Lily licks water off cubWith bright sun and temperatures above freezing, water dripped on Lily and her cubs. Lily licked the drops off the cubs as we first observed back in 2000 with Blackheart as seen in The Man Who Walks With Bears, but today we saw something new. Cubs licked drops off each other and their mother, showing it is not just a motherly instinct.
Cub licks water off LilyJewel’s den has a damp area on the ceiling, but so far the den seems dry. We love the new 4G LTE High Definition Technology. It lets us see details we might not have been sure about before. Temperatures are forecast to be warm the next 3 days. We’ll see what happens to the snow and the reactions of the bears in the wild and at the Bear Center.
Lily licks water off logAs we see signs of spring, our thoughts turn to fieldwork. We’ve already ordered more of the custom-made GPS cases. The bears are rough on them and those we were not able to remove last fall will need to be replaced. We will prep 3 adult collars with GPS units for Faith, Aster, and Daisy to replace the ‘cub’ collars they are wearing now. This will vastly increase the amount of data we can obtain from these bears. We plan to give Fern a ‘cub’ collar if she is receptive. Other bears will need collars tightened after winter weight loss. A few will need to have collars removed to stay within our 12-collar limit.
Cub framed by Lily's hind feetThis summer, we are fortunate to have 4 committed volunteers to work as research assistants. These are folks we know well and who have proven themselves to be dedicated and reliable. They’ve all worked around the bears, but only one has any hands-on experience. This year, they will be facing greater challenges as they work close-up with the bears. We will work closely with them as they learn what works and doesn’t work with each individual bear.
Good comparison of Ellie and EliIn past years, people have quit (or found they could never really start) when the research bears didn’t fit the ‘tame’ image they had of them. A grad student a few years back saw nervous behavior toward her, felt the deep primal fear that is hard to quell, and headed home to find another way to get a master’s degree. Dark images cloud some people’s minds. Some imagine bears as behaving like aggressive oversized guard dogs. Some can’t erase the cover photos they’ve seen on hunting magazines. We know how it is. We’ve been there.
Can you find both cubs?We were happy with the brief but packed news clip on Duluth Channel 6 (KBJR-TV) last night about what Lily Fans have done for Ely, but we haven’t located an online version. New reporter Gabrielle told the story nicely in less than 2 minutes. Judy Thon was excellent. The shots from inside the Bear Center showed a quote from a Lily Fan and provided a bit of bear education.
Can you make out the faint V?Today, we noticed for the first time that Eli has a very faint V of white hairs on his chest. Generally faint blazes such as this disappear over time. There has been so much action in Lily's den that we have a 4-part video of today's highlights; Part I http://youtu.be/0aZc4ChjoFw, Part II http://youtu.be/Rd5EEOiwVQY, Part III http://youtu.be/u-FHB-Jj_II, and Part IV http://youtu.be/Li-Kseq-6qQ.
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.