Wow! And visit to the Lilypad
Update March 17, 2010 – 6:50 PM CDT
Wow! A big thank you for your incredible help for bears and the Bear Center! Thank you to all who contributed and to all who would if they could. A special thank you to the anonymous Lily fan for the matching $10,000! In just 24 hours, you moved the thermometer from less than $85,000 to over $105,000. Incredible!
Also, thank you for the good response about the t-shirts. It was heart-warming to see that it had to be the real Lily and Hope, not a look alike. Many of you advised us to wait until there was a good picture to put big on a t-shirt. So I tried to kill two birds with one stone on my visit to Lily and Hope today.
I’ve spent far too little time with them and was beginning to worry that little Hope would outgrow her socialization period before she got to know Sue and me. Today I got my first look at her and snapped a few mediocre pictures. Hope is moving past her socialization period and into the period where she is wary of anything different. When Lily returned to the den, Hope showed anxiety toward her until she was sure it was Lily. She made a long nose, blew, and chomped her jaws briefly upon several of Lily’s re-entries. This is the youngest we’ve seen this behavior in a cub. Compare her behavior to that of the 10-week-old cub in the beginning of the 'Nervous Bluster' video.
Lily was calm toward me but the wind made her tense. She was hyper-alert to any sound. Actually, I was pleased with how much she ignored me. Her main concern was wind. Rustling sounds are among the scariest sounds for bears. It sounds like danger approaching. Windy days sound like danger is approaching from all directions. My breaking a twig made her look around, finally looking at me and relaxing as if she decided it was just me. Anytime I touched the camera tube or microphone tube when she was in the den, she reacted quickly and defensively, making a long nose and looking threateningly at the tubes. I don’t know what makes her react like that toward something that has been there for her to get used to for over 2 months. It shows we still don’t understand the individual quirks of their complicated brains. Each time I’d try to adjust the camera, she reacted and came out.
Once out of the den, she was fine. I took her heart rate at 104, which is a little elevated due to wind and nervousness, but she was fine with my feeling for it on her chest. At the same time, she was restless, not holding in one place more than a few seconds before going and checking on little Hope again. Windless days are better for working with bears but they have to get used to our presence under all conditions. Eventually, she will ignore us like her mother June does.
The active heart rate of 104 today compared with 138 a few days ago suggested to me that Lily is closer to leaving the den. The high rate the other day seemed more like a hibernating bear pumping blood into its extremities.
Lily's heart rate of 104 is what I would expect in the summer from an active bear. We’re starting to hear of bears that have left their dens around Ely now. I suspect Lily would be at the base of a big secure white pine in this weather, especially in this windy weather, if it were not for Hope. Little Hope doesn’t yet have the strength and coordination to walk and climb. Big white pines are special for black bears in this area. As I might have mentioned before, they have the strong bark and branches for bears to climb more safely than other trees, and mothers know it. Mothers pass thousands of other trees to make 92% of their beds at the bases of these relatively scarce trees.
Although the pictures today are mediocre, I was encouraged by the possibilities. In a few days of spending time with Lily this week, I’m hoping to see something good enough for a memento of Lily and Hope’s time of sharing their den life with us. So let’s wait a few days to see what we get. Meanwhile, the two bears will increasingly accept and ignore us.
More nuts arrived today. We also are taking note of your good fundraising suggestions.
Thank you so much for the outpouring of help. Sue had tears in her eyes. All I could say was “Wow!”
—Lynn Rogers, Biologist, North American Bear Center