One of the best memories of my career was seeing and hearing Lily and Hope reunite on May 26, 2010. It was the biggest display of animal emotion I’ve ever seen. 
Lily and Hope reunion on May 26, 2010They were last together four days earlier at 6:42 PM on May 22. Hope spotted Lily. She looked, looked again, and burst out with bawls of recognition and emotion as she went quickly to Lily and swarmed onto her. Sue’s video captured it all. The moment flooded back today while signing the book ‘Finding Hope’ by Michelle Lackner (16 left in the Bear Center Gift Shop). A full page frame from that video jumped out at me, and the memory of how I felt when Lily sat down and held Hope close to her chest, closed her eyes, and buried her nose in Hope’s fur. Lily then tried to lead Hope to a white pine where they had nursed earlier in the spring but she didn’t make it that far. Hope clung to her, trying so hard to nurse that Lily stopped, lay on her back, and let Hope eagerly suckle. 
Pine siskins bickeringThe update for that day tells more at http://www.bearstudy.org/website/updates/daily-updates/922-reunited-at-last.html. The update has a link to the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk1URFahgSc.
You know the rest of the story.
At the Bear Center, Ted moved to the entrance of his den cabin and took in some sun as a Lily Fan captured in this 8-minute video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s52OVYfdlM4.
Out the window yesterday, pine siskins jockeyed in flight and on the ground for good positions as they landed in a patch of sunflower seed hearts. Watching the blur of motion as they fluttered down, I didn’t notice the dramatic interactions the camera captured. In one picture, two siskins are simply avoiding an in-flight collision. In two other pictures, siskins are bickering on the ground. In the fourth picture, a siskin with an open beak is flying up toward another.
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| Pine siskins - near collision | ...incoming | and bickering. |
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center