Can you find Ursula's cubs? With strong winds, brief blizzards, and temperatures in the mid 30’s, Jim Stroner and Field Assistant Bec picked their way through a half-mile of tangled underbrush and swamp to 8-year-old Ursula, daughter of 26-year-old Shadow. It’s Ursula’s year to have cubs. Their goal was to see how many cubs she has and give her a GPS unit.
3 cubs high in tamarackJim spent time getting to know Ursula last fall without cubs so he was the natural choice to attempt to join her on this blustery day. With a wind so strong it was toppling trees in the area, it took 2 ¼ hours for Ursula to accept Jim and Bec. They were patient, and finally succeeded in putting Ursula on the GPS map and counting 3 cubs up a spindly tamarack where the cubs took emergency refuge.
Ursula's highest cubUrsula has an unusually well marked face and is a sweetheart once she accepts someone. Jim noticed that her dark brown muzzle has bleached out this spring. She is one of the core bears in the center of the study area and one we need to keep collared within the new limit of 12. Her territory is adjacent to Lily’s. Her location today was just a half-mile from where she was born in 2005. We cheered for Jim and Bec when they texted they were cold but successful—plus they got pictures.
Ursula with sun-bleached muzzleNext, we went after 13-year-old Dot and her yearlings to see if they are still together and to give Dot a GPS unit. Lynn, Sue, and Jim did this one. Lynn wanted to see how Dot would respond to him. She’s more used to Glenn and Nancy, but Glenn hasn’t been cleared for woods work yet after his heart surgery.
Dot's bed of shredded woodYesterday, Dot evaded Sue and Bec, maybe because she was on the move. Lynn has worked close-up with Dot only once in the last 5 years or more, and that was at her den with cubs last year where she would be less likely to run away. On the approach today, Lynn tried to sound like Glenn (“Come, Dot”) with a little “It’s me bear” mixed in. He wore the same green jacket Dot had learned to recognize back in 2003 when he crawled into her den to place a camera under her to video her newborn cubs.
DotToday—at a bed tree—she held, recognized the situation, and was as mellow as ever. Her 3 yearlings slipped away, but she calmly came to us. She is another bear that needs to continue wearing a radio-collar. We have studied her movements by telemetry since birth. We’ve watched the shifts in her territory over the years. Each year’s data adds to our understanding. We’re glad to have this 8th bear sending GPS locations to Google Earth every 10 minutes.
Brief blizzard obscures far side of Woods LakeJune will probably be next to get a GPS. She has been inaccessible but we’re hoping that will change soon. We plan to remove Colleen’s collar, but we think she may have done the job for us. We’re picking up a steady beep from her remote den location. We'll hike in soon and likely just pick up a collar.
Wood Duck high in red pineA sign of spring between snow squalls today was a Wood Duck that flew to a high branch on a red pine and vocalized continuously. Soon, a female flew to a nearby branch. We seldom see wood ducks and hope they will nest in one of the wood duck boxes here. So far, the boxes have housed only mergansers. The picture shows a lot of green in the background, but it’s all conifers. No leaves have burst yet, and we’ve seen nothing emerging from the forest floor.
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.