What big teeth you have, Juliet! Holly roused and came to Judy Thon’s voice, moving stiffly at first like she had reduced her blood flow to her limbs (see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1dIBBocF8o). This is normal for bears during the transition period between hibernation and the active season. Holly knows the feeding routine and comes readily but is wary and resists touching. Trust is coming slowly.
In the wild, Juliet and her three cubs are still in their den much of the time. This evening we heard the calls of two Northern Saw-whet Owls over her den cam. One was making the familiar beep-beep call and the other was twittering. We isolated the sounds in order to share them here.
Juliet Is it coincidence that Juliet’s first excursion out of the den was on April 6, the same day Lily and yearlings made their first excursion as verified by the trail cam footage? Was it something about the weather? It was the first day of major melting in April with a high of 48F. It’s hard to separate coincidence from cause and effect, but the combination of date (about time to rouse) and temperature do sound compelling.
Cub playOur research and education focus will always be bears, or course, especially the black bears that occupy most of the northwoods of America. But with the development of the Northwoods Ecology Hall, we will expand into other areas we want people to know and appreciate. The Northwoods Ecology Hall will be about all the northwoods wildlife, their habitats, and their history, with emphasis on how they interact with bears.
Busy cubsLily Fans are now stepping up in a new way. They are beginning to organize and create guidelines for writing species accounts for all the northwoods inhabitants. This means finding information, listing references for statements, and putting the information in a form people can use—including visitors to the Bear Center and bear.org. More on this to follow.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center