Honey back at rock denLate yesterday, Honey returned to her familiar bed of straw in her wooden den. Mid-morning today, during a heavy snowstorm, she trudged back to the rock den she had renovated and tested yesterday. She was still there at 5 PM this evening. We are surprised to see the musical dens—especially between those two dens. We’d have thought if she were going to check on any den, it would be the den she used last year where Holly is. Maybe Lucky is too close to that one, though. We’re glad she is showing a preference for these two dens that are within view of the Pond Cams.
Juliet and cubA sharp-eyed Den-watcher reviewing archive footage of Juliet from 2:04 AM on March 15 caught Juliet and one of her cubs with the faces snuggled together, both in REM sleep. It is not often we see the mothers’ faces for prolonged periods during sleep. This is one of the topics of hibernation we want to quantify.
Juliet and cubsWe haven’t seen near the play between Juliet and her cubs that we saw with Lily and Hope. We wish we had more examples to better know the range of play behavior and what is typical. Some of the play has looked almost violent, but we have been surprised to see cubs coming back for more. 
Juliet and cubsYesterday, Joel Rosenthal saw rough play between the mother and cub he is watching, and it went on for about an hour. He wondered if we had ever seen anything like that. We mentioned playful Lily who now is not alone in her antics.
Juliet licks a cubDo Lily Fans still have their old voting power? Lily Fans discovered a voting contest that can put us on a new level of getting the word out about bears. It’s called a marketing makeover that would make the North American Bear Center and its educational message more visible on the Internet—much more, we are told. 
Cubs snuggled inA premier firm called LocalVox has a history of making websites more visible across social media and easier to find in Internet searches. They are offering $10,000 in services to the top three vote-getters in a nationwide voting contest for small and medium sized businesses, including non-profits, and we want to take advantage of this opportunity. 
Juliet leans out to lick snowCompetition may be tough, considering the thousands of potential competitors, but Lily Fans are Black Bear Strong. Each person or computer or email address can vote only once (we hope to clarify that in tomorrow’s update), but we remember how Lily Fans had friends and relatives that increased our numbers. This makeover can make a significant difference for bears. More on that in upcoming updates. The link for voting is http://woobox.com/e8jysv/vote/for/2164479.
Thank you for all you can do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.