Ted in his denPeople with better memories than mine reminded me that after Holly’s slow start in exploring the big enclosure and climbing trees over and over, etc., we were able to lure her down to the viewing area as shown in this 4-minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LipG_4ktpWY.
She continued her sniffing everything that had bear smell on it—which was literally about everything. I remember seeing her glimpse something down in the viewing area (Ted), standing up, and then retreating into the woods again. Later, with trusted staff near her, she did make it down to the viewing area with Ted there. But when she sniffed Honey’s window den and peeked into the empty den (Honey was locked in her individual pen), Holly raced back to the forest. Eventually, with Heidi beside her, Holly came down to the viewing area 10-20 yards from Ted who ignored her as he was being fed. Holly was constantly sniffing her new strange surroundings the whole time. During that time, Honey and Lucky were locked up but slow Ted was out.
Lucky's den areaToday, Ted was enjoying the above-freezing weather when Judy Thon walked by and snapped his picture.
Judy went on and snapped one of Lucky’s den area—the den Holly had last year. The door to this pen is open so Holly could have come in for a visit when she was out of her wild den the other day, but she didn’t. No tracks from Lucky or Holly outside Lucky’s den.
Holly's den areaThe tracks near Holly’s den are from the other day. We assume she is in her den keeping to the schedule her Minnesota genes dictate. We expect to see her out and around in a week or two. It was April 2nd last year, but we know some wild bears here become active in the last week of March when the snow melts early, as it has been doing lately.
Honey went for a walk again.
Tomorrow the bill to ban bear-feeding goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Room 15 of the Capitol in St Paul. They’ll probably get to the bear-feeding part of it around 2:30 PM. We’re crossing our fingers.
Headlines lately make it appear that I cost taxpayers $430,000 by suing the DNR. Not correct. It was the reverse.
- We repeatedly asked DNR officials to visit the Bear Center and spend time with us in the field with bears to see what we do. They refused but continued putting out false information to the public.
- At the end of June 2013, we got the DNR letter ordering us to remove the collars. At the same time, the DNR was putting out half-truths and untruths to destroy our credibility.
- We requested a meeting with the Governor, which turned out to be unproductive.
- The next day, July 23, 2013, we filed a temporary restraining order to delay removing the radio-collars and give the two sides a chance to meet.
- On July 29, 2013, we met with the DNR and a judge but the DNR would not engage in any discussion about a resolution that could have saved a lot of time and money.
- Instead, on September 4, 2013, the DNR initiated a contested case proceeding against us by filing a Notice and Order for Hearing with the Office of Administrative Hearings. This contested case proceeding is the proceeding in which the trial was conducted that cost us $420,000 and cost the taxpayers $430,000. Further, during the hearing, the DNR took extreme positions, demanded to see all of our data, and had many people attending but doing nothing during the trial, all of which took extra time and taxpayer money.
We’re crossing our fingers for a good outcome from the Senate Committee tomorrow
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.