Porter up a treeBraveheart and her cubs were their usual selves with the group. When they and the group were where Braveheart expected to see people, the family was fine. We watched Braveheart walk around. We watched Braveheart’s cub rip dead bark off the base of a dead red pine to get ant pupae. We watched Porter clamber around in a maple for no reason we could see. Then the family moved off 45 yards to cool off in a pond. That was outside the area they expected to see people. They heard us coming and leaped out of the water and disappeared into the forest, giving us barely time for a fleeting shot of them hurrying off.
LoonOut on the water, we only saw one loon chick and one parent. Maybe next time we’ll see them all. The chick is now approaching the size of the parent and is losing its downy juvenile feathers. Underneath the juvenile feathers it will keep during migration and overwinter are visible. We watched the parent catch many minnows and a crayfish as the two ignored the pontoon boat.
The day ended with views of Faith, Lily, Shadow, Bow, their 9 cubs, and dear Sophie.
Braveheart's cub after ant pupaeIt sounds like a BBC cameraman might be coming in a few days and a French team is hoping to come in May. A graduate student we are sponsoring is working on Den Cam video to analyze early play behavior. A team headed by Dr. Roger Powell is analyzing the GPS data in several ways for several papers.
A correction: I wrongly listed Lily’s cubs as Geneva, Stratton, and Porter. Those are Braveheart’s cubs.
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| Loon and chick | Braveheart | Braveheart leaving |
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center