Fern and Herbie - April 11, 2012
Jewel and cubs - April 11, 2012Sue spent most of the day with Jewel videotaping the family as they repeatedly came out of the den, played, nursed, and explored. It was a day of practicing climbing. The cubs can stand on their hind legs and are getting better at climbing. Jewel took them to the nearest big tree, a red pine, which means flaky bark and risk of falling. The cubs couldn’t resist climbing. Fern fell about 12 feet but was okay. As the day ended, they were back in the den sleeping after a busy day. The photo shows Jewel emerging after we temporarily removed the Den Cam and microphone for a more natural den look for filming.
Cookies cubs - April 11, 2012
Cookie - April 11, 2012A check on Cookie’s den showed she and the cubs had moved out without Cookie wearing a radio-collar. Fortunately, they were found a hundred yards away, and Glenn got the radio-collar back on her complete with a GPS unit. This family denned back in the boonies over a mile off the nearest road and on a peninsula reachable only by canoe. The GPS unit should show their movements the next 10-14 days before we need to change batteries.
Herbie and Fern - April 11, 2012Dot and her cubs are doing about the same as Jewel, exploring the area around the den and practicing climbing. It won’t be long before all mothers with cubs leave their den—just as Cookie has.
Jewel and cubs - April 11, 2012The BBC is giving Ted Parvu the day off, with pay, on Friday to see if he can get the Pond Cam up and running. Thank you BBC.
A Lily Fan alerted us to a TV news broadcast about recent nuisance bear complaints - http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/local/Nuisance-Bear-Complaints-Start-In-Spring-146910325.html. It included some old video of Lily and Hope, which is ironic. While bears elsewhere are showing their growing hunger by generating complaints from homeowners, you all know what the radio-collared study bears are doing—foraging in the wild. This is so contrary to what most people would predict, and we can’t completely explain it, but it shows that these habituated, food-conditioned bears that have lost some of their fear of people are no more prone to become nuisances than any other bears, and they are educating the world about what black bears are really like. They have so much to show us about what makes bear sense rather than human sense.
Trish Kirk's bear talk - April 11, 2012Along that line, we were proud of Trish Kirk today. She is one of the leaders of the Education Outreach Program and the author of 3 children’s books. The photo shows her teaching some 230 students and teachers in Wisconsin, using bear.org facts. The students asked excellent questions. A Speakers Bureau is one of the goals of the Education Outreach Program.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center