Alert GrizzliesLily Fans are alert and have good memories. Part of the joy of meeting Lily Fans is talking to someone I’ve never seen before and sensing how much they know about bears and particularly the bears we have followed together. Always amazing.
And Lily Fans know when I get something wrong. They/you came through with 3 good catches of errors in updates this last week.
Bud - 6-5-071. The mystery bear here in November was not the latest bear we ever had in the community. The latest was just last year on November 28, 2013, by 2-year-old Daisy, daughter of Bow. I mentioned in the update about her that she was old enough to be pregnant. But I wondered how she could be up so late in the year if she was pregnant. Daisy put that question to rest by showing up with no cubs this year.
Lily - 6-5-072. The video of the scared bear up a tree was in Yosemite National Park, not Yellowstone. I concentrated so much on what the bear was saying that I ignored what the TV reporters were saying. I watched it again. He said Yosemite over and over.
3. And then, I sent Linda the wrong odometer picture to go with the 230,000 milestone in the update. My odometer obsession is getting the better of me.
Keep watching and catching.
Cal - 6-5-07Just now, I heard a thump and went to see if it was a bear. As I came to a window in a dark room, the deer (which it was) ran. I turned the light on so it could better see what I was. It stopped and calmed down. I’ve seen the same kind of thing many times, including in Alaska where a grizzly was coming up a stream and spotted me half hidden in some bushes. It tensed but then relaxed when I stepped out to show myself.
All 3 cubs, Lily, Cal & Bud - 6-5-07Sue came up with another video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c0y5foHMwk while doing her cataloguing. This one from June 5, 2007 is Cal, Bud, and Lily (with the lightest face) digging into a log and exploring hazel branches that didn’t have any nuts on them yet. You’ll see their nervousness about the big eye of the camera sitting there. Later, the camera became old hat, and the cubs (and June) went about their lives while thousands watch through the lens the bears are ignoring. Those videos can help bears in so many ways, which is why Sue is cataloguing them.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center