Lucky and HollyI would not have thought it. Lucky and Holly are snuggled together in one bed and interacting in gentle, tender ways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr4ZZF3xDtU I wouldn’t have thought it because we never saw anything like this when Ted and Lucky or Honey and Lucky shared this same den. It shows there is always something new to learn and that 48 years of bear study doesn’t show you everything. Seeing Lucky and Holly in this 3 ½ minute video makes me want to have Den Cams all the more. What is happening in dens across the forest that we haven’t seen in the 7 dens we have watched with wild Den Cams. What kinds of feelings do bears develop for each other?
Speaking of Den Cams, a Lily Fan asked why I don’t just go ahead and put in a Den Cam since the Court of Appeals said I could? The reason is that as soon as the DNR saw that ruling they had the Attorney General’s office send me a letter warning me that they would strictly enforce a law against disturbing a bear den. I could put a Den Cam in an unoccupied den before November 1, but if a bear began using that den and I went back to wipe the lens or realign the camera after November 1, I would be cited for disturbing a den. Legal counsel told me that the law against disturbing a den is so vague that they’d have a hard time making a case. I also had been told by the DNR a few years back that I need not report to them each visit to a den because they didn’t consider most of my visits to be a disturbance. These were visits to wipe the lens or realign cameras. But that advice from the DNR was verbal, so I have no written record of it.
What all this shows is that the prohibition on my using Den Cams is based purely on animosity, not any valid reason.
The law against disturbing a den was written to back up the law against shooting a bear in a den. It meant hunters couldn’t roust a bear from a den and shoot it as it exited. I don’t know of anyone who has ever been cited for looking in a bear den. In fact, the DNR asked deer hunters to report any bear dens they found. That would mean looking into dens to make sure they actually contained bears. But in my case, they would cite me for disturbing a den. Since the court found no safety issues associated with Den Cams and the Court of Appeals said I could use Den Cams, I thought it worthwhile to apply for a Den Cam permit. There should be no reason to deny such a permit.
On the upside, I was happy to see the number of likes on the Facebook page “Lily the Black Bear” (spelled with one L) surge over 201,000 today.
If anyone missed the 12-minute video of January 1 showing moments from Lily’s life, it is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=degmdXAoUEU. It starts with June licking little cub Lily dry in spring 2007 after the family was flooded out of their den by a March thaw. Scenes from 2010 and 2011 include the most vigorous play scenes I have ever seen. It’s playful Hope with Lily. The video captures Faith’s attentiveness to Hope—also mutual tongue-licking (a bonding activity) between Lily and yearling Hope. It ends with Lily with Eli and Ellie in 2013. A good follow-up is this 7-minute video of Lily, Eli, and Ellie frolicking outside their den on April 22, 2013, the day they finally left the den when the cubs were 101 days old. Lily had been at the den nearly 7 ½ months (225 days). She looked happy to roll in the melting snow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNhoni9RYLE.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center