Lucky and Honey - Sept 4, 2008First, a correction. I wrote the wrong weight (365 pounds) for Lucky in last night’s update for his September 24, 2012 interaction with Ted. Lucky actually weighed 447 pounds. That would make it a little easier for Lucky to bowl over Ted that weighed over 200 pounds more, but it’s still surprising.
A question often asked is, “Will Honey have cubs?” Let me go out on a limb and possibly have to eat crow one of these years. I’m guessing “no.” A lot of that “no” is based on observations of Gerri, now about to turn 24 in January. She had cubs in the wild as a 3-year-old but never had cubs in captivity despite the presence of males that fathered cubs with other females. I remember the first male, Mumbles, who was supposed to be her mate at Grandfather Mountain. She didn’t like him. He was a massive, beautiful male with a gentle personality and a history of mating successes. I was with Gerri in her big forested enclosure when Mumbles, in the next big enclosure came near the chain link fence that separated them. Little Gerri charged into the fence like I’d never seen her behave before. She didn’t want Mumbles near her, and she couldn’t have said it more savagely. Mumbles never got to first base with her. Eventually, another male came on the scene. I don’t know how Gerri felt about him, but she didn’t produce any cubs. She’s had 20 chances to mate since she arrived at Grandfather Mountain in June 1992, but she has never produced cubs in captivity.
Lucky and Honey - Aug 31, 2008I see a lot of the same attitude from Honey. She chases Lucky and runs from Ted. We thought there was a chance for Lucky when Honey invited him into her den for the winter at the end of 2008 and played with him a couple days in March 2009. She dashed our hopes when she quickly returned to her old pattern of chasing Lucky. We thought there was a chance for Ted when Honey acted friendly toward him and rubbed her hindquarters against him in 2007. Honey and Ted together dashed our hopes when Ted acted nonchalant at critical times and when Honey retreated when Ted wanted to get close. Many times, Ted followed her bawling loudly to get close while Honey continued moving away chomping her jaws with anxiety.
We’re not seeing any change, and it’s been years of the same. With Lucky acting so dominant this past year or two, and even stomp-walking to leave scent, we’ll see if he can get Honey to believe he is a worthy mate. We’re betting against it.
In the wild, we see females showing clear preferences when they seek out certain males year after year as we’ve mentioned before. Dominant males help make the selection by following scent trails to estrous females and vanquishing any competing males, but we see females having a choice, too. We also see the long-lasting friendships between mated pairs with females nibbling the necks of their mates months after mating season and calmly eating nose to nose with their mates outside mating season—something they do not do with other bears.
So far, Honey hasn’t consistently been friendly enough to Ted or Lucky to give us much faith. But Honey could prove us wrong at any time. For now, though, her cantankerous attitude toward both Ted and Lucky after this past mating season makes us think there will be no cubs this winter. We’ll know in less than a month how audacious it was to write this so confidently.
We’re told the walls for the new addition will start going up tomorrow.
Thank you for your many holiday greetings and expressions of support. You can imagine how much it means to us to know we are not alone in this venture.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center