Sam and Sophie play in the water - June 18, 2012Yesterday we spent time with Jewel, Herbie and Fern. Today it was Juliet and her cubs Sam, Sophie, and Sybil. The cubs are eating solid foods, in addition to milk, and tasted just about everything. That’s how they learn. That’s why captive bears without mothers learn to eat what wild cubs with mothers eat.
OOPS! - June 18, 2012Juliet has moved away from the tent caterpillar area. She and her cubs concentrated their foraging on ant pupae. They balanced their diet out with vegetation in the form of jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) and wild calla (Calla palustris). Yesterday we neglected to mention that Jewel was feeding on wild lettuce (Lactuca sp.) and Arrowleaf (Sagittaria sp. Cf S. cuneatus)—a formerly unknown bear food.
Sybil feeds on ant pupae - June 18, 2012
Sam eats unripe blueberries - June 18, 2012After eating, it was play time in dense cover for Juliet’s cubs. There was little opportunity for pictures. Trying to focus on cubs zipping through dense brush to ambush and tackle each other is hopeless. Best to just sit back and take it all in. The cubs are at a fun age!
Juliet and cubs - June 18, 2012
Sybil - June 18, 2012June continues her explorations of adjacent areas outside her territory. At the moment, she’s in Donna’s territory. Donna was seen at the end of the day with a wound on her hip. A coincidence? We’ll see how long June stays in this occupied territory. Is 11-year-old June desperate enough to try to carve out a piece of land from 12-year-old Donna’s territory? We can tell by the spacing of June’s GPS readings that she’s foraging in rather than just traveling through Donna’s territory.
Juliet grooms Sophie - June 18, 2012Donna and June have similar temperaments. Both are calm and trusting. We haven’t walked with Donna simply because she has a penchant for slipping her radio-collar so we don’t know where she is for months at a time. Donna and June have been tolerant of each other in the past, but there may be other factors at work in the equation now. Time will tell.
A video of Sharon feeding on tent caterpillars (yum...) on June 8 is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGIJOtabQjs.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center