Lily and male - May 25The pictures of Lily’s suitor have Lynn thinking he’s Big Harry—who may be her father. His face, behavior, location, and size all say Big Harry to Lynn. Others disagree. The confusion is because bears change over the years. Familiar scars are covered by fur in some seasons. Ears can look smaller when long fur covers their bases. Bears are still in winter fur at this time. We’ll see what Lily Fans think.
Lily's suitor marks cedar
May 25Lily and her suitor are not an item yet. At this stage, he follows Lily and vice versa, letting each other get as far as 200 yards away according to estimates by Jim and Lorie from yesterday. The closest they saw was the male approaching Lily and touching noses. Both bears then walked off in different directions. We’re surprised at the slow progression considering how swollen Lily’s vulva was over a week ago. Jim followed them with camera and video to see how their courtship progressed until darkness forced him to quit.
Lily feeds on cloverThe male’s behavior is like we saw with Big Harry and June in 2008—not as trusting of us as One-eyed Jack or BB King are/were, but he doesn’t run off. The location is right where we’d expect Big Harry to be—in June’s territory. In fact, the male and Lily are in the clover patch where June spent so much time over the years.
At the Bear Center, Judy Thon didn’t try to delegate the job of cleaning out Holly’s den. She did it herself. To do it, she let Lucky out of his pen, closed the door, and let Holly into it. Holly hesitated at the door for over a minute. Once in, Judy closed the door and went to work, followed by a trip home for a shower.
Holly hesitatesJim and Lorie braved bad mosquitoes yesterday. Previously, we hadn’t noticed any mosquitoes except the one or two reported a few weeks ago. We think the mosquitoes skipped a hatch this year. The early mosquitoes are big and slow and easy to slap. The second hatch has smaller, quicker ones like the ones we’ve seen the last couple days. We are a little embarrassed to say that we don’t know the names of mosquitoes. Over these many decades it has been enough to slap them and endure them without learning their names.
Snapping turtleJim and Lorie also photographed the first snapping turtle we have seen out of the water—temperature in the mid 80’s.
In times of turmoil, Lynn stays grounded by getting up early and spending quiet time observing wildlife behavior and snapping a few pictures. A picture on the way to work today might be useful in the loon exhibit at the Northwoods Ecology Hall. It is of a loon with a crayfish it then managed to swallow.
Loon with crayfishThe Administrative Law Judge Tammy Pust has ruled against us in our permit dispute with the DNR. The decision will be made public tomorrow on the Office of Administrative Hearings website at http://mn.gov/oah/. We believed we had a strong case—and we still do. We would not have pursued the issue in court if we didn’t. As part of her decision, Judge Pust wrote:
[Dr. Rogers] believes that habituated and food conditioned bears are not dangerous, and that these bears can and will differentiate between humans who are a source of food and those who are not. Dr. Rogers teaches that people often mistake bear behavior evidencing mere curiosity for shows of aggression; he seeks to change that association by engaging in education-related activities. Dr. Rogers’ beliefs may be correct. In time, our ever-evolving understanding of science will prove his views to be accurate, or not.
We believe our views will stand the test of time. We’re working with our attorneys and advisors on how to respond and thinking and planning on how to move ahead. More on this tomorrow.
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.