Juliet One of the most intriguing aspects of our research is getting insight into animal minds. That’s where long-term research shines. As we follow bears and remember how they have used certain locations in the past, we marvel at their memories and knowledge of their territories. But we wonder how much of travel is planned and how much is a whim. Obviously, Lily knew what she was doing when she decided to re-use the deep rock den this fall and led her cubs directly to it. Obviously, Aster knew what she was doing when she realized she couldn’t dig a new den with the wounded leg and went directly to her den of last year. The many individual stories of wild bear behaviors will be a joy to tell in one of the books.
Juliet and cubWe are always interested in the intelligence of other wildlife. The story of elephants painting pictures was amazing, but made us wonder if there was more to the story. This bit about it on snopes.com tells more http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/elephantpainting.asp, but we are still amazed that elephants can paint the pictures they do.
This new link to problem-solving activities of a crow is also amazing http://www.reshareworthy.com/smart-crow-solves-complex-puzzle/. Even if a person trained the crow to do each step of its routine, it is still amazing that a crow could learn such a complicated task. Another video, a interesting "Ted Talk" on the intelligence of crows, can be heard here: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html.
We always come back to “Could bears do that?” Watching them in their complicated world gives us little opportunity to separate what was deliberate and what just happened. Still some of their actions have been amazing, if only as demonstrations of their senses and memories.
Then we get to questions of their emotions and how deeply do they love. We know we are not part of their circle of love, but we know they can learn to trust us. What may have been love was the bond between Hope and Faith. They were inseparable, and Faith seemed lost after Hope’s death.
Where love is easier to see is in the day-to-day lives of dogs. Lynn remembers the obvious bond between his kids and Tipper the family dog.
We remember a dog that developed a bond with her owner over five years—since she was a puppy. When the two were separated for a year, the dog lost its appetite and seemed disconsolate until she was reunited with her owner. The bond was mutual. Lynn saw the owner hold the dogs’ head and sob a few days ago when she realized she had to have her 13-year-old companion euthanized.
We remember when Donna’s father had to be separated from a dog that somehow attached itself to him on a walk in a Chicago park. When her father had to be moved to a nursing home a few blocks from Lynn’s home in Ely, the family got permission to bring the dog to his bedside one time. Once was not enough for the dog. Over the next months, the dog had one goal in mind—to dig under the fence or tear through the fence and get back to the nursing home. She succeeded several times and Donna would get a call to come get the dog that was lying beside her father’s bed. The dog would wait by the door of the nursing home until she saw an opportunity to dart in. Once inside, right from the start, she knew exactly where to go.
We always wondered why Ted the bear bonded so quickly with Lynn. Then we met the man who raised him. He sounded like Lynn, had a beard like Lynn’s, and looked a lot like Lynn. Lynn was the closest thing to the man Ted had bonded with. Whatever it is that Ted feels for Lynn, Lynn always feels honored to hear Ted’s unmistakable greetings and feel Ted’s gentle contact, even if it just means Ted still feels a bond for the lookalike man who raised him.
Lynn’s relationship with Gerry, who Lynn says is the only wild bear who ever really liked him (beyond food and simple trust) is a treasure trove of such stories. It’s another book that needs to be written.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center