Juliet - Feb 7, 2014Tomorrow is the big upgrade, which means both websites will be down for the switch. That means Holly’s Den Cam will be down on bear.org. All is not lost. You can watch Holly’s Den Cam directly on Wild Earth at http://beta.wildearth.tv/nabc-holly-den-cam. There is no chat room there, but there is one at http://www.ustream.tv/BearCam. For tomorrow, you might try splitting the computer screen by opening another window to view Holly on WildEarth and chatting through Ustream.
Juliet is giving us and Den-Watchers looks at her cubs but not good enough to positively identify sexes, although a glimpse of one made several say male.
Holly pops upHolly emerged from being buried in her straw and frolicked on the surface a little before 4 PM today.
The staff designed a chalet for Honey that is slightly bigger and better than the one Ted took over from her a year or so ago. Like Ted’s chalet now, it has an insulated floor and will be able to hold a lot of straw like she has in her window den this winter.
Juliet on alertWe had a nice talk today with a Lily Fan from Blaine, Minnesota. He was saying that last year all the schools in his area were streaming the Den Cams. One was in his daughter’s 4th grade class; another was in the school lunchroom, another in the school library. He asked if the DNR would relent and let schools see the Den Cams this winter. We now know the answer.
JulietThe only way the DNR would allow us to share the Den Cams with schools is to make a set of DVD’s (hundreds) each day and send them through the mail. We checked feasibility. It would cost over a thousand dollars a day, including postage, and would be the only thing we did each day. Given that the DNR plan was not feasible, we hoped the DNR would relent and let schools join the Den-watchers in viewing the live video. Or that they would let us make a video highlight clip each day that we could post for classrooms. We also asked if we could make the video highlight clips part of the update each night. The answers were no, no, and no.
Juliet with nervous long noseThe highlight video for last night with Juliet would have been interesting. Between 1 and 2 AM, she was on high alert as an animal came close enough to her den and cubs to cause distortion on the microphone. She didn’t relax and sleep until about 2:30 AM. We’d check tracks to document what put her on such alert, but we are fully tied up getting ready for the hearing.
Juliet tends her cubsA thought that keeps us going is that things will get better. Bright spots along the way are having a peer-reviewed paper accepted for publication by a prestigious peer-reviewed journal while talented volunteers work with us on two others for peer-reviewed journals. Lily Fans rock.
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.