The day began with the staff releasing what may be the last Monarch butterfly we have been watching. They tagged it and let it fly, but it returned to the releaser and landed on a bear track image on her sleeve. We hope this healthy looking female UJJ 690 will show up somewhere to reveal a bit about Monarch travels.
Gunshots today were only target practice. The only hunter action was one removing his tree stand for the year.
We didn’t see a bear all day as they become ever more nocturnal.
A Lily Fan sent us some weight information that another Lily Fan had put together about the weight gains of Lorie this year. She gained a rather consistent 2/3 of a pound a day from our first weight of 57# on May 17, to our next weight of 69# 18 days later on June 4, to 87.5# on July 1, to the final weight of 129# 62 days later on September 1st. The weight gain through that period varied from .667 pound per day to .685 pound per day. Overall, she gained 72 pounds in 107 days, averaging .673 pound per day.
It is interesting that the weight estimates we heard for the two bears killed September 1 and the cub killed in 2012 were all 150 pounds.
In 2012, when RC’s cub Rose was shot by a hunter on September 9, the guide told the DNR she weighed 118 dressed, which would have made her around an estimated 150 pounds live weight. Later, we discovered in our records that the weights of RC’s cubs ranged from 48 to 57.5 pounds on August 4. If the heaviest cub gained .673 pounds per day for 36 days, it would have weighed 82 pounds. The lightest would have weighed 72. The numbers given by the guide were impossible, but the carcass was not examined by the conservation officer and the case was not prosecuted.
The first bear killed near here on September 1 this year looked like a cub to 3 of us who are very used to seeing bears. I compared the size to Lorie (the smallest yearling we weighed this year) and it wasn’t even close. The CO and the hunter would not let me check the teeth or see the carcass. Just a glance at the teeth and you know if it is a cub or yearling. The CO said it weighed 150 pounds, was a yearling, and the hunter would not be prosecuted. I have not yet seen pictures of the teeth—if they even exist. Hunters get a lot of leeway.
Then Lorie was killed that evening (Sept 1). The CO estimated that she also weighed 150, and indeed she was in that ball park at 129.
It was a nice day of putting together a poster on walleyes for the Ecology Hall.
Hunting hours are over now. It’s dark, and a few bears should be arriving soon.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center