Yawns are catchy Lily has officially been denned for 7 months and counting. She seems ever busier going out and coming in. As we said before, her cubs are the most advanced we’ve seen in a den. On this day, they are exactly 3 weeks older (88 days old) than Hope was when she left with Lily in 2010 (67 days old).
Eli chews on a stickJewel and her 2 yearlings are still at their den with snow melting on this balmy 46F day. From what we saw of their Den Cam, they seemed less active than yesterday.
Tracks between culvert endsWe wondered how Juliet and her 3 yearlings were doing in their culvert den—or if they got flooded out. 
Juliet in her culvert denWe found them still there, and it doesn’t even look very wet inside. Juliet still has her collar on. All is fine there. They’ve been out a lot, roaming up to 60 feet away, but were in the den when Lynn walked up without announcing himself.
One thing they did while out was bite off the top of a red maple sapling and bring the branches to the entrance of the den. 
Maple branches at den entranceIn Lynn’s haste to leave quickly, he didn’t think to check whether the maple buds had been eaten. 
Broken maple saplingRed maple flowers will be on the menu later. Documenting whether tiny buds of red maple are eaten—like the aspen buds were eaten by Lily—is worth checking back after the bears leave.
More signs of spring today are the first raccoon (Procyon lotor) tracks and the first turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) flying over.
Lily and EliThe Bear Facts and Fun Team put together a nice piece about black bears and dogs (and cats) at http://tinyurl.com/Bears-Dogs.
3 out of 4 of Lily's pawsThe Lilypad Picnic Committee surprised us with a nice half-page full color ad in the Ely Echo Newspaper expressing their support for WRI and NABC.
Lily and the missing 4th paw!And then, a big surprise for Lynn’s Birthday were donations totaling $5,540 for the Hope Learning Center! So many good things are happening the last few days.
Part III of yesterday's video is at http://youtu.be/EOCiALcT9a8.
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.