Lily chews stick for bedding Lily’s cubs have expanded their world to include the area just outside the den where they climb on sticks and are visible from the PTZ camera. Meanwhile, Lily is busying herself by chipping up sticks with her teeth for more bedding. She has also removed most of the balsam fir branchlets from the boughs she brought in. Does improving her bed mean she’s planning to stay awhile?
Lily brings in a stick to chewWith the cubs outside, we thought about coyotes and wolves, but we believe the cubs are past the trusting socialization period when they are unafraid. We believe with their early births and advanced development, they would fear anything strange and flee inside to Lily. We think of the socialization period as roughly 6-12 weeks of age but varying with development. It's typically the time from eyes opening to den emergence, so cubs are past the socialization period when they leave the den.
Videos of Lily and cubs from today are: Part I http://youtu.be/2Mvq9u8IXd0, Part II http://youtu.be/17sZV1PVrD8, and Part III http://youtu.be/s00kvXa6qX0.
Lily peers out of denWould you like to guess when Lily, Eli and Ellie will leave their den for good this year? Post your date in the comment section of the #vzwmidwest blog at http://bit.ly/11Vp929.
Camera focused on lens cover!Thinking back, perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised that Jewel ate Fern’s fecal plug. We remember seeing Jewel licking directly under the tail of one yearling after it defecated some weeks ago, and we thought Lily might have eaten feces from Hope back when the Den Cams were not as clear. Back then, we wondered if Lily was treating yearling Hope like a little cub along with Faith and Jason. 
A sleepy cub yawnsAll were nursing and getting milk, so we speculated Hope’s feces might contain nutrients from the milk. 
Jewel's den at night from PTZWe didn’t think bears ate the fecal plugs because we’ve commonly found them at dens after bears left them. And, in the old days of tranquilizing bears in dens this time of year, we’d commonly find feces just inside the entrances of dens, which is where Fern left hers.
Jewel's PTZ camera is working. We hope to have it online soon!
Eli inspects cameraIt's great for us to finally see on camera what we could only imagine from limited observations in the old days of brief den visits. Back then when we looked into a den, we saw wary bears that showed only defensive behavior and none of the vast variety of behaviors we are seeing on the Den Cams.
Ellie inspects cameraThe same kind of thought is what drives Sue. She spent years tracking bears in New Hampshire, imagining what it looked like for bears to leave different kinds of sign. She came here to walk with bears and suddenly was seeing bears make the kinds of sign she’d wondered about in New Hampshire. She also saw bears making sign she never would have guessed was bear sign.
Lily stretches out in the denWe wish wildlife officials could spend enough time with bears to truly understand them. Too often their decisions are based on the usual misconceptions. Harmless bears are shot for showing nervous behavior, and scary messages are given to the public to avoid liability.
Ellie mouths a dry leafDetails about the contest to guess the first weights of the year for Ted, Lucky, and Honey are at http://tinyurl.com/NABC-Bear-Weight-Contest (please ignore any ads on the page). If you do not have a Facebook page, email
A sign of spring: eagles are suddenly abundant. Three passed by the window today.
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.