June eats water parsnip - July 26, 2004Below are the notes from my 6th walk with June. For those of you keeping track and wondering what happened to the 4th and 5th walks, they were posted in the June 14 and June 22 updates respectively. Enjoy!
Thank you for all you do.
—Sue Mansfield, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
I found June resting in a cedar/black ash swamp on the north side of Trygg Road across from fire number 1348 at 8:11 AM. From the fresh tracks in the moss and the fact the vegetation around where she was lying was still erect I surmised she hadn’t been there long. She did not get up and come for nuts when I arrived. She rested and slept for an hour and 22 minutes before she came to me to get nuts. After grooming and defecating she moved to another bed nearby where she rested from 9:41 AM till 11:08 AM. Towards the end of her rest she came to check me out and laid down close. I had stood up thinking she would be heading out and decided to sit back down when she lay down. I sat in my original position, which was very close to where she was now lying. Apparently it was too close because she lightly swatted my knee. I stood up and she moved back to her original bed and began grooming.
She began her foraging period by feeding on wild calla in a nearby swamp. She also fed briefly on cattail – pulling up and eating the stem, then pawing at and eating the root. At the edge of the wetland she fed on water parsnip (videoed). She was sitting eating water parsnip when she suddenly lunged forward. I thought she was moving on – but she had lunged for a bird nest and ate its contents. I am not sure whether it held eggs or nestlings.
She moved on to an old clear-cut where she fed mainly on ant pupae but also on dewberry and wild sarsaparilla. After 3 hours of active foraging she bedded in a balsam thicket where she rested for two hours – getting up once to defecate.
At 4:09 PM she once again began to forage. At 4:59 PM she defecated. I picked up the scat and was pleased to see she was nearby working a log for ant pupae so I had time to put the scat in my pack. With the scat stowed, I began entering codes for ‘feeding on ants – pupae present’ into my PDA, when she came directly to me from the log she was working on about 20 feet away. I showed her the PDA thinking it had likely gotten her interest. She sniffed it then half-heartedly lunged at me.
I continued walking with her until 6:28 PM when she led me to an ATV trail that I knew would take me back to Trygg Road.
Of note:
- She spent time checking under throw mounds [hollows created by the roots of fallen trees] in a cedar swamp and excavated beneath one mound (videoed).
A total of 11 scats were collected during this walk – no scat marker found.