Lily is relentless!
April 24, 2010 – 10:12 PM CDT
The clouds threatened rain today, but we got nothing more than a few sprinkles. The warm weather continues—55 F at 9:00 PM. Today we noticed the woods were dotted with 3-4 inch high peavine—yet another bear food available 3-4 weeks early.
June’s GPS batteries failed last night so we radio-located her in a cedar swamp today and replaced her GPS unit. Lily’s GPS was still transmitting but the batteries were about the same age so we chose to replace her unit as well.
We found Lily and Hope bedded near a large spruce tree on the same peninsula where she has been for the past few days. Lily seems to like a lake view—both in her choice of dens and now her last several bed sites! The area between the bed and the shore contained multiple shallow holes showing where Lily had dug and eaten some roots. Once again Lily was in a playful mood. Hope seemed more intent on following her nose and exploring every interesting smell, but Lily had other ideas. She repeatedly grabbed Hope by the scruff of the neck and dragged her into play. Hope is one tough cookie and her reflexes are improving, but she needs to get quicker to avoid Lily’s grasp! Video of today’s play session will be posted at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html.
The streaming NABC ‘pond cam’ has already made a splash. Early this evening it was #12 in the Ustream rankings of most watched videos – not bad for only our second day!
Thank you again for your continued support of our research and educational efforts.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center