Defoliation stopped by stream - June 10, 2012The GPS locations for Lily and June showed something we hadn’t seen before. Wherever Lily went yesterday between 11:54 AM (just before noon) till 12:06 AM (just after midnight), June followed—for 4.7 miles. Lily had stopped to forage and rest along the way so she took nearly 12 hours to cover the distance. June came across Lily’s trail at 7:43 PM and followed it until 1:24 AM this morning. She was only 18 minutes behind Lily when she left Lily’s trail. Coincidence? Perhaps, but the overlap of their GPS tracks caught our attention. This morning at 10:08 AM, we saw Lily ambling along slowly and peacefully alone without June tracking her. We can’t explain any of it.
Hazelnuts on defoliated bush - June 10, 2012
Chokecherries on defoliated bush - June 10, 2012
Today, we checked tent caterpillar outbreak areas where the radio-collared bears have been foraging. We saw trees and bushes with green chokecherries and little hazelnuts—all defoliated. We’ll check back to see if the cherries and hazelnuts survive or shrivel.
We saw where a fast-flowing stream prevented tent caterpillars from crossing. Only one side of the stream was defoliated.
New leaves on defoliated aspen - June 10, 2012The first trees to be defoliated were the aspen trees, the forest tent caterpillar’s favorite. A few of those trees are already growing new leaves.
Defoliated aspen - June 10, 2012
We plan to explore the unusual pattern of Dot's GPS locations from yesterday to see if there are tent caterpillars there as well.
It was great to meet Lily Fans at the Bear Keepers Class last evening.
A short video of Jewel and cubs from June 2 is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tYHEVZG-Dw.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center