Cub crawls to back of denJuliet’s Den Cam is our first of a 3-cub litter and the cub sounds have been a delight. Last night shortly after Juliet retrieved a screaming cub that was crawling away, all 3 cubs settled in to nurse. See if you can pick out their 3 voices in this recording of the event.
Once again, we're glad to know that the camera in Juliet's den records video onsite to an SD card because we lost the transmission from the Den Shed again. Technicians are working to solve the probelm. A ‘down’ Den Cam made today a quiet day, so we turn to news from elsewhere in the bear world.
Juliet retrieves cubOld Lily Fans will remember 2011 when we all worked so hard (but unsuccessfully) for protection of radio-collared bears here in Minnesota. In Arkansas, the same year, the same issue was afoot, but the Board of Commissioners of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission made it the law.
Juliet comforts cubThe minutes from their meeting on March 17, 2011, state, “There was a lot of conversation relative to being able to shoot collared bears. In our guidebook we ask hunters not to shoot them, but 13 out of 35 were killed this year. The majority of those were taken over bait and where folks can easily see them. A new code will be added this year prohibiting the taking of bears with radio collars.”
We checked. Current regulations state, “It is illegal to kill a denned bear or one that is being pursued by dogs. It is illegal to kill a bear outfitted with a radio collar.”
Cub settles in to nurseIn another state, we know of a resort where bears are fed. The owners and guests loved them. At first, hunters targeted them. Then, local hunters came to the resort for dinner and met the bears. They loved them, too. This past May (2013), the resort went bankrupt and the owners sadly had to move. What happened to the bears? The local hunters took over feeding them there and now protect them from other hunters. As of this past fall before hibernation, the hunters were still seeing the bears they had gotten to know over the years. Most of the bears came only occasionally over the years, but one female (born in 2005) had come almost daily since she was a cub. After the owners moved away, she, too, scaled back to occasional visits; but the hunters are happy to report that as hibernation approached in late fall, she was still alive and well, with cubs, and putting in occasional appearances.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken yesterday, February 9, 2014.