Walleye at the NABCThe local conservation officer told us the masked hunter was done when he drove away with his bear on September 1, so we resumed walking the well-used trail today in hopes of recording bear reactions to hikers. No bear on that trail but we did note that he indeed had pulled down his sign and cleaned up his bait. The only shots we heard today were target practice. The guide that hunted around us is about to leave to serve clients in South Dakota.
Today was a day of working on posters for the fish/aquarium exhibit in the Ecology Hall at the North American Bear Center.
A bear pulled down a mtn-ash treeA bear pulled down a mountain-ash tree yesterday to get the berries. It missed one bunch down under the branches (photo).
Near that tree was a white mushroom that looked so big (~6 inches across) and pristine that I had to snap a picture of it. It had a nice dome shape and was pure white. Today, I went to measure it and couldn’t believe how it had changed. It had grown to 8 ¾ inches in diameter, had spread out flat, and the gills and upper stem and the edges of the top had turned dark. I wondered if it was a kind of Inky Cap mushroom but didn’t have time to look it up. If a Lily Fan knows what it is, it would be nice to know for the record.
Berries on the Mountain-Ash the bear missedOur little project of documenting reactions of habituated, food-conditioned bears to people carrying food in the woods at night during the hyperphagia period is another example of trying new things to learn new things. We wouldn’t have thought it was necessary to test except that the DNR kept saying to the media that we train bears to come up to people for food. By focusing our activities on the evening/dark hours of greatest bear activity, we are recording a number of bear reactions. Fearful people who believe the usual misconceptions about bears question our sanity. People who know bears consider it a big ho-hum. They know there is no danger. Indeed, all the bears immediately retreat.
As far as we know, no one has recorded data of this sort. The number of hours in our data base is growing by the thousands as neighbors add their hours of hiking or jogging in this area over the years.
Is the data of value? I believe the data can help change beliefs about bears and help scientists understand the limits of habituation. I first realized how timid habituated bears are in the woods back in the 1980’s walking in the woods around the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary where bears mingled with crowds during feeding time but ran from people walking in the woods away from the feeding area. From what I hear from wildlife officials, most people don’t know this about bears and is the kind of thing open-minded people want to know. Today, a leader of an upcoming wildlife conference called and suggested we summarize our results for a presentation.
| Can anyone identify this mushroom? | ||
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| Mushroom - 9/6/15 | The same mushroom - 9/7/15 | another view - 9/7/15 |
Ironically, the participants here are all females—all Lily Fans. I asked them just now if they are carrying pepper spray like we asked them to do out of an abundance of caution. A couple are. The rest aren’t. People would have to see bear reactions firsthand to understand.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.