NABC float - Nov 30Lynn and Donna’s delightful grandkids are gone after participating with their parents in the parade last night. They joined NABC staff, volunteers, and children and grandchildren of staff and volunteers. The children represented Education Outreach. Various “bears” pranced around the pickup/float handing out candy. Fun all around.
Donna and grandchildren - Nov 29At the Rogers' home, little Heinrich (4) and Gabrielle (2) fed a bear red “berries” and then participated with the bear in learning their letters. If they weren’t sitting on it they were touching it or hugging it. The bear was a gift from Lily Fans—thank you!
Family walk at Arthur Lake - Nov 29In the woods, little Heinrich, in the lead in the picture, asked Grandpa if bears roamed the woods there. Yes. “Hey bears,” he said enthusiastically, smiling. It made Grandpa’s day.
NABC float - Nov 30The Mystery Bear hasn’t shown since 5:30 PM on November 28. It left the area that night walking steadily over a mile down a forest road as a person in the community followed it at a distance by car until the bear finally turned into the woods and kept going. We think it was heading out for the winter, given that it has not reappeared. November 28 is the latest a presumably healthy bear has been reported out and about in all of our studies here in northeastern Minnesota. We’ll keep an eye out for this bear next year to add sex and age to the story. Its distinctive white mark on the left front of its chest will be easy to spot.
NABC staff and volunteers - Nov 30Work today was Sue assembling data for a paper on family break-up while Lynn started putting his office back in order after letting the piles on and around his desk get way too deep.
At the Bear Center, Ted didn’t stir for a fifth day in a row, meaning that there is a winner in the contest to pick the date of his official hibernation according to the contest rules. Lucky long ago passed the 5-day threshold. We had to disturb Honey to install a Den Cam in her den a couple days ago, but she is likely to come out from time to time when she hears people come out the back door. We took a chance and put an unprotected Pan-Tilt-Zoom camera in her den. If she leaves it alone, we’ll be all set If she investigates it too vigorously, we’ll have to resort to a standard Den Cam protected by a PVC pipe.
The eBay auction of a hand-crafted teddy bear (with proceeds to benefit the Hope Learning Center) mentioned in last night's update is in progress at http://www.ebay.com/itm/OOAK-Artist-Realistic-Style-Teddy-Bear-by-J-Livingston-Desertmountainbear-/360805396395. Bidding is already heavy!
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All images taken today unless otherwise noted.