Bears are on the move!
April 14, 2010 – 10:02 PM CDT
Lily and Hope moved 0.8 miles from the white pine to a dense cedar swamp. Jumbled logs make it almost impenetrable. We watched Hope struggling along behind Lily, demonstrating new athleticism: jumping, climbing, and sometimes dangling from branches in her effort to keep up. This is the time mothers and cubs usually leave their dens. Lily’s mother June led Lily and her brothers away from their den on April 16 – so Lily’s big move at this time is not unexpected. Video footage of today can be seen at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html.
Not to be outdone, June left her island refuge about 10:43 AM, led her yearlings on a 2.88 mile jaunt through the day, and is still moving as of this moment (8:37 PM CDT). Her GPS unit is sending her positions to our computer in good detail. June’s den was 1.6 miles east of Lily’s den – and with the prevailing winds coming from the west we wonder if June knows she has a granddaughter.
We received many good readings today from Juliet’s GPS unit, which likely indicates she was outside her den. Perhaps her cubs were practicing their climbing skills in the jumble of logs that surrounds the den. We’ll expect to see some movement from Juliet soon, too.
Hope looks a lot like Lily did at Hope’s age. Hope has light fur extending up onto her forehead like Lily did, which should make her easily identifiable. This makes us wonder if the very dark-faced male named Midnight perhaps isn’t the father. Old Uncle BB King (13) has a light face. Maybe he’s the culprit. We saw Midnight with her, and he’s the tough dude that put lots of cuts on other males’ faces last summer. After Midnight started coming around, even the biggest males showed up with fresh, big cuts.
BB King is one of the biggest, and we’re waiting to see him again this spring. He’s a sweetheart. And he has a smaller neck than most males and could wear a GPS collar during the upcoming mating season if he gets here soon enough. He weighed 611.5 pounds last fall and will likely show up weighing around 490 before mating season and could weigh as little as 367 by the time mating season ends around the end of June.
June’s beau Big Harry weighed in at the field station last night for the first time. His weight was 498 pounds, down from 658 pounds on Oct 1.
Braveheart and her 2 female yearlings arrived at the field station tonight at 9:45 PM. She slipped her radio-collar before denning last fall so we were very glad to see her back early. We had her collar prepped and waiting for her and easily got it back on.
Roaming has begun and the research field season will soon be in full swing.
Thank you for your continuing support. There are so many people we need to thank for gifts, donations, and help in many ways. Please forgive us when we can’t keep up. We hope you can feel our thankfulness as we work to follow the bears and report their activities. Good things are happening with your help on many fronts that we will report soon.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center