Family Breakup
April 27, 2010 – 7:10 PM CDT
In this year of the earliest ice-out on record we’re watching to see which aspects of nature are ‘on time’ and which ones are influenced by this amazingly early spring. We wonder if this early spring will affect the timing of family breakup and mating. Last night we saw something interesting.
4-year-old Bow came and left with a possible boyfriend, beautiful rich brown Crackle, while her yearling Ty appeared to be on his own. Ty did not seem stressed and skittish—behaviors we generally see in yearlings right after breakup—so we weren’t too surprised when we received a call tonight from someone who saw Bow and Ty together again. This makes us think that what we saw last night may have been the loosening of the family ties. Interestingly, last summer Bow was very tolerant of Crackle in spite of the fact she had a cub. We’ll be watching to see if their friendship develops into a courtship.
Family breakup happens in different ways in different families and in different years. Sometimes, the mother comes into estrus, separates from her yearlings, and begins roaming—laying down scent trails for males to follow. In other cases, families may separate, reunite, and separate again permanently. Yearling Mickey decided to go off on his own a few days before Braveheart separated from her other 2 yearlings Dale and Chip. Many of you saw how June separated from Lily, Cal, and Bud in the ‘Bearwalker’ movie. She was very close with them until big handsome Harry showed up. The yearlings treed in fear and she went off with Harry. We’ll be recording the story of Bow and Ty as it unfolds, but this is very early. Usually families breakup in late May or early June. The earliest we’ve seen breakup was May 10 when Braveheart split from her yearlings in 2006.
We learned that the ‘Bearwalker’ DVD authoring was completed today. We should receive a sample tomorrow for approval. If so, then the finished DVDs should arrive by the end of next week and we’ll begin mailing them out. We’re very sorry for this unexpected delay.
We didn’t visit Lily and Hope today but have posted yet another video at http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/den-cam-video-clips.html of our time with them on the 24th. Hope the gymnast!
Thank you again for your contributions.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center