Zdenek in Colleen's denWe kept Colleen collared last fall—hoping her GPS location data would give us more clues to the location of the den we believe holds her last 2 collars. One of the collars is no longer transmitting but the other should be good for another 5 months or so. We believe they are both in a rock den so convoluted that the signal can’t escape. We have not been able to locate the signals after repeated flights over the study area and beyond.
Zdenek with Colleen's collarLast fall we followed her signal to her den, but, true to form, she left the den this spring without her collar. Today volunteer Zdenek braved the wet weather and located her collar in the den. He listened for but did not hear the older collar, which should still be transmitting. We will study the GPS locations we have on her for the past couple years and decide the best areas to search for the mysterious radio-collar-eating den.
Braveheart's collarZdenek then took on the task of retrieving Braveheart’s collar. It became clearer and clearer these past few days that Braveheart had shed her collar. We should have tightened it when we gave her the GPS last week. At least we have her collar now and will be on the lookout for her so we can put it back on.
Juliet's yearling SybilField Assistant Jim Stroner caught up with Juliet to change her GPS batteries and he confirmed that she is still with her yearlings. We wonder if family breakup will be later this year with the late spring.
JulietNext on Jim’s list was to change Faith’s GPS batteries, but he aborted the attempt when he found her faint signal coming from a remote roadless area and he was running out of daylight. On the drive out he caught sight of a bear foraging on the side of a forest road. It was Ursula, and Jim watched as she ate grass—moving from one side of the road to the other in the process. It was a treat to see Ursula after not making it to Faith.
Ursula finds grass beside roadPrediction is for heavy rain tomorrow, which might forestall fieldwork. We need to connect with both Faith and Aster—bears that are just getting used to us approaching them in the woods. They will be even more skittish in the heavy rain. Good excuse to find inside work to do.
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.