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Life in the Heat - UPDATE May 25, 2020

Bears are being pampered in the heat at the Bear Center as Sharon shows us with words and with pictures from her and "Happycub".

Bear News from Sharon:

Happy Memorial Day weekend! I wish you all a safe and socially distanced weekend.

LuckyAnother week has passed, and Holly decided it was her turn to showcase her talents on Thursday evening and pushed over a tree when she was coming down from the cub tree. The tree that fell was rotten at the base. It was the tree the bears have used at one time or another to get up and down the cub tree. It will be missed I'm sure, but we do have plans to bring around cut up portions for Ted.

Ted takes a morning dipScott arrived after I had Lucky and Holly in their pens. Judy also came to help. Scott cut the tree off the fence line while Cindy (Scott's wife) me and Judy focused flashlights. We did a temporary but important fence fix, turned the e-fence back on. The bears stayed in for the night. Thank you to all our Moderators for their skills and fast notifications to us.

Tasha with water bowlAs a side note…I was told that some of the Pond Chatters were sure Lucky (who often gets blamed for tree removal) had notified his “lawyer”, I assured him he wasn't to blame. J

ITasha in Tubn other news, we attached the hoses and got the water running up by the bear pens and Tasha had her first water play activity. She very much enjoyed the play, actually so did I. Play is important for bonding and reuniting voices of covered faces while working with bears, staff and Bear Educators. We gave Ted a shower too although he wasn't as keen to it as Tasha was. We filled his tub and he sat in it soaking his feet and cooling off.

Teds coatLucky’s true talent of “sleeping in” was evident on Saturday morning. At first, we couldn't find him, but our second try produced a big bear sleeping below the old dug den. He didn't want to budge. When he didn't acknowledge us by lifting his head or paw, I went in to see if he was ok. He was fine, he finally moved his head but didn't want to get up, Thus, he and Holly remained out and we decided to bring them in later. We have to always remember we are on bear time!

This coming week will be busy so stay tuned. The bears will be in their personal enclosures Monday night so work can be done on the pond and a few fence posts.

Thank you for all you do,
Sharon Herrell, Sr. Bearkeeper

Lucky in pond

Lucky marking

Out the window, grass and leaves are growing so fast that it almost looks like summer. Juneberry bushes, pincherries, and blueberries are in full blossom with killing frosts unlikely. A tri-colored bumblebee flew in, adding color and helping to celebrate spring.

Red squirrel

Somehow, the porch was popular today. The first snowshoe hare I’ve seen here in months came right up on the porch and stood at attention to show me its new summer coat. Next, a woodchuck picked the porch to lie spread out in the shade to cool off. On the railing, a red squirrel did the same as he relaxed and took his share of the bears’ sunflower seed hearts.

Showshoe hare

Woodchuck

Seeing a woodchuck prefer fresh dandelion greens over what I was offering today made me hungry for a good romaine salad with thousand island dressing. Bear action has been slow since green-up started as bears were also probably hungry for salad. They like dandelion greens, too, along with the flower itself.

Tricolored bumblebee on blueberry blossom

Pincherry blossoms

Overlook green up

Then I got a call at 7:53 PM—Jewel has four cubs! Is this a contest between Lily and Jewel?

A nice day with a brief shower.

Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center

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