This afternoon, we and our veterinarian visited Tasha for an update. The veterinarian saw how well Tasha was walking without favoring the bitten foot and said we should keep an eye on how she’s walking but could let her out to roam and swim. We’ll continue the antibiotic.
Tasha
Holly was outside the pen being ignored by Tasha who was getting treats. Holly came around to the other side where Tasha happened to be. Tasha sought friendly contact with Holly through the fence. Tasha’s ears were in a calm, normal position. Holly pretty much ignored Tasha. Holly was there to see if she could get in on the treats. It didn’t look to me like an interaction between bears that had been in a biting situation. I began to doubt that Holly was the culprit a couple days ago when I learned that Tasha saw her through the fence and tried to dig under the fence to join her.
I know that the person who reported the aggressive interaction thought it was Holly, but by the time she heard the ruckus and got there it was about over. Talking with her recently, she thought the bear she saw run away in the bushes was Holly, but I know I couldn’t have identified Holly from Lucky in that situation. Learning that, I wondered why Holly would run away from a bear she viewed as a rival. But I could imagine Lucky running back to Holly.
In a video, I’d seen Lucky chase Holly to the big white pine “Cub Tree.” Holly had chased Tasha to that tree many times and never came up far enough to be truly aggressive toward Tasha in the tree. With such a pattern, I wondered why Holly had suddenly broken the routine.
Today, Tasha added to the story. After responding to Holly nicely, Tasha glimpsed Lucky 40-50 feet away and immediately reacted with a fearful blow as she whirled and bolted toward the opposite side of her pen.
I now think the culprit was Lucky. I can’t figure why he would do it.
So the plan is to let Tasha out with harmless Ted. When Ted goes back to his pen, we’ll try to get Tasha into hers. When we do, we’ll let Lucky and Holly out for their turn. The veterinarian seemed pleased and confident that Tasha was doing well.
Out in the woods, Samantha and her family have broken up. We wondered if that had happened when Samantha stopped making her routine appearances after the morning of May 17 when she left the yearlings high in a white pine and walked off at 2:20 AM. On May 20th at 11:25 PM, one of her male yearlings showed up alone in pouring down rain. He has been coming nightly since then. Tonight, he showed up with Lucy, one of Samantha’s female yearlings.
No Quill yet. Shadow has been seen, but no cubs. The last person to see her saw her well. He said he couldn’t see any sign of lactation. Shadow is 30. She set the record for having cubs late in life a couple years ago when she was 28. I know of no other black bear mother having cubs past the age of 26. But Shadow looks healthy. Could it take an older mother an extra year to have cubs? The usual time between litters is two years. We’ll be looking again next year to see if she is really done or not.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center