January 26, 2010 - 10:02 AM CST
Nearly a foot of heavy snow fell on the Ely, Minnesota area yesterday and branches are bent to the ground under the weight—providing fresh browse for white-tailed deer and snowshoe hare. Lights flickered for many in the area during the storm. The power interruptions knocked out the den cam signal, but we got it going again this morning. The equipment is in a garage about 200 feet from the den. The garage is over a steep hill from the den so we can access the equipment without disturbing Lily. We want to see—and we want you to see—what she does free of human disturbance.
At this moment (10:02 AM), it is 5 below zero (F), so it’s no wonder snow is clinging to Lily’s fur. I’m sure the little one will protest if Lily lets any drafts under her today.
Attached are 2 pictures of very young cubs. Sylvia Dolson of Get Bear Smart Society found one on the internet labeled ‘day old cub.’ It very well may be a day old because there is no hair growing on its ears yet. The other picture is of a 2-week old cub showing its wide tongue and mouth designed for sucking. The eyes are still shut, of course. Lily’s cub is 4 days old today.
We wonder how many of Lily’s 6 nipples the cub is using. Usually, each cub in a litter establishes ownership of only a couple nipples, but this cub is free to roam.
Many of you have suggested some great names and some great ideas for name contests to raise money for the North American Bear Center. We hope to have word out soon on our decision regarding the naming process.
Learning the cub’s sex is hard. Usually we don’t find that out until we can join the families away from the dens in spring. It’s possible we can spot the sex on the video when the cub becomes more active in March and April.
Three other radio-collared bears (Donna, Juliet, and Cookie) should have cubs by now, and we hope to get out soon to listen to and count the cub voices coming from their dens. We have been kept busy by the flurry of activity surrounding the huge success of the Lily Den Cam and the recent storm complicates visiting dens in remote areas. We are lucky Lily is near enough to electricity and telephone for us all to see.
Thank you all again for the donations that continue to come in to reduce our debt and free us up to do more for bears.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center