Lily on her back It snowed most of today and more snow is forecast. How long can the bears stay in? It could be awhile yet. We looked back at old data (1971-1975) on page 22-23 in Lynn’s Wildlife Monograph at http://tinyurl.com/Monograph-97.
It's an Ellie wink!Though nothing like the record early spring of 2012, spring came early in 1973. Fifteen of 19 bears had emerged from their dens by April 6.
In the other 4 years, all 59 bears emerged between April 7 and 30. Two mothers with unusually small cubs then went back into their dens and remained in or at the dens until the second or third week of May.
Ghost-like Eli returns from outsideLily’s big, frisky cubs won’t be doing that. They would have the entire brush pile dismantled by then! They worked hard on it today—scrambling around in the attic causing sticks, bark, and debris to fall down on Lily.
Lily licks snow off EliLily got into the act a bit today herself—lying on her back with all 4 feet in the air pawing at the ceiling of the den. The cubs soon attacked her for some rowdy play.
Three videos of their antics today—Part I http://youtu.be/cpbXa1HAm8Y, Part II http://youtu.be/ddb0LURjbaM, and Part III http://youtu.be/ZEzT6m38Y6E.
Honey tries out rock denAt the Bear Center, Ted and Lucky are still waiting out the weather, but Honey is being more adventuresome. She tried out the rock den for a while today before going back to the wooden window den about 3:15 PM.
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.