With mating season winding down and cubs becoming more mobile and vegetation maturing, more bears are showing.
Shadow
Last night, after posting the update about the wolf sighting, I got another call. 30-year-old Shadow showed up alone after being cozy with a boyfriend a few days earlier. I wanted a picture of her grayness at 30. I eased open the landowner’s walk-out basement door and clicked. Her eyes were locked on the long lens she saw. The picture will go on the upper walls of the Bear Center showing how black bears can gray with age and telling how she earned her gray.
Today, an excited landowner called to say a bear his wife believes is Ursula had appeared briefly with 4 cubs.
Another location reported Fern (Jewel’s 5-year-old daughter) alone. Fern is the one who spent many days with one male and then switched to Big Harry, who she was seen with just a few days ago. Now, even Fern seems to be settling down. She is a sweetheart and would be excellent for a Den Cam, as would Lily and Jewel. Lily was seen a couple days ago as shown in the update but now seems to have gone back to wild food as is the pattern. They want variety and can’t be held to a feeding site by even the choicest food we can provide.
Fern must be eating pretty well. The only food she would eat at a feeding station was hazelnuts, which are expensive and in short supply. She has fine taste.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center