking, raking bedding, and eating snow. One bout of eating snow lasted nearly 30 minutes! Makes us wonder what bears do for water in areas of no snow, and how the extra water is utilized when they’re not urinating. During one of Jewel’s periods of deep sleep, she surprised us by making the same ‘humming’ sound we associate with cubs nursing! Ever so briefly—but unmistakable. It can be heard in today’s archives at 16:29:45-52 and a clip has been posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylfxoFWp-lc. In August 2004, we heard June make the sound briefly during REM sleep on 2 occasions.
Jewel views the world upside down - Jan 16, 2012
Some Lily fans say that watching Jewel, and looking forward to new cubs, helps them heal the hurt of losing Hope. Last night we mentioned that not getting a radio-collar on Hope was a research disappointment and personal disappointment. A Lily fan gave us new insight into ‘lone offspring’ and how that may have affected our efforts to radio-collar Hope. The fan sent a quote from Dr. Patricia McConnell’s book “Tales of Two Species.” Dr. McConnell wrote, “Many solo puppies have had two major behavioral problems: a lack of frustration tolerance; and an aggressive response to being touched by surprise. Single pups inherently develop without the constant physical stimulation of littermates, and without the frustration of competing for a turn at the milk bar. People who raise puppies know that from day one, nursing isn’t all sweetness and light. Puppies mew and paw and scratch in an attempt to find a nipple, and as often as not, get shoved off by a pushy littermate who wants one, too. But solo pups have it all to themselves. So I hypothesized that solo pups overreact to touch because they receive so little in the early weeks of development, and that they can’t handle frustration because they never experienced it while interacting with their littermates during a critical time of development.”
Jewel looks at camera - Jan 16, 2012Her words certainly fit what we saw. Little lone Hope didn’t want her feeding time interrupted by touch. She didn’t want us attempting to radio-collar her while she was eating, and while she was eating was the only time we could touch her at all. Any pressure from the collar going onto her neck made her jump back and look at the tormenter or turn and nip.
To protect Hope during hunting season, volunteers continuously radio-tracked Lily and other radio-collared bears from forest roads. They stayed out of the woods to honor past hunters’ requests that we avoid disturbing the woods while hunters were waiting for bears to appear at their baits. People driving by stopped and asked the volunteers if they were radio-tracking bears. The volunteers told them about non-collared Hope being with Lily and little Faith and gave them packages of venison jerky. The one passerby who drove by repeatedly without stopping was the hunter who shot Hope.
A few days ago, the landowner said we could put a Den Cam in Juliet’s den for research but couldn’t broadcast it to the world. A hunting advocate, the landowner said a Den Cam made Hope famous and made people say things against hunters when Hope was legally killed. He said he didn’t want to be part of that. Another hunter/landowner said something similar last year when he totally prohibited us from locating a bear denned on his property. We won’t be putting a Den Cam in Juliet’s den, of course. Permission came too late, plus there would be no way for the Den-Watch Team to record minute by minute observations for the peer-reviewed publications that make this valuable to science.
We ask that no one make disparaging remarks about hunters, including the hunter who shot Hope. It only hampers our research and education efforts. We continue to ask mods to immediately remove any such disrespectful comments before they do us damage. We support well managed hunting for a number of humane reasons stated in our updates:
March 7, 2010 (http://tinyurl.com/Update-March7)
August 7, 2010 (http://tinyurl.com/Update-August7)
October 2, 2010 (http://tinyurl.com/Update-October2)
Lily’s Facebook page went over 136,000 fans today. Jewel is set to make a difference.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center