Skip to main content

Welcome! Be sure to visit the NABC website as well.

Loons, Family Day, and Cubs - UPDATE July 24, 2021

The familyThe family

The high winds of last evening’s thunderstorm flattened Ely’s Blueberry Festival so badly that they had to call it off for this year. Bad for all, but today was so sunny and warm that we had to make it family day. We started by meeting bears, including Jack and the bear that was named after my daughter Colleen some 18 years ago. Then we went out on the pontoon boat where a loon couple seemed to be having a nice time together in the water. Fifteen minutes later, everyone except me jumped into the water. Left to right, front to back are Gabrielle (10), Donna (72), Kaiya (8), Kelly (40), Micah (9), Colleen (39), and Heinrik (11).

LoonsLoons

Then it was back to work a bit, listing local mothers being seen with cubs (plus a correction).

Mothers in the Clan were:

Donna (21) has a male and a female

Star (12) had a female and a cub of unknown sex that died after being hit by a car. The latter died from the collision, and the surviving female evidently couldn’t nurse enough to prevent ovulation. Star came into estrus and went and mated.

Summer (12) has three males

Daisy (10) has three males (Levi, Logan, and Liam)

Lucy (5) has two males (Desi and Arnie)

Chloe (3) has two males (Charlie Brown and Lincoln)

Sallyann (3) has a male and a female (Kenny and Katie)

Also in the area is a non-clan mother named Emma (3), daughter of long-time resident Kimani. Emma has a single male cub that is doing fine. Not all mothers with single cubs come into estrus.

That totals eight mothers having 17 cubs (13 males, three females, and one unknown sex). Fifteen (88%) of the cubs are doing fine so far.

Hopefully, the people watching them will see them often enough to learn how they do in this summer of drought and scarce natural food.

The correction is that the mother Chloe was misidentified as near-lookalike Pixie at one of the locations. Pixie had yearlings, not cubs, this year.

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


Share this update: