Rock uncovered by foundation work - Nov 16, 2012 What a day yesterday! What a finish! Over 741 Lily Fans donated over $47,000.00 toward the North American Bear Center’s new addition that includes the Hope Learning Center. Commitment! Together, we’ll make it as good as it can be. You placed us in 36th place, which is in the top 1% of 4,381 schools and nonprofits receiving donations. Thank you!
In our category of medium nonprofits (revenue between $100,000 and a million), you carried us to 8th place. By placing us in the top 10, you earned $1,000 prize, making the total donation toward the Hope Learning Center $48,181.93! These totals include early and late donations in addition to those on the 15th. Thank you again.
Honey is in the window den. She slept through the excitement, lying on a bed of straw breathing 4 times a minute. She held each breath for a few seconds as is common in the sleep of hibernation.
Foundation form for front of addition - Nov 16, 2012Around the corner from Honey’s window den, workers built the forms for the foundation. The picture shows some of that and the forms for the double-door entryway for getting large mounts into the Northwoods Ecology Exhibit and the forms for the outside entryway into the Hope Learning Center. Another picture includes the pile of rocks for Lily Fans and a close-up of the pretty rocks uncovered by the blasting.
Ted is resting uncontested in the chalet den. Lucky is snug in his small bunker den.
We suspect that the bears may walk about some yet, just as wild bears emerge to rake bedding yet at this time of year. Ted, Honey, and Lucky are from places where bears stay active longer than in the Northwoods.
Pile of saved rocks - Nov 16, 2012We’ll continue to help Honey lose weight so she can run, be agile, and climb trees. This coming year, with the help of volunteer bear keepers, we’ll put some of the food in trees to encourage climbing. We’ve never heard of a female that weighed anything close to 475 on a wild diet.
Lucky is sexually mature and sometimes sees his old playmate Ted as a rival for food and Honey. We’re extending the enclosure to separate Ted and Lucky during mating season, if necessary.
To reduce rivalry for food, we plan to reduce feeding in front of the windows and feed the bears in 3 separate areas. Perhaps feed Ted to the left of the pond where an extension of the balcony will give good viewing and Honey behind the pond at the edge of the woods where we can encourage her to climb for some of her food. We’re thinking of feeding Lucky far to the right of the pond in the open areas that are planted in white clover or in the new extension of the enclosure.
Again with the help of volunteer bear keepers, we will plant native wild foods throughout the enclosure in addition to the many already there. Supplemental food we provide will usually be scattered to encourage foraging behaviors.
Click to see New Gift Shop items - Nov 16, 2012We are extremely fortunate to have vibrant, enthusiastic Lily Fan volunteers and staff working for the good of bears and the educational mission of the Bear Center. Yesterday’s donations from Lily Fans, challenge grants from Lily Fans, and the GiveMN campaign created by Lily Fans are further examples. We’re looking forward to what can be done for bear education through the Hope Learning Center. After yesterday, less than $400,000 remains to be raised to pay for the building itself.
New items are being added to the web store today. One of our favorites is the ornament of little Fern.
Thank you for all you did and are doing! Yesterday was an important day for the bears. Thank you so much.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center