Jewel Today, we caught up to Jewel, Fern, and Herbie on the move. As we homed in on them with telemetry, Sue’s iPad showed them moving north. We were in no hurry to try to catch up to them. Bears moving through dense forest on a mission are about impossible to catch up to—especially if they have a half-mile lead. The next road was 0.8 mile from us. Maybe they’d keep going and let us intercept them there.
In between GPS locations, we’d listen by telemetry. Varying strengths of signals mean they’re moving. Different parts of the collar send different strength signals, so when a bear is moving it sends weak and strong signals as the collar moves. The family was moving. Jewel and Fern’s radio-collars were always in the same direction. Then we got 2 GPS locations in the same spot. Maybe they found a place to rest. By then, they were only 2 tenths of a mile from the northern road. We started in.
Jewel and yearlingsWe judge distance by how far we can turn down the gain on the telemetry receiver and still hear it. We could turn it down to 2. When we could turn it down to 1.5, we both started saying “It’s me bear.” Dr. Gordon Burghardt was with us but being quiet. He didn’t want to confuse the bears with a strange voice. A new GPS location on Sue’s phone showed that the bears were on the move again, moving west as if to avoid us. Then they must have heard our voices clearly enough. Soon we could turn the telemetry receiver down to 0.9, then 0.6 and 0.3. The bears and we were likely approaching each other—confidently. Then the telemetry receiver said 0.0. We should be able to see the bears. Suddenly, we heard the thud of heavy feet and the rustle of shaking bushes. Jewel knew exactly who we were and wasn’t wasting time. Fern and Herbie weren’t far behind. If mom was confident, they were confident.
Lynn got out the pecans. Sue began working the collar to pull out the GPS unit. Gordon got out his camera and stayed back. The battery switch went without a hitch. As we left, the bears were checking the ground for any nuts that might have dropped. Then they continued their way north like they had been doing for the previous hour except for their timeout to give two locations in the same spot.
Jewel in wetlandWe reached the road and turned east toward our vehicle. Looking back, we saw them a hundred yards behind us on the road, still heading north. A car slowed and stopped near us, looking at the bears paused beside the road. Sue said to just drive past and not stop. They did. Jewel and family ran into the woods, still heading north.
The weather was perfect. Not a single bug bite. We couldn’t think of a better spring day.
A Lily Fan spotted an interesting video about our friend Steve Searles, The Bear Whisperer of Mammoth Lakes, California – http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelindex=4&from=en-us_msnhp#/video/3dc7ea42-8b6f-4b4a-bf72-37b4d5515bb7. Steve works for coexistence between people and bears and is the person called when there are bear problems. He was trying to scare a bear out from under a house, but the bear was hesitant to exit where Steve wanted it to go. From the video, we can tell a cameraman was outside that entrance and might have made the bear cautious. The bear decided to exit in Steve's direction, and he was too close.
Jewel and yearling in wetlandThe bear made a terrifying rush at Steve who had no place to go in the corner. The bear looked and sounded convincing—like when Honey rushed at Lucky in the den last winter. She looked deadly serious but did nothing to injure Lucky, or vice versa. Same in Steve’s case. The bear showed Steve who was boss, exited, and everything was okay. Steve did what we would expect of him. He went on camera, explained, and showed he had no injury. Steve is not one to overdramatize a bear event for self-aggrandizement at the expense of the bear. He told it how it was and honestly indicated it scared him. Steve tells it like it is.
A brief video from May 30 of Lily and cubs is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpMjrS0mk0.
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.