Lynn takes Lily's heart rate (72) - May 10, 2012Lily and Faith have separated (May 7), but Lily is not yet being followed by a male—even though she is in estrus. We joined her today to check her status. We saw her alone across a 50-meter opening, and she wasn’t looking around for a skedaddled male. She is still traveling fast and widely. A couple days ago, when Lily first came near an area where Faith was hanging out, Lily went around it. Today, she went right through it. We checked for Faith’s signal and found she had moved elsewhere.
Aster - May 10, 2012Colleen was the first to separate from her yearlings (May 3). One of Ursula’s yearlings was repeatedly seen alone yesterday (May 9), so we assume Ursula has separated from her 2 male yearlings a least a day or 2 before.
June has half split. Aspen was last seen with her on May 8, but Aster is still with June. June and Aster checked out their den of this past winter today. June stuck her head in, but Aster crawled all the way in.
Braveheart, Bow, and Shadow are still with their yearlings. We are unsure about Donna’s family status.
Herbie and Fern in white pine - May 10, 2012
Not to forget Jewel, Herbie, and Fern. They are still using a small area. They have roamed up to half a mile away, but today the family was back at the same white pine that they used when they first left the den. Scats by their white pine were mostly greens. A log nearby was pulverized in Jewel’s search for grubs. Herbie and Fern were resting in the white pine and looked fine.
Pincherry blossoms - May 10, 2012Wildflowers are blooming—goldthread (Coptis trifolia), violets (Violaceae spp.), wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), hepaticas (Hepatica nobilis), pincherries (Prunus pensylvanicus), juneberries (Amelanchier spp.), and more.
Another episode of Planet Earth Live aired today. Julia Bradbury and the whole BBC crew did a great job. Thanks to the trusting bears, the world was able to glimpse how black bears live, and we are grateful to the BBC for being willing to take a chance and show the real side of bears without doing the usual hype about danger. This program is about danger to the bears. One of the animals mentioned in that regard today is the timber wolf, and a Lily Fan alerted us to the archive footage of Jewel’s Den Cam (which is still operating) for May 3 at 13:00:22 hrs which shows a white wolf walking past Jewel’s den. Thank you.
Violet and goldthread blossoms - May 10, 2012In this episode of Planet Earth Live, Lynn mentioned how skinny the cubs looked and hoped they all can make it. It was a bit of an overstatement on Lynn’s part because Sam is doing great, as is Sophie. But Sybil is smaller and skinnier although plenty agile bounding after Juliet. It’s not unusual to have one cub smaller than the others in a litter. In Bow’s litter of two cubs last year, Drew grew faster than Daisy but Daisy made it just fine and was seen today. In Braveheart’s litter a few years back, Mickey was much smaller than his siblings but survived. However, in another litter of Braveheart’s, the smallest cub disappeared in spring. Yes, all three of Juliet’s cubs look skinny, but that’s partly due to their adding skeletal growth at this point—especially growing longer legs.
A shortened version of the BBC broadcast will air on Nat Geo Wild on Monday evening. Viewers will have questions. If Lily Fans who know how to twitter can answer questions and refer people to bear.org for more information, we can maximize the education value of this opportunity.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center