Arriving at my desk at dawn, the speaker from the outside microphone greeted me with 7-year-old Samantha grunting to her cubs. Then I was jolted by a ferocious roar that would terrify 
Samanthas cubsanything—except maybe 12-year-old Crackle. Out the window, he was on the scale ignoring Samantha who didn’t look too happy waiting her turn 25 feet behind him. Nursing mothers need to eat. The only food was on the scale. I poured trail mix at her feet. She looked high up a broken-topped white pine where her cubs likely took refuge when she roared. Later, the cubs gathered at the food and posed for their first picture all together.
Big HarryThe next highlight was Big Old Harry hobbling in, followed by 16-year-old Donna’s 2016 debut.
Herring Gull vs SquirrelOut the window, a gull showed how to go after a red squirrel. She lowers her head and makes a bee line. The hungry squirrel keeps eating until the gull’s final rush and easily escapes.
The big move is tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM sharp when Tasha get a ride to her new pen. The ride will be in the cage she arrived in. Finally, she will be next to Ted who has been sending friendly grunts her way for a couple weeks. We’ll see if Ted spends time at the fence between them. Tasha will have trees to climb if she wants solace from bears at her fence, but she has been getting along better with Holly lately. We’ll move her comfort toys down with her.
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| Samantha and her cubs | ||
Ted is a special bear. He was raised by people and loves everyone, but he also loves bears. He made constant advances toward Lucky from the time Lucky arrived as a cub in July 2007. They played for years until Lucky surprised Ted with a rush that bowled Ted over onto his back with Lucky on top of him. Lucky had become Ted’s rival. They never played again. We’ve kept them mostly separated to avoid injuries to Ted. We had Lucky neutered but it made no difference. Lucky’s attitudes were already set.
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| Prep for Pillow Rock | The Pillow Rock |
Another big move will be in August when Pillow Rock, weighing thousands of tons, is brought to the Bear Center where heavy equipment prepared a place for it today. Pillow Rock is a 2.7 billion year old piece of greenstone formed from lava under an ancient sea that covered the Ely area. Astronauts visited it before their moon walk.
Things are happening.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center