LilyLily’s GPS unit stopped transmitting, so Lynn and the current Bear Course group got a workout hiking in to her location. Lynn gave her another GPS unit as the group took pictures of the procedure. Eli and Ellie stayed put—high in a tamarack tree.
The Bear Center was buzzing with activity today. Lucky was alert to new noises as the construction on the new addition resumed. The workers added fill inside the Hope Learning Center in preparation for pouring the cement floor. Huge machines started adding fill outside the walls to bring the ground up to grade. Plumbers got the big waterfalls going. The staff is gearing up for the busy season.
Lucky hears constructionThe Great Bear Stake Out program on Discovery Channel last night was spectacular. The film team obviously spent a lot of time to catch once in a lifetime behaviors. The stories of the various bear characters totally held our attention. Some things we couldn’t understand, like the big male grizzly “Van” killing the “other” female in mating season. We thought the danger of Van walking toward the film team in the final segment might have been over-dramatized. He didn’t come that close and he appeared to be rather nonchalant. Perhaps the people on location saw something we didn’t.
With 2 days until the DNR deadline for removing radio-collars to bring our number down to 12, we have collars on 10 bears and are awaiting opportunities to place the final 2. One will be for 2-year-old Daisy who dropped her collar in her den.
Main waterfall workingFor the other collar, we are waiting to see for sure how many cubs 4-year-old Star has. If she has only one, like Lily did in 2010, we’ll radio-collar her to document what happens in mating season. We want to see if suckling by only one cub stimulates enough prolactin to suppress estrus. Observers heard only one cub in her den before she dropped her collar. We’re waiting for a sighting and an opportunity to radio-collar her if she has only one. Otherwise, we’ll put the final radio-collar on 13-year-old Donna to track her with her new litter and compare her behavior with past years.
The 10 currently radio-collared are Dot (13), June (12), Braveheart (11), Juliet (10), Ursula (8), Lily (6), Jewel (4), Faith (2), Aster (2), and Fern (1).
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.