Lily grooming Faith - May 5, 2012The 5th Anniversary of the opening of the North American Bear Center was a celebration of Lily Fans. Lily Fans who volunteer at the Bear Center gathered there wearing their official shirts and answered questions from the crowd of visitors. One Lily Fan did beautifully detailed face-painting on young and old alike. All much appreciated. The photo is of a youngster who needed a nap in the midst of all the excitement and food.
Sleeping celebrant - May 5, 2012Out in the woods, Lily and Faith covered Lily’s territory and more the last couple days, moving over 7 miles from point to point. The scat from Lily today, when Jim changed her GPS unit, was nearly all vegetation. The main food these days is large-leafed aster (Aster macrophyllus) which they only eat for a couple weeks as it comes up. When the leaves unfurl, they quit.
Juliet's cub Sam - May 5, 2012Jewel and family visited their den again today. They also tried to cross the big paved road but turned back, probably because the cubs wouldn’t follow. It looks like the same story as Juliet a few days ago. Juliet and cubs did cross on their next attempt, and we hope Jewel’s cubs both make it across safely. Fortunately traffic is light at this time of year.
Sam plays with a pine cone - May 5, 2012
A video of Jewel and family from April 27 is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l83w3UrWzU.
Juliet - May 5, 2012
One of the world’s top sound men, Martyn Stewart, helped the research the last few days. One of the things he did was get up before dawn every day to record loons and the dawn chorus for ambience in the new Hope Education Building. To help more, he will donate a collection of sounds to the Bear Center for a new iTunes download “Voices of the Northwoods” that includes bears, wolves, coyotes, loons, ravens, and all the commonly heard birds, frogs, and toads of summer—99 species in all. It’s not available yet. He also will provide the Bear Center with the software and sounds for a computer game identifying the voices of the local wildlife.
The first BBC broadcast of Planet Earth Live to 140 countries is tomorrow. A shortened (43-minute) version with ads (called 24/7 Wild) will air on Monday on Nat Geo Wild channel at 9 PM EDT.
A BBC contest to vote for the cutest Planet Earth Live animal is at http://www.ironammonite.com/2012/05/vote-for-cutest-bbc-planetearthlive.html. We’re partial to the bear cub, of course. The cub is currently leading with monkeys closing in. It looks like a time for Lily Fans to show their power. How this could help bears is by showing their popularity, which could lead to more educational programs about them.
Here's how you can further help!
Those of you on Twitter can help direct Planet Earth Live viewers to the Lily the Black Bear Facebook page and additional information about bears by Tweeting these 2 messages:
- Follow the #planetearthlive black bear clan on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lily.the.black.bear?v=wall
- Learn more about the #planetearthlive black bears at www.bear.org and www.bearstudy.org
On Facebook, visit the Plant Earth Live at https://www.facebook.com/BBCPlanetEarthLive and Nat Geo Wild at https://www.facebook.com/NatGeoWildUSA and spread the word about Lily's page, bear.org, and bearstudy.org.
We look forward with excitement to the premiere of Planet Earth Live - Episode 1 tomorrow! And to the BBC live crew we say "Break a leg!"
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center