Holly's Cam after she took care of it. - 3-13-15At the Bear Center, Honey continued playing musical dens yesterday, again moving up to one of the new dens Lily Fans helped build.
Holly’s fascination with her Den Cam finally went over the edge. For days, she’s been trying to touch the camera in the tube. With the snow melting and the bears getting more active, the staff moved the camera to a tree. Holly spotted it. The picture tells the story.
Ted showed more energy yesterday when I walked up to see him. I’d stopped and talked about 50 feet away. When I first saw him a few minutes later, he was standing in his den entrance. When we saw each other, Ted came to the fence saying his friendly high-pitched grunts. When I bent down to the fence, he immediately licked my face through it. Ted has feelings, and I have feelings. I hope he lives for many years to come. I know a lot of people who feel the same way. I feel privileged to be able to greet him like that—a feeling I also have when meeting wild bears that trust me, although we don’t greet each other like Ted and I do. Part of the feeling of privilege is knowing that nearly all of those shy wild animals don’t let themselves be seen out in the woods by people they don’t know.
That’s what makes it so ridiculous that the Minnesota DNR is trying to sell the public and legislators on a ban on feeding using their misleading statements of the last couple years to sell the idea. Most of the newspaper articles connect the bill to me. The DNR plays on the public’s fear of bears by saying what “could” happen, ignoring the stellar safety record of this community that has been feeding bears now for over 50 years. The purpose of our research was to document the effects of that feeding on the bears. A problem, though, was that our findings ran contrary to the preconceived notions the DNR bases their policies on. They tried to discredit our research, making statements that we train bears to come up to people for food—a statement not backed up by a single witness in the hearing. Minnesota does not have a bear problem to be solved with this feeding bill.
Senate Bill SF1303 has moved to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing midday on Tuesday, March 17. We very much want Section 20 (Feeding bears) to be struck from the
Bill for the following reasons:
- 1. Bird feeders attract more than birds, and no matter how high someone places the feeders, seed falls on the ground, could attract a bear, and make the person take down the feeders for 30 days.
- Is the DNR really going to police this? Or will they rely on neighbors reporting neighbors.
- Do we really want the legislators telling us what we do on our own property to this extent?
- If feeding is wrong, why can hunters continue to bait bears?
- Is there really evidence that feeding bears has created a problem for the legislature to deal with to protect public safety? The DNR states what “could” happen in an effort to scare the public into supporting a bill they are throwing their weight behind. If they are saying “could happen,” why haven’t we heard of bad things happening already?
The 8 state senators on the Judiciary Committee are listed here with their contact information http://www.senate.mn/committees/committee_bio.php?cmte_id=1016&ls=
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center