BowAround 10:15 this morning, Jewel and her cubs swam a channel to begin ranging more widely. Temperatures today reached 67F.
About the same time, Juliet made a major move north across the highway. We initially assumed her three cubs were with her. However, four hours later she was back south of the highway precisely where she began her trek. This leads us to believe she traveled unencumbered by cubs.
Lily moved about 4 miles to reach a feeding station in the middle of last night. The feeding station has a trail cam, so we should be able to see if Eli and Ellie were with her. Now she moved miles from the feeding station and is inaccessible. Her long fast movements make us suspicious that she is unfettered. We’re waiting for the landowner to arrive one of these days to show us the trail cam pictures of Lily from last night.
2-year-old female - May 17Bow is still with her two male yearlings. She hardly ate during her visit to the Research Center today but did step on the scale to weigh in at 247 pounds. Constantly on alert, she circled off into the woods and then returned, grunting to her yearlings. Bow is a nervous bear and shows the same traits we see with her mother RC and her grandmother Shadow. Shadow got her name by circling in the shadows while her cubs would feed at a feeding station or hunter’s bait.
The 2-year-old female is now up to 143 pounds.
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.