June in raspberry patch - July 9, 2012One of the bears we homed in on today was June—in a raspberry patch. The bushes were high enough that we walked past her at first. Then we discovered her signal was behind us. A patch of black turned into June. She then did the usual—circling downwind to double check our identity before coming confidently and lying down to eat while Lynn tugged at her collar to extract the GPS unit and change the batteries. She was calm with the procedure she has become familiar with. Her heart was 81 per minute.
Raspberries - July 9, 2012As Lynn and the group watched, she went back to her natural foraging. We saw sign of tearing apart stumps and logs for ant pupae, and we saw more raspberries than we have seen elsewhere. How does she find these foods so effectively?
June and bear course - July 9, 2012Tomorrow, we plan to reach Jewel, Braveheart, and Juliet. We hope they are more accessible than they were today.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center