Ursula's denToday it was Ursula’s turn to have the ribbons and plastic strips removed from her collar, and that was a job for Jim Stroner. Jim has worked hard to earn Ursula’s trust over the past couple years. Ursula is a shy bear. Few people see her, but she is calm and trusting once she identifies an intruder as one of us. One of the goals of his visit was to count her cubs. Halfway through the bear hunt this fall, residents began seeing her with 2 cubs rather than 3.
Ursula in deep grass bedJim found her denned in a deep bed of grass under the big root mound of a fallen tree. He estimated the raked area around the den at 50 x 80 feet, which is unusually large. He confirmed she has only 2 cubs, so one is definitely lost. Cubs cannot be legally taken during the hunt.
Ursula was her calm self, but she has twice left dens after we visited her, so we left her GPS unit on to show us what she does this time. So far, she is staying put. Leaving the unit on means we are likely sacrificing both the unit and its case to gnawing cubs. Today, the cubs stayed snuggled calmly in the deep, soft bed. Jim had a memorable experience, feeling the privilege of being trusted by such an otherwise timid and wary bear. We doubt if Ursula can become another June or Lily, but time will tell. A problem is that so much of her territory is inaccessible or nearly so—almost as bad as where Faith has settled.
Then Jim and Sue went to Lily’s den to maintain the trail cam that showed us so many animals looking into the deep rock den last winter when it was empty. Did it still smell of Lily and Faith? We’ll see how many animals check it out this winter with bears in it.
Soon, we will scout a location for a den shed a couple hundred feet from 10-year-old Juliet’s den. Juliet should have cubs this winter and is a bear we have monitored and occasionally walked with since she was 5. She was the blustery bear in the opening scene of Bearwalker back in 2008 and one of the main bears in My Bear Family and Me in 2010 and Planet Earth Live in 2012. She sometimes shows harmless bluster, but she has never hurt anyone.
Minnesota’s Give to the Max Day is November 14th. However, you can ‘schedule’ your donation on GiveMN any day and your donation won’t be processed until Give to the Max Day on November 14th. Be sure to check the box “Make my donation count for Give to the Max Day 2013.” Your donation will then be eligible for the Golden Ticket drawings and will help NABC compete on the leaderboards. Click here to schedule your donation.
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.