Jo - May 19, 2012Thank you for your many good words and condolences about Jo. She was one of the gentlest bears we have ever met—despite the very little time we had spent with her when she was young. She is the daughter of nervous RC who we have never been able to radio-collar as an adult. She is the younger sister of Bow—another nervous bear that we don’t feel comfortable radio-collaring. Both RC and Bow have had years to become accustomed to people, but they remain non-trusting. Personalities differ.
It’s hard to believe that Gentle Jo came from the same family. The first contact we can remember with Jo was after family break-up when she was one and a half. She was a naturally calm bear and we easily radio-collared her. Not long afterward she was hit by a car. She recovered and denned in a culvert under a lightly used forest road that fall. We visited her there to check her collar, wondering how she would react to us at her den. She recognized us and/or our behavior and calmly came out for a handful of food and allowed us to check the collar and take a heart rate. We remarked over and over what a calm and beautiful bear she was. Then she raked more bedding into her den and disappeared into it. The winter passed, and we monitored her signal to see when she might leave the den. Finally, we realized she had already left her den—and left her collar behind.
Jewel - May 23, 2012Eventually, we saw her and gave her a new radio-collar with a GPS unit. Shortly, the GPS batteries expired and her signal disappeared from her mother’s territory. We flew and found her near Soudan. We homed in on her signal on foot. In the distance along an open powerline, we saw her grazing on the next hill and called, “It’s me, bear.” She bolted. We followed but her signal just faded away. Later that summer, we got a report from a motorist that he hit a radio-collared bear. From the location, it had to be Jo.
Fern looking down from white pine - May 23, 2012We determined from her radio-signal that she was moving but didn’t want to disturb her like we did along the powerline. After a couple weeks, we very quietly approached her location in a dense alder swamp. Injured bears typically retreat to very dense patches of vegetation. We began softly saying, “It’s me, bear.” After a half hour, she came—cautiously at first. She stopped 15 feet away, mostly hidden, sniffing the air and listening to the refrain. Then she came, calmly and confidently. We gave her a handful of food and felt for injuries. She didn’t wince at any touch. She was okay. We changed her radio-collar and GPS unit and tracked her to a den that fall.
Jewel nursing cubs - May 23, 2012At the den, we saw nervous body language and were afraid she would bolt. Bears at dens sometimes are not as confident as elsewhere. But she quickly relaxed and let us change her big collar for a smaller one for denning. That winter we hiked in to her den on February 15 to listen for cubs. We found a slight depression where her den entrance would be. It was completely covered with drifted snow. We heard nothing. We tried again on March 21 and heard one cub.
When we returned in April, we found a very wet den and no Jo. We tracked her to a nearby hilltop to change her collar back to a larger GPS-equipped one. We approached gently and softly, constantly repeating “It’s me, bear.” Little Victoria climbed a tree. Jo (3) came.
Jewel stretches after nursing her cubs - May 23, 2012She lived in and around the towns of Soudan and Tower but was seldom seen. Areas farther afield were dominated by territorial Juliet (8). Jo found an area around the Tower Airport that we believe was exclusively hers but too small to be a full territory for a lactating mother. That fall (2011), she and Victoria denned in another culvert—again under a very lightly used road. This spring (2012), she and Juliet overlapped a lot, using the same areas and bed trees at different times. Natural food was scarce. Foraging in a larger bear’s territory can be dangerous and may be one reason Jo chose to forage at night in Soudan on several occasions. We worried.
Herbie gets creative climbing down - May 23, 2012Jo wasn’t the only one foraging in Soudan. According to reports, bears entered Soudan and Tower in unusual numbers this spring. Could that be related to the record warmth in March and bears emerging early and accelerating their metabolisms early? We don’t know. Jo discovered a food stash at the forest edge on the north side of Tower placed by a kind-hearted woman for the birds and squirrels at the edge of her yard. When she saw Gentle Jo, she increased the rations. Jo fed there and mostly stayed out of trouble. In all, 5 bears found the stash. A problem developed when the fearful next door neighbor complained that she was a prisoner in her home and threatened to have a friend shoot Jo with a pellet gun. The kind-hearted lady stopped feeding as a result, and Jo resorted to going house to house for bird seed and lawn grass several nights. We worried.
On May 21, Jo entered Soudan with an empty stomach at 7:40 PM. Shortly after 8:40 PM, she was shot through both lungs with a small caliber bullet. We wonder if other bears in Soudan have been similarly shot. We wouldn’t have known about Jo except that she was wearing a radio-collar and GPS unit. Mortally wounded, she may have run as far as 0.6 mile before collapsing in the woods. Bears shot with small caliber bullets live long enough to escape into the woods and die unseen and unreported.
When Jo’s GPS readings stopped Monday night, we tried not to worry. Occasionally the collars get twisted and stop sending for a few hours. When we woke Tuesday morning and found there were still no location readings for Jo, we prepared a new GPS unit for her—thinking that hers had failed. We radio-located her and found her dead.
Skipping ahead in the story, we examined Jo’s stomach contents this evening. We found a 50/50 mixture of lawn grass and thistle seed. Including digestive fluids, the contents weighed only 234 grams (a half pound). Making a living on mowed lawns and small helpings of thistle seed can be a hard life, too.
Your supportive comments were most appreciated. Thank you.
June and her yearlings surprised us by visiting Jewel’s den. June seemed to be checking out areas that Jewel had used this spring, but moved away before actually intercepting Jewel. Thank you to the die-hards who are still watching the Jewel Den Cam and alerted us to the visit. A video of June’s visit is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRRmvN4-Ok0.
Today the BBC spend a brief time with Jewel, Herbie, and Fern to capture footage for the final broadcast of Planet Earth Live tomorrow. The pictures were snapped during that visit. The BBC filming has added to the hectic pace here, but the crew has been great to work with and we have mixed feelings as they prepare to leave.
A delightful video of Jewel’s family playing on a mossy slope is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-6CFPgcBXY.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center