Victoria Jim Stroner headed out this morning to spend time with Juliet. What he found surprised us all. As he was calling to Juliet, he saw a bear approaching. He assumed it was Juliet and began taking pictures of her. Then he realized the bear was uncollared and too small to be Juliet. Then he saw the distinctive V-shaped blaze of Victoria. Juliet appeared and barreled by Jim to chase Victoria off. Jim had spent a lot of time with Jo when Victoria was a cub. Did she remember him?
A peek at Victoria's blazeThis scene repeated itself several more times while Jim was with Juliet. Victoria kept creeping back and Juliet kept chasing her off. When we looked at Juliet’s GPS readings from before Jim joined her, we realized the interactions between these two bears had begun earlier in the day.
Juliet chases VictoriaThis evening, Juliet and ‘a friend’ arrived at a feeding station nearly a mile away. The pictures sent and description of the ‘friend’ matched Victoria. Could 2-year-old Victoria really be challenging 10-year-old Juliet for territory?
UrsulaBec joined Jim this afternoon for the long walk in to Ursula to change her GPS batteries. Ursula, June, and Faith spend most of their time in remote areas, making us thankful for the research associates who can make these hikes as if they are nothing. Jim has worked hard to develop a relationship with 8-year-old Ursula these last couple years. She was slow to identify Jim and Bec and come to them, but eventually she did. We’re not at the point where we can walk with her, though, so the main activity data still comes from the GPS locations.
Meanwhile, Lynn and Sue were in the office responding to statements in newspaper articles about the permit crisis.
A statement by DNR official Lou Cornicelli was that a tipping point for the DNR was a 2005 video of Rogers smacking one of the bears and concern that Rogers was mistreating bears. What really happened? In Lynn’s words,
2-year-old Juliet took a swipe at me, and I reflexively swiped back. We both missed. We made up a couple minutes later. Working closely with bears was a learning process for both me and the bears. Each bear has a different personality. Juliet is prone to blustery expressiveness, and I recognize that now. At 2 years of age, she was just getting over her year of anxiety that follows family break-up. We built mutual trust—to an extent. That was all back in 2005.
Fast forward 8 years to 2 days ago. Still radio-collared, 10-year-old Juliet heard my voice deep in the woods and came to me. The trust continues. The complaints about me mistreating the bears I collar grew out of that one unrepresentative videotaped incident that a disgruntled ex-employee recently released to Facebook, generating concern among viewers who didn’t know the whole story. The DNR has now stated in a newspaper article that this incident from 2005 was what they referred to as “extremely unprofessional behavior” in their June 28 letter stating why they are ending my research. It is helpful to know what we are dealing with.
JulietJuliet is a valuable research bear. We can walk with her to determine diet and have followed her through 4 litters.
The first litter was two males, one of which was shot by a hunter as a yearling and the other presumably dispersed.
The second litter included a male (David) that presumably dispersed and 2 females (Tia and Mimi) that died as cubs. We are working with veterinarians to publish the finding that sarcocystis caused Mimi’s death.
The third litter (2010) included 2 females (Sharon and Shirley) that we radio-collared to study family relationships as they vied with each other and Juliet for territories. However, we removed the collars from the daughters (Shirley in 2012, Sharon in 2013) due to restrictions on radio-collars. Shirley was killed by a hunter last fall. Sharon has 2 cubs with her this year. The male (Boy Named Sue) presumably dispersed.
The most recent litter (2012) also had two females (Sybil and Sophie) plus Sam (male), but none could be radio-collared.
Juliet fed on wild callaJuliet’s family lives around Tower and Soudan, MN, where we had hoped she and her daughters would help us document their behaviors and fates around these fairly dense towns compared to the more rural Eagles Nest Community. It’s unfortunate we lost this opportunity.
In addition to the data Juliet and her offspring have provided, they have done their part to educate, being featured in every BBC documentary about our study since 2008.
We see your comments and contributions and feel your support during this permit crisis. Thank you for all the ways you are helping.
On this 237th celebration of America’s Independence Day, we’ll be watching Ely’s fireworks and feeling thankful for the freedom we have.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.