June's Cubs March 30, 2007Flashback to March 30, 2007. Unusual warm temperatures have melted 14 inches of snow, and the den is wet. I first discovered this on March 25 with Todd Hoffman and his co-workers who were building the Bear Center’s viewing area and theatre as volunteers. Nine inches of snow had melted since March 19th, and the 25th was 63°F. We wondered if June’s den had flooded and how she and her cubs were doing. We arrived to find her and the cubs outside the den, the cubs soaking wet, and June trying to lick the water off little Lily, Cal, and Bud. Todd and his friends left shortly, and I videoed them for 3 hours from a couple feet away. Dynamite.
During the next 4 days, with temperatures as high as 71°F, the remaining 5 inches of snow melted (by the 29th). Sue visited the next day, the 30th, and found the bears still outside the wet den as you can see in this delightful flashback by Sue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2OaN9ZwkE. Lily has the distinctive light face, Cal has the darker face, and Bud has the nicely marked face with light fur in his ears.
A few days later, the family re-entered the den and remained there until April 16 (more video to come).
June's Cubs - March 30, 2007June and this litter went on to provide more video and more insights into black bear life, in dens and out of dens, than any other family ever has to our knowledge.
As a side note, I believe trust-based studies will never be repeated to the extent we have been fortunate to be able to do. It takes more time to gain the trust of wild bears than most graduate students or paid employees can afford. Government work rules generally prevent it because it is not something one can do in a 40-hour work week. Graduate students would have a hard time doing it because they generally must complete their field work in too short a time to get solid data from truly trusting bears like are seen in these videos.
June's cubs - March 30, 2007The hundreds of hours of video we have obtained by walking with trusting bears will not only help keep the Bear Center fresh and enable publications to be written in the short term. With good cataloguing, they should become a source of information for graduate theses long after Sue and I are out of the picture.
We are thankful for these bears, for the opportunity to study them like we have, and for the help Lily Fans have given and are giving along the way.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center