Today marks fifty years since I helped tranquilize and record data from my first bear in my first bear job. The data from that job became my master’s thesis. 
Ted and TashaThinking back, I am filled with almost unbelievable memories of how people helped create my early career. Over the next few weeks, I’d like to recall highlights and crossroads as space allows.
But first, Lucky and Holly seem to be defying nature with the urges displayed by neutered Lucky. Holly takes it in stride. It’s in two parts about 5:28 and 8:39 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i0S9eraCJM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC7lfCQyVNM.
Also Tasha comes within 3 feet of Ted in this 2:16 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRBl2RZQnk0.
Out the window at the Wildlife Research Institute, 18-year-old RC chases other bears, including her yearlings, but she backed off when her yearling Valentine was cornered and vulnerable.
Today, as background for my early research, here’s a bit about my early beginnings.
My parents, especially my mother, instilled in me an interest in nature near Grand Rapids, Michigan. My lifelong buddy Butch and I expanded that interest as we explored nearby forests, lakes, and streams, catching snakes, snapping turtles, crayfish and more. The woods and waters felt like home, but it was devoid of bears. My only knowledge of bears was from people’s tones of voice when talking about them and from the hunting magazines, national park warnings, and snarling museum mounts I saw.
My first bear encounters were on a camping/fishing trip in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when I was a teenager in the mid-1950’s. I was sleeping under a blanket outside a tent and couldn’t see the big animal that approached, sniffed me closely from feet to face (through the blanket), and then knocked over a garbage can. The next evening, a bear came into our campsite. Something came over me, and I chased the bear far into the forest until I couldn’t hear it and the shadows became ominous. I hurried out of the woods as fast as I’d come in. The next day, I regretted chasing the bear. I was standing belly deep in a stream when an animal swam around a bend and headed straight for me. I feared that bears hold grudges. I didn’t move as the animal climbed onto shore near me—a beaver! It was a lesson in fear coloring perceptions.
More tomorrow.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center