Sharon approaches - Sept 12, 2012 Females almost always den in their territories. Sharon spent most of the summer several miles southwest of Tower, MN and we wondered if she was claiming territory there. Several weeks ago she moved to a feeding area her mother showed her when she was a cub. We’ve been waiting for her to make a move toward a den—eager to see where she settles. Today, she moved at least 4.5 miles southwest directly toward the area she explored this summer. She’s nearly halfway there. We’ll see what she does tomorrow.
Lynn approaching Sharon - Sept 12, 2012We intercepted her today to change her GPS batteries, homing in on her telemetry beeps as she traveled. Four miles down a narrow dirt road, Sharon's beeps grew strong. We stopped to check the direction. As we pointed the antenna down the road, we saw her round a bend and come into view. She saw us and stopped. It was windy and the whole forest rustled as if danger were all around. We called “It’s me bear.” She took a couple steps and stopped. Hesitantly, she came, stopping frequently to look and listen all around. We repeated “It’s me bear.” Lynn knelt down to steady his camera. She saw the familiar move and came more quickly.
Even though Sharon may be moving toward a den, she was keyed up and her heart averaged 88/minute as she scanned the forest sounds. Her only attention to us was for the nuts that held her in place for the battery change and heart rate. When the last bite was gone, she quickly disappeared into the woods. We felt privileged to have been ignored when we took her heart rate as the rustling forest made her nervously look around.
Sharon walks a forest road - Sept 12, 2012June is still in and near the rock den we mentioned yesterday. She spent last night and most of today in a swamp near the den. We know wild calla (Calla palustris) grows there and that she ate wild calla leaves before entering her den one fall and just after leaving it the next spring in a previous year when she denned there. Her droppings could reveal whether she is doing the same thing again.
Hope will be part of the new building. She and Lily brought people together, which led to the North American Bear Center debt being paid off and a 100-foot addition being started so soon. How this charismatic bear opened the door to unprecedented educational efforts by so many is a story that needs to be told. The new building will allow us to go global.
Sharon approaches Lynn - Sept 12, 2012You are contributing wonderful ideas on how to do that. You've also provided new ideas worth considering. Some of you pointed out that this 100-foot addition will be connected to the existing building and should not be called a ‘building’—maybe a ‘wing’ or an ‘annex’. Some have pointed out that it would be confusing to call the addition the Hope Education Building and that it might be better to just have the addition be part of the North American Bear Center, dedicated to Hope as we’ve always said, and name the big multimedia classroom after Hope. Her story can be told there where it would resonate best—with the students. Other rooms would be appropriately named according to their purpose. The entrance to the addition itself would have a plaque (perhaps bronze) dedicating the addition to Hope and saying it was made possible by donors to be named at that time, Lily Fans, etc., as appropriate.
Other ideas are coming in. All say to name Hope prominently, as we certainly will do, but offering ideas that might resonate in more powerful ways than we had thought of ourselves. For example, the multi-media classroom will be built for global outreach, and attaching Hope’s name to that may spread her story farther than we had first thought.
We’re listening and feeling appreciative of your desire to have Hope’s name be recognized as powerfully as possible. The history and advancement of the Bear Center is part of that story, as you know.
We are remembering all that Lily Fans have done and are doing. We are remembering the fun we’ve seen on Facebook and how that turned into Education Outreach and a Speakers Bureau among other things.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center