Ursula and cubsThere’s nothing like a rainy day to give Field Assistants a real taste for fieldwork. It could have been worse. There are no biting bugs out yet.
Fearful Ursula in balsam treeJim and Lorie were real troopers. First it was another aborted quest to get to Faith, and then another chance sighting of Ursula—this time with cubs. The roadside grass seems to be a real draw for her right now. They caught sight of Ursula and her cubs on the road in the distance, but she bolted into the woods.
Calm UrsulaJim began working with Ursula late last summer so we could dependably connect with her in the woods to adjust collars, change batteries, etc. She had bolted into the woods when she saw them, but Jim took advantage of theopportunity to spend more time with her. He and Lorie followed her into the woods, but she kept moving away. Even though he was calling to her she stayed out of sight and finally climbed a large balsam. Her bluster from high in the balsam shook the entire tree. But then she seemed to recognize Jim. She quickly descended and was her usual calm self.
Next, Jim and Lorie were off to find Aster.
LilyThe roads here make locating bears a challenge because all roads dead-end except Hwy 169, which bisects the study area. In many cases you literally “can’t get there from here.” Many of the roads we have to travel for the reseach work are logging roads of varying ages and ‘quality,‘ and our vehicles bear the scars. It took so long for Jim and Lorie to maneuver their way to a good signal on Aster that they needed to come back to ‘refuel’ themselves before hiking in.
Yearling trackIn the meantime, Lily’s GPS had stopped transmitting, so we sent them in search of Lily instead. After locating Lily and swapping out her GPS unit, we sent them off to see if Juliet still had her yearlings with her.
Bedstraw just poking throughLast night, we noticed some odd movements from Juliet, which made us wonder if family breakup had occurred. She traveled 2.33 miles to the far reaches of Vermilion State Park—up by Mattson Bay—and then came back to the very spot she had been that morning. It caught our attention because bears seldom backtrack like that. Unfortunately, Juliet was moving too fast this evening for Jim and Lorie to catch up with her. However, they found bear tracks in the mud that they felt sure were made by a yearling.
Interrupted fern eruptionLater we received a message from someone who saw the family together at 9:35 PM. We debated whether to tell the exhausted Field Assistants, but their identification of the tracks as yearling tracks was right on!
Plants are beginning to emerge from the forest floor. We saw our first interrupted fern (Osmunda claytoniana) fiddleheads today. Interestingly, the bears eat only the stems of these ferns at this stage. Later, when the fronds have newly expanded, bears will strip the leaflets off the stem by pulling the frond through their diastema. Bedstraw (Galium spp.) and largeleaf aster (Aster macrophyllus), also bear foods, are popping up as well. Spring is a happening thing in the Northwoods.
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.