Lily's Den Cam is up running! What a difference a day makes! We found the problem with Lily’s Den Cam—too much of a good thing. The Verizon cell signal at Lily’s den is so strong that it overwhelms the equipment.
Lily and cub in high resolutionToday, Jim Stroner, Lynn, and a fresh set of eyes, Mauro Caruso visited Lily’s Den Shed. Mauro is in national demand setting up home theaters. He’s seen a lot in his 35 years in that field. Mauro and Jim reduced the cell phone strength by disconnecting the high-gain antenna and switching to small omnidirectional ones, the Den Cam video stream evened out and has been nearly rock-solid. We think the problem is solved. If it isn’t, we’re on the right track for more adjustments.
Lily has at least one male cubWe have been glued to Lily’s Den Cam ever since it came up. Without the mountain of wood chip bedding, we’re finally seeing cute big cubs and straining to see what sex they are. We echo viewers who think one is a male. The cubs are sleeping in the open more now that they have good fur, and they are becoming more active as they get closer to opening their eyes. Today is their one-month birthday. We feel better here having Lily back online, and we hear there is joy in Lily Fan Land. Our first video of Lily's cubs is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJavl2SZfWQ.
Stuck truck spinning wheelsOn the way back from the den shed, the 4-wheel drive pickup got sucked completely off the road. We knew we were pushing its limits on a totally unplowed road. It looked hopeless. We called Sue to pick us up on the closest plowed road and began gathering up valuables—planning to walk out and let the pickup sit until spring. We tried another round of snow shoveling while waiting, and miraculously the pickup climbed back onto the road. We were on a high for that miracle and the one with Lily’s Den Cam.
Ted's trackless denWe’re wondering if some of the issues we’ve had with Jewel’s Den Cam are simply a lesser version of the same problem we had at Lily’s den—Jewel’s den is further from the cell tower. The Tech Team is now talking about the possibilities of broadcasting in true high def once we completely ‘harness’ Verizon’s strong 4G cell signal. A lot of this webcam stuff is so new that even the experts are feeling their way along. Everything is getting better and better.
All's quiet at Honey's denAnother joy was seeing the Valentine’s for the Hope Learning Center campaign reach its goal. The technical equipment listed for the classroom is covered. Donations are still coming in for tables and chairs for the classroom at http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Valentines-For-The-Hope-Learning-Center. Thank you again.
Lucky's barricaded denMore good news. Director of Operations Judy Thon has announced a new volunteer program that answers a great need at the Bear Center—knowledgeable volunteers to answer questions at the Bear Center in addition to caring for the bears. We want these new Bear Educators to get the most firsthand experience with bears possible—at the Bear Center and in the wild. We want Bear Educators to know as much about the Bear Center and the research as possible. For more on this, check out http://www.bear.org/website/bear-educator-program.html.
Prep for cut through to New AdditionAt the Bear Center, workers are building walls to contain the dust they’re about to make as they cut new doors into the new addition.
Things are happening! It was a good day.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All pictures were taken today unless otherwise noted.