Wolf on Woods LakeWhen Faith makes her deep-throated pleas to nurse, we wish we could capture them and play them in the Bear Center. She really let’s her wishes be known, and Lily eventually gives in to long nursing sessions. Is this unusual? Why didn’t anyone know this before as loud as it is? So much that we are seeing and hearing was previously unknown.
Chickadee
European Lily fans asked us to include Latin names when we give common names. So right! Common names vary between areas. Latin names are names that can be looked up. Going back to last night, red-osier dogwood is Cornus stolonifera, alder-leafed buckthorn is Rhamnus alnifolia, and wild sarsaparilla is Aralia nudicaulis.
Pine Grosbeak
bob-tailed pine marten 2012With the writing we have been doing the past few days, we are seeing wonderful wildlife out the window. In addition to the usual chickadees, woodpeckers, and nuthatches, we are seeing common redpolls (Carduelis flammea), pine grosbeaks (Pinicola enucleator), a lone wolf (Canis lupus) 150 yards out on the lake, and a pine marten (Martes americanus) that has a wound on its left hip and has lost most of its beautiful tail.
Below is the next in the series of 2005 bear walks.
New videos of Jewel and cubs from Feb 10 and 11 are at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#p/u/1/9_D0S_D5Bls and http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#p/u/0/tEgCfPluNcc.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Date: June 28, 2005
Today was the first of hopefully many full days I will spend collecting behavioral and food choice data on June this summer. I started the day early in hopes of connecting with her by 8:00 AM. I hadn’t counted on having trouble locating her signal. I finally located her just before9:30 AMvery near the first place I had checked for her signal. I am not sure whether there was an equipment failure or if she was in a position where her signal was blocked – but my initial frustration with locating her faded as the day wore on.
June leaning on tree - June 28, 2005Our day together started with her bedded between a 24” white pine and a 14” cedar on a peninsula near homes where bears are regularly fed. The bed site seemed well used and the bark on the cedar appeared to have been stripped sometime this spring. Her cubs scampered up the pine when I arrived and remained there for the next two hours as June rested and slept at the base. Having recently been in to one of the homes to feed, June had not been interested in the few nuts I brought her – and she totally ignored the marshmallows containing the scat-markers.
The cubs became active in the tree about 11:25 AM and began to play. Pete huffed at me some and eventually jumped from the white pine to the cedar tree to descend. George scrambled down the pine and both cubs headed right for my pack. I picked it up and put it on as I don’t want to encourage their mischief. What might seem cute now will not be so cute by the end of the summer when they weigh 80+ pounds! The cubs and June soon devoured the nuts I left for them – leaving the marshmallows for last. The cubs seemed to just want to play with the marker-laden marshmallow intended for June (to help measure food passage rates) when she finally ate them.
June moved out to an open power corridor and plopped down to nurse the cubs. Once that was out of the way we were off for the day. The family foraged on American fly honeysuckle along the power corridor then headed back to the home they fed at earlier. They spent very little time there before continuing on their way. I assumed they would stop at another home nearby where bears are fed because they set out on a path leading there – but they passed by and continued on out into June’s usual territory.
They stopped to feed on honeysuckle and on Juneberries which are just beginning to ripen. June sniffed branches intently in several areas – I suspect she was picking up the scent of another bear. As we neared the RR grade she stopped and watched as an ATV passed then continued to move east in the woods along the RR grade. Later I was surprised to see her approach the RR grade when I could hear the ATV returning. She stood at the edge of the RR grade in plain sight as the ATV passed. The driver waved to me as he went by. We continued across the RR grade to a stand of hazelnuts. June seemed more intent on checking out the scent of other bears here then checking on the hazelnuts. She spent a good deal of time sniffing branches and bear scat in the area. She and her cubs finally settled in to feed on some ripe Juneberries and hazelnuts in a forest opening.
June seemed particularly playful today and, as usual, Pete was her chosen playmate. George doesn’t seem to want to play with June but will tackle Pete – and often times lately June and George gang up on Pete! Pete is very playful and began paying me unwanted attention in the form of nips today – something I actively discouraged. Once, when he was being particularly pesky, June intervened – much to my relief!
June romped and played with her cubs through a squishy bog with me struggling to keep up. Finally we were on firm ground again on the other side. Here June began dripping urine and straddling small balsam fir trees. Soon she led me to a rock den which she and the cubs quickly entered. June came out and back-rubbed a nearby balsam while the cubs continued to check the den out. Rock dens are not common and I quickly GPSed the location of this one for future reference.
About 4 PM June laid down to rest at the base of a huge aspen. The cubs soon flopped down beside her and were asleep almost immediately. This is in contrast to previous times when they were still playful when June was ready to rest. They have changed so much in the last month. They are looking quite leggy and are losing their brown cub fur. Their feet and legs are black now and the black color is creeping up their sides. The cubs are actively foraging on their own – even finding food on their own rather than following June’s lead. Today June and Pete were feeding on honeysuckle while George was sampling the hazelnuts, and later as June was feeding on clover the cubs were feeding on honeysuckle and alder cones. I witnessed a spat between June and George over a particularly choice ant log – with June finally walking away.
June woke up shortly after 5 PM and nursed the cubs. We soon were all on our way and all three bears began actively foraging. Earlier in the day their foraging seemed a bit haphazard – perhaps because stomachs were full of feeder food – but now they were all foraging in earnest. Now there was very little play – just movement from one food source to the next, feeding mainly on honeysuckle. June also foraged heavily on clover along the edge of a road and she nipped off some wild lettuce and bedstraw as well. Ant pupae were actively sought after and in high demand when found. Several pupae finds precipitated a veritable feeding frenzy for all three bears. Interestingly, as they foraged they were moving further and further away from the homes they frequent and further out into June’s territory.
The rock den June and her cubs explored this day is the same one pictured and referenced in the November 8, 2011 update.