Fern licks her paw - May 1, 2013 As of 6 PM with snow and rain (33F), Jewel, Fern, and Herbie are 0.9 mile from their den and on the move, while Lily, Eli, and Ellie are still holding tight 0.4 mile from their den. Both families are deep in the woods. That’s of interest because Jewel’s den was less than 200 feet from 2 houses and to get where she is she passed within 150 yards of several other residences without investigating any of them. She led Fern and Herbie to more secluded areas. The bears we tried to reach today—Faith, Aster, and Juliet—all were too deep in the woods to attempt walking in the time we had.
Deer browse on new grassAlthough spring is late, it’s the time of year we’d expect bear metabolisms to have revved up to active levels. We’d expect them to be hungry by now. It’s the time of year we usually see bears roaming. But this year, there is no preferred food source like emerging green vegetation to fuel activity. Tiny sprigs of grass are starting to show up on sunny south hillsides, and deer are finding those. But there is nothing like that in the woods yet—where the snow is still 18 inches deep in some areas. This is the latest spring we’ve seen in over four decades of study.
A person might think the bears would be hungry now and visiting bird feeders and garbage cans. Although all the bears in this area are accustomed to seeing people, they are avoiding them. Jewel and Fern seemed hungry when we caught up to them yesterday. Their hunger for a handful of nuts is what held them in place as we pulled and tugged on their necks to do our work. But they are avoiding people and houses.
Hare in Honey's enclosureWe are still trying to understand bear minds and bodies. How little we really know. As years of varying conditions accumulate, patterns will emerge.
At the Bear Center yesterday, Lucky’s pacing let us know he didn’t want to be confined in Ted’s chalet den pen. We let him out and let Ted into that pen. Today, both seem contented with that arrangement. We plan to keep them mostly separated for another week or so.
In the pen where Honey denned, a snowshoe hare that is replacing its white winter fur with brown summer fur is eating straw. Emerging green vegetation has yet to show there, too.
Presentation to 2nd grade classesBetty Beauchamp, a member of the BFF Team (Bear Facts and Fun) has been putting together nice summaries of what has been written on a variety of topics. She combined the summaries with great pictures by Jim Stroner and others. Now, she has a link to a page where we can easily access the 19 topics so far at https://www.facebook.com/notes/bffbetty/links-to-topics-on-bffbetty-page/315618291902330 We think these might be nice lesson topics for classrooms as well as cleverly written summaries. There’s more we want to do with these for the Hope Learning Center and classroom use elsewhere. The Education Outreach continues to grow.
Judy Thon accepts donated computerWe’re also happy that Speakers Bureau participants are presenting to school classrooms and suggesting improvements for the various ages.
Jill Gilderman, a member of Team Forward, donated a nice computer to the Bear Center from her friend Bob Bennett who recently passed away. Bob had been blind since birth but enjoyed listening to the Den Cams. He visited the Bear Center on January 21, 2011 when Lily was in labor. We had her Den Cam up, and Bob—with his acute hearing—was the first to hear the cubs. Before he left that day, we let him touch one of the taxidermy mounts of a black bear. The joy he felt at ‘seeing’ his first bear was evident as he gently explored the mount.
Big thank you’s to so many for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.