Handsome LuckyAt the Bear Center, Lucky’s fur is thick and even, and he is bulking up for hibernation. He is a handsome bear who knows what he wants. Somehow, he ended up in the small bunker for a day or two and was given a bale of straw for bedding, which he raked into the small bunker. But he was only making the best of a bad situation. Earlier, he had raked two bales into the big bunker where he denned last year. Today, Bear Curator Sharon noticed that someone had mistakenly closed the door between the two bunkers. She opened it. As the video shows, Lucky then began raking the straw out of the small bunker, through the open door to the big bunker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uf2c76z8N8 He is making it clear where he wants to den no matter how nice a den Holly has made.
Red MapleIn the picture of Lucky today he looks big and now at 8 years old has the wide head of an adult. But I can't say how big he is because there is a contest to guess his weight when he settles into his den. The contest is at https://www.facebook.com/ 139730642706794/ photos/a.13974190937 2334.25159. 139730642706794/1071132959566553 /?type=3&theater.
Around Eagles Nest Community, one of the feeders reported a sighting of Fern and told a secret about her. As it turns out, while Holly is making a wild-type den, Fern is showing partiality toward civilization. The feeder wrote: “Fern has always been fond of our hammock and during her visits in the past couple of weeks she's spent as much as 2 hours snoozing in it.” He also said that he has seen no bears until after dark for at least three weeks, meaning they are fairly safe from hunters. A problem is that it is dark when Fern is sleeping in the hammock, so there is no picture.
MallardAt the WRI, at dawn, a cleanup crew of over a dozen mallards checks the yard for leftovers.
Fall colors are coming on fast now, especially red maple.
I feel a little guilt buying on Amazon when local businesses are suffering, but I’m hardly in town during shopping hours, and Amazon is so easy. The nice thing is now that I signed up for Amazon Smile at SMILE.AMAZON.COM and named the North American Bear Center as my charity, whenever I go to Amazon, I’m automatically routed through Amazon Smile and then see a message come up saying that Amazon will automatically make a donation (0.5%) to the North American Bear Center. It makes me feel better for shopping the easy way. To help, get details at http://smile.amazon.com/about.
(Note: You may need to bookmark www.http://www.smile.amazon.com and click on that to shop. Even after signing up for Amazon Smile, if you log on directly to Amazon.com instead of Smile.Amazon.com, the donation will not be made to the NABC.)
Thank you for your continued donations for bear food.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.