Honey waits patiently outside Ted's enclosureAt the Bear Center, Honey was again waiting patiently for Ted to get out of lock-up. She is partial to Ted. When Lucky tried to approach Honey like Ted does, Honey chased him off. Today, Lucky came near while Honey was waiting. Lucky approached Ted’s pen. Ted moaned in fear. Lucky gave no reaction. Then he walked along the fence past Ted. Suddenly, he lunged at the fence with mouth open and Ted met him defensively—both roaring loudly like we heard in the den a couple winters ago between Honey and Lucky.
We don’t think Ted and Lucky would have injured each other, but it was loud and their mouths were inches apart, each on their own side of the fence. We had hoped that neutering Lucky would eliminate this. We’re glad we took the extra precaution to keep them separated through the mating season. We believe chances of Honey mating are zero, given her history, but it is interesting to see her staying exclusively near Ted.
Lucky peers in at workers - June 12While Honey and Ted maintain their clique, Lucky explores. A hole drilled through the cement wall of the new addition for a drainpipe caught his attention, and a worker snapped a picture for us yesterday. Today Judy Thon caught the outside view—complete with drainpipe.
Out in the woods, we saw a first. Two females vying for a male. Since last night, GPS locations for 13-year-old Dot and 4-year-old Jewel have been together off and on. Initially we thought it could be territorial. Jewel was outside her usual territory and encroaching on Dot’s. But given that it’s mating season, we wondered if they could be competing for a male?
Lucky checks out pipeThis morning about 7:40 AM, one of the research associates saw Jewel and 4-year-old Summer both following the scent trail of a male. Then, on our computer screens, we saw Jewel and Dot join up and travel over 3 miles together. Could they be following that male? We checked on site and found Jewel and Dot resting over a hundred yards apart. We determined this by telemetry and GPS but didn’t want to intrude to verify the presence of a male.
This afternoon, their GPS locations showed the 2 females together on and near a road. We raced to the spot. A male was following young Jewel, and Dot was following the male. When the male was close to Jewel and trying to mount her, Dot would come as close as 5 feet to the couple and only watch. When the male left Jewel alone a couple times, Dot chased her off. The male would then follow Jewel tongue-clicking.
...maybe not so patientlyWhen the male came near, Jewel would lie down. Once when the male became amorous, Jewel stood up and let him mount. Another time she remained lying down, and the male went to Dot 20 feet away, tongue-clicking his pleasant intentions all the way. He nuzzled Dot’s face and neck and then returned to Jewel. When he moved on from Jewel, Dot walked toward her, gave a little rush, and chased Jewel out of sight into the forest.
There must be a scarcity of males. We’ve never seen this kind of competition among females. His preference for Jewel might be because Dot is nearing the end of her estrus period after spending days with the previous male. We didn't recognize today's male. We’ll be comparing pictures to see if we have seen him before.
Word from northern Wisconsin from a Lily Fan who is monitoring family breakup and mating is that the family they are watching is still together. The more data like this the better to help us understand how the timing differs by region. Sorry, no pics of the threesome for the update. Sue left for home without downloading Lynn's pics!
Inside the Bear Center, work continued on the walls as the plumbing and heating team moved in to place ductwork. Things are moving fast now.
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.