Braveheart - May 24, 2012When we saw Braveheart’s tight cluster of GPS locations this morning, we wondered if she was with a male and busy making cubs. If so, was it the same male she mated with on Monday or did she have a new beau? Fortunately she was in a reasonably accessible location on this very rainy day—that is if you consider a long drive on deeply rutted roads flooded by beaver dams accessible! At least the walk through the wet woods was short.
As we homed in on Braveheart’s signal we saw a bear looking directly at us—a big male with a broad body, wide mature head, and a hint of mange on his face left over from winter. From our brief look at him, we think it is 7-year-old Burt, a ~400-pound bruiser that Lynn remembers meeting when he was a cub in Shadow’s den back in spring 2005.
June, Aster, and Aspen - May 24, 2012Burt is calm and fairly trusting where he’s accustomed to safely seeing people but is wary and elusive elsewhere, and that’s how he was today. We glimpsed him disappearing with Braveheart following. We waylaid Braveheard for a few minutes with “It’s me, bear,” hoping to glimpse Burt again, and we did—running away when Lynn inadvertently stepped on a twig. Burt was not about to trust us there. Braveheart has learned to trust our voices to an extent, but if she has cubs she usually takes them to a big white pine before allowing any meeting.
June - May 24, 2012We swapped out GPS units on both Lily and June today. Lily was alone at 8:15 AM and June was still with her yearlings Aster and Aspen around noon.
On another topic, we’re sending out an S.O.S. for our next Volunteer Coordinator. Myra Fournier is looking for someone to take over leadership of the excellent Volunteer Team she established. She is planning to step down July 31st but will continue to manage the volunteer recruitment area. Permanent Volunteer Team members will continue to work in volunteer recognition and database management, and others will continue to work on special projects as needed. If you have experience in human resources management or volunteer management and want more information on leading this effort or sharing leadership role, please contact Myra at
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center