Still asleep in the light of dawn, this yearling might have had quite a night. 
EthelThe yearlings are spending a lot of time up trees, especially when 18-year-old female RC comes around. She chases her own yearlings and those of Samantha. Samantha’s yearling Ethel is perched in the white pine because of RC. Old RC can’t overtake the yearlings, but she is persistent. I’ve said that yearling females don’t hang out together after family break-up because they are competitors for territory. Ethel and Lucy are an exception. 
Yearling in treeThey peacefully shared food nose to nose despite the fact that each of them acted like she was ravenous. As I’ve said before, it gets harder and harder to state generalities as sample sizes grow. It seems there is always an exception.
Meanwhile, out the window, the male woodchuck was busy selecting broad-leaved plants from the dense field of grass, and a turkey vulture visited briefly as the sun was going down.
In two days on June 24, it will be the 50th anniversary of the first research bear I ever worked with in my first bear job as a student intern for the Michigan Department of Conservation. I’m thinking of sharing some highlights of my early years working with bears.
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| Male woodchuck | Turkey vulture |
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center