Lily comes out of her den - Oct 2, 2012Every meeting we have with Lily, we come away thinking what a great bear she is. We visited her today to remove her GPS unit, ribbons, and bright plastic strips. She now has just her radio-collar for the winter.
Lily at her den - Oct 2, 2012She was deep in the big brush pile and around a corner out of sight. It took her maybe 20 minutes to respond to “It’s me bear.” We tossed a couple pecans in as far as we could see to confirm that it was us and was a safe feeding situation. She finally appeared but was moving slowly—another 15 minutes passed. Partway along the passageway from her hidden bed, she lay her head down to rest. Finally, she was far enough out to begin taking her heart rate—which was only 52/minute and very irregular. It would beat only 6 times in 10 seconds (36/minute) and then speed up to total 52 beats in a minute. She knew us, was calm, and paid no attention as we removed her hardware.
Lily without ribbons - Oct 2, 2012Her fur is dense and fluffy, sticking straight out everywhere because of her dense layer of underfur now. We couldn’t help stroking her pillowy, soft fur down her back and measuring the depth—exactly 3 inches on her back between her shoulder blades. Before we left, we offered her water—thinking she might need it after eating dry nuts. She very quickly drank all we had (47 ounces). We said, “Thank you bear” and left—remarking what a gentle bear she is.
Sybil and Sophie - Oct 2, 2012Next stop: our first close visit to the den of Juliet and cubs. Her GPS data shows the family is still making forays to the pond (0.2 mile away) and elsewhere to forage. A big (575-gram) scat near her den was full of mature leaves. Her GPS batteries either have expired or are about to and we hoped to swap them out today to continue collecting GPS data. Juliet is offering our best opportunity yet to document pre-denning and early denning behavior of a mother with cubs. GPS technology enables us to document things we never could before.
Sybil eyeing us suspiciously - Oct 2, 2012Sophie, Sybil, and Sam exited in that order. We occupied them with a few nuts and turned our attention to Juliet. The cubs whined at each other as they ate. Juliet grunted to them from inside the den. She backed toward the entrance but then stopped to rest as Lily had done. She didn’t come out. The cubs finished the few nuts and entered the den. Juliet hunched forward to make room for the cubs, and they all settled down. We should return in the morning, but we must wait until Sunday. We wish we knew the reasoning behind the ‘one den visit per week’ restriction.
Notice the leaf stems in this scat - Oct 2, 2012On another note, Pond Chat mods are needed for shifts from 11PM to 5 AM CT and from 7 to 8:30 PM CT. E-mail
We are still reeling from the great job Lily Fans did in covering all details to make the Groundbreaking such a success. Lily Fans and staff stepped forward and made it happen.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center