Can you find Ursula's cub? We haven’t found time to get out to dens this winter, so we called in the reinforcements. Four of the research associates named on our permit (Bec, Jim, Lorie, and Mike) came for the weekend to help out. The 2 early arrivers were eager to work so they cleared the decks of snow yesterday afternoon—no small task because it included the snow that had slid off the metal roof. We are thankful. When the others arrived, we all pored over maps while discussing procedures and equipment.
PTZ camera at Lily's denThis morning, volunteer Zdenek joined the group. He and Jim headed off on the snowmobile to Lily’s den. They installed a PTZ camera 30 feet from the den and strung survey tape bedecked with signs asking people to stay back. The PTZ will go online as soon as Wildearth.TV provides us with the embed code.
Faith's den at the base of a white pineThis same crew checked Faith’s signal and found it strong. Faith is our top priority for a collar change this spring. She will get an adult collar with GPS unit. The crew confirmed her den location and then headed off to check on Ursula—snowmobiling as far as they could then hiking far into the woods in all this snow. They listened for cubs and only heard one. 
Ursula's denWith binoculars they only saw one as well. We expected her to have at least 2. We’ll confirm their count later this spring.
Lorie breaking trailThe other 3 associates headed for Braveheart’s den to listen for cubs. They got close, according to the radio signal, but couldn’t find the den in the hip-deep snow. They were in the area over an hour and didn’t hear any cubs, so they might have been looking for an empty collar under the snow. 
Jim? You're not even breaking trail...The highlight was seeing 2 sets of fresh moose tracks as they homed in on Braveheart’s signal. The trio arrived back exhausted, but perked up after a meal of meatloaf and roasted vegetables and were joking about their adventures. They got up the courage to try for another bear and were met with similar success. Tomorrow is another day.
Big Ted...BIG!At the Bear Center, the bears showed their aversion to deep snow. Ted came out and played with his Den Cam. Staff saw the picture jiggling and ran up to see what was happening. Ted had removed a bale of straw and was touching the camera. Ted made his sweet greeting sounds to Judy Thon. She covered the camera with the bale of straw. 
Ted sniffs the lensJudy McClure brought a bucket of water and filled his icy bowl. Ted sniffed it and wasn’t interested. He followed the two Judys to the open exit of his pen but didn’t want to walk through the pile of snow to get out. He wanted to follow and was still making his grunts of greeting, which meant he wanted to make contact. Judy Thon tromped down the pile of snow for him, and he followed, but only for a couple feet. Judy McClure offered him the remaining water in her bucket, but again he sniffed and wasn’t interested. That was enough. He went back in his den and lay down.
Honey's tracksShortly, he pushed the straw bale off the camera again, letting him see out the back of his den. Eventually, Judy Thon realized Ted didn’t care about the camera. He just wanted the bale of straw gone. She didn’t replace the bale, and Ted is lying there looking content.
Cub walking the logAt Honey’s den, the tracks tell the story. She came out partway for the first time in months, saw how deep the snow is, and disappeared back into the den. The snow was over knee deep where Judy Thon stood to take the picture.
Lily's familyAt the risk of making this too long, Jewel was busy eating footpads and snow. Jewel is into foot hygiene for herself and her yearlings. It wasn’t enough to work on her own footpads. Yesterday, she used her teeth to work on removing a yearling’s footpad. That showed us it wasn’t the discomfort of a hard footpad that makes her bite at it, it is something she sees as needing to be removed. Could the footpads actually taste good, making her want to bite at a yearling’s footpad?
Lily mouths cub's pawThe BFF Team has pulled together subject matter scattered through the updates and consolidated them into picture essays that are very informative. They save us from repeating facts we wrote in earlier updates. They are often just below the update on Lily the Black Bear’s Facebook page. There is one on footpads among them.
Male cub checking out Lily's earLily’s male cub got curious about mom’s ear and stuck his nose deep into it. Lily woke and actively discouraged him. So many cute interactions in Lily’s den. It’s hard to know where to start or end. The cubs play so hard they fall into very deep sleep—the sleep of worn out young 'uns.
Lily has had enough!Tomorrow, the Duluth News Tribune is going to announce the winning names for Lily’s cubs. With less than 4 hours to go in the voting at http://www.bear.org/website/cub-naming.html, you have registered over 6,000 votes. Amazing!
Two videos tonight - Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHL6XSpqL0 and Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzUWvTIQDYE.
Male climbs up from lower level We received a cute book today created by a classroom that watches the Den Cams. To plan forward, we wonder how many classrooms are watching the Den Cams this year and how teachers are integrating the Den Cams into their teaching. If you are one of these teachers, please fill out the brief questionnaire at http://www.bear.org/website/den-cam-questionnaire.html?view=form and share your thoughts. We’re always looking for ways to improve.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.