Lily in color - Dec 28, 2012So far, the Den Cams are showing only glimpses of what will come. We’re seeing detail that eliminates the guesswork of the early Den Cams. Sound is up for Lily’s den now. But we’re not yet ready for prime time. WildEarth.TV is tweaking things at their end and we rebooted once at this end. The problem may be inconsistent upload bandwidth. We may have to scale down the feed for consistency, but we believe this will still be the best season yet for picture clarity.
Lily - Dec 28, 2012In Lily’s den, a short-tailed shrew ran by, and Lily was alert enough to slap at it just as the picture disappeared. If the shrew can survive Lily’s alertness, we may have a new actor in her den. We’re surprised she slapped at it. We wonder what she’d do if she got it. We’d be surprised if she ate it. Shrews are not known to be on the list of bear diet items.
Snifter Kitty to the rescue - Dec 28, 2012In summer, we’ve seen bears ignore chipmunks eating under their noses, and we’ve seen bears slap at them. One bear pinned a chipmunk down. The victim held still. When the bear lifted its paw, the chipmunk scampered away.
NABC snow angels - Dec 28, 2012Those of you who frequent Lily the Black Bear Facebook page are familiar with the antics of Snifter Kitty. We got a chuckle over today's post of Snifter Kitty about to remove the root hanging in front of Jewel's den cam—complete with work plan and permit. We share it here for those not on Facebook.
At the Research Center, Zdenek Mestenhauser shared his PowerPoint expertise. We also finalized the criteria for a wildlife studies scholarship funded by a Lily Fan.
Out in the world of Lily Fans, Den-Watchers are assembling, scheduling, and getting ready to record standardized data 24/7.
At the Bear Center, Judy Thon and crew took a 5-minute break to make snow angels in the fresh snow on the frozen pond. When will they grow up? (We hope never.)
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center