June continuing her mission - June 13, 2012Yesterday, I worked hard to reach June to swap her GPS unit and failed. Today, she made it easy for me. I located her radio-signal in Donna’s territory, and as I narrowed down her location, she stepped out onto the logging road about 30 feet behind me. I spoke to her and she quickly approached. In exchange for pecans, she let me remove the failed GPS unit from the case attached to her collar and slip a new one in. Mission accomplished. As soon as the nuts were gone she returned to where she stepped onto the logging road and continued across the road into the woods. June had her own mission to accomplish.
June has no time to pose for a picture! - June 13, 2012Sharon’s GPS unit had failed a few days ago, but June was Priority One. With June taken care of, Sharon was next on my list. As I searched for a beep—any beep—from her radio-collar, I realized how much we rely on the GPS units to tell us where the bears are. We generally don’t let more than 4 hours go by without a GPS reading before we track down the bear and determine the reason. A bear can easily travel a mile an hour, so after 4 hours, it’s much harder to locate them. It had been days since we knew where Sharon was. I had my work cut out for me.
Tent caterpillars in Sharon's area - June 13, 2012After many stops and failed attempts, I finally heard the first faint beep from Sharon’s radio-collar. I had a general direction. Then the challenge was to triangulate on her signal and find a way to reach her—not an easy task in an area with few roads. I triangulated the best I could, located a snowmobile trail that I hoped would get me close, then packed up and headed in.
Sharon’s active signal made it a challenge. The strength of the radio-signal changes as a bear moves its head and the collar. One moment it’s loud, the next it seems to disappear entirely. Argh! And Sharon seemed to be moving away.
Vegetation flattened by bears feeding on caterpillars - June 13, 2012I finally caught up to her in an aspen stand where she had been feeding on forest tent caterpillars. The vegetation around the aspens was crushed and matted where Sharon (and perhaps other bears) had walked around the tree trunks to lick the caterpillars off. The defoliation was not nearly as bad as in the area where Sharon and Bill had been, but there were enough caterpillars to keep the bears busy.
Sharon - June 13, 2012Sharon half-heartedly lunged and blew at me then approached calmly and allowed me to swap GPS units. The lunge-blow behavior sequence is a sign of nervousness and is done with varying intensities. When done half-heartedly, it signifies a release of built up nervous tension. Sharon is still new to being approached in the woods. She was initially nervous, but quickly fell into the familiar routine of nuts in exchange for collar work.
Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)- June 13, 2012Once the nuts were gone, Sharon became fixated on a small frayed tear in my pant leg. She licked it, mouthed it, and bit it with her incisors. She seemed to be trying to remove it. Curious feeling to be ‘groomed’ by a bear. Sharon was soon on her way and I began the long walk back to my car.
A video of Sharon and Bill from June 6 is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1OYe9whhSE.
Thank you for all you do!
—Sue Mansfield, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center