Technical Difficulties – UPDATE February 10, 2012

Jewel tends to a cub - Feb 10, 2012As those of you watching the den cams could see, it was day of technical difficulties here and elsewhere in the system.  The problems here were the buzz on Jewel’s sound and the loss of signal at Lily’s den.  Ted Parvu fixed both by visiting the equipment sheds.  His wife was good enough to join him for the mile-long walk to Lily’s shed on this near zero day.  The issues on the WildEarth end were resolved just about the same time, so all 3 cams came back online.

A video of Jewel and cubs from yesterday is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWETUDaA6cY.

While that was happening, we got a call that gave a glow.  We learned that a university is using Lynn’s white pine data (www.whitepines.org) to develop educational materials for students.  It’s a message of forest ecology and sustainable forest management.  There’s much more to this story, but the bottom line is that times are changing for the better. 

Another walk with June from 2005 is posted below.

Thank you for all you do.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center  

American fly honeysuckleToday I finished locating the nine study bears by midday and decided to spend some time with June and her cubs.  I re-located June’s signal near the end of Eagles Nest Lake 2 and packed up to head in to meet her.  I stuffed a nectarine in my pocket to eat on my way in.  I located her easily and she came over to me.  As I patted my pockets to locate the nuts I had brought for her I discovered the nectarine – oops!  She took it from me then let it drop to the ground.  I placed a few sunflower seeds on the ground for her cubs and hand-fed June some Brazil nuts.  Pete immediately came down from a nearby white pine and joined us – stopping along the way to feed on American fly honeysuckle berries.  Pete discovered the nectarine and devoured it – he even licked the juice from off the ground.  June came over when he was done and bit the pit.  She came over to check me out.   George came down and joined us about this time – missing out on both seeds and fruit.

JuneberriesJune began wandering.  As I followed she lunged and blew a couple of times, then we settled in to our usual routine.  She headed for a wet area nearby and began by feeding on unripe alderleaf buckthorn berries then settled in to feed heavily on jewelweed.  The cubs fed on the jewelweed as well then climbed a huge black ash growing at the edge of a beaver dam.  June continued to feed on jewelweed.  She waded below the dam and swam above the dam.  She crossed the dam to check on some Juneberry and feed on immature hazelnuts.  She returned to the cub tree and climbed it three times.  She also climbed a nearby smaller black ash and bit off a large branch.  On her last time up the cub tree she and Pete played for a while.  At one point they were both on a branch and June jumped over Pete to get back to the trunk.  As she descended this last time the cubs followed – George bringing up the rear as usual.  They all crossed the dam and walked a 4-wheeler trail to Murray Road – all playing as they went.  I think June may use play to get the cubs to do what she wants, but when Pete and George got to sparring and she came over and seemed to break it up.

They crossed Murray and began feeding on American fly honeysuckle and ant pupae.  June finally flopped down to nurse – Pete had been begging to nurse from time to time.  When the nursing bout was over, both cubs wandered some – with Pete coming over to bite my shoes and pants – his first contact with me since he snuck up behind me to give me a swat.  George finally returned to the tree June was resting by and flopped down on his back to sleep.  Pete joined the others but it took him nearly half an hour to settle down to sleep.  It was a very hot day (90s) and all bears were panting heavily.  About a half hour into their snooze I took my leave. 

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