More on mating and thoughts on Laurel
May 20, 2010 – 9:22 PM CDT
In the early afternoon, Big Harry took a break from June. Either he’s checking on another female more ready than June, or he’s moved on. We’ll keep checking. With that happening, we wondered about Braveheart, who was with One-eyed Jack yesterday. She turned out to be alone, too. Will Big Harry and One-eyed Jack vie for Shadow, the 20-year-old matriarch of the clan? Shadow is still with her yearlings and should be going through family breakup any day now.
Lily surprised us by swimming across a bay—twice! She took her time crossing but then quickly returned. We saw it only on the computer but can imagine Hope not following, crying from the shore, and Lily swimming back to her. This picture is the approximate location of her swim.
Little Ty wasn’t at the white pine today. He may be gaining confidence on his own or this calm day wasn’t as scary without wind rustling everything.
Cal moved north, making us wonder if he might return ‘home.’ For those who know this area, he started out last night about 1.6 miles north of the town of Cotton and a mile west of Highway 53. He moved north 2.1 miles and crossed the highway about 10:55 PM. A mile and three quarters east, he ran into the Paleface River and followed its meanders northeast a quarter mile and then veered northwest to rest south of Young Lake from 5 AM until 8:40 PM. With that long rest, what is he planning for tonight? His first half hour of movement (as of now, 9:17 PM) is generally homeward. If young Cal is planning on returning to his familiar area, he might be disappointed in the prospects for mating in competition with the dominant males here. The big males will surely vie for tried and true old Shadow, with her successful history of reproduction. If June and Braveheart haven’t mated already, Big Harry and Jack are well aware of that and will likely check back on them. Little Jo will likely mate this year, and Cal might have a chance with her, although she mainly lives 8-10 miles west and might not be within Cal’s travel pattern. When Jack stole Bow from Cal, maybe Cal was smart to go looking elsewhere. Until we see what Cal will do next, we can only wonder.
Thoughts on Laurel
There’s a need for officials to come up with a better definition of a bear ‘attack.’ Calling a single bite to a foot from a 60-pound yearling an attack, when the bite didn’t require medical attention, seems a stretch. We’ve known bears that were prone to bite as cubs and yearlings and outgrew that tendency as 2-year-olds.
Lack of knowledge and fear of lawsuits drive decisions to ‘play it safe’ and kill bears that raise questions. Killing a bear is the easy way out. It then sounds good to the public when the officials say they ‘had’ to kill the bear to protect public safety—that they prefer to err on the side of public safety. With all the hype on TV demonizing bears to get viewers, the public is ready to accept such statements, not thinking about the real odds. It’s a problem that requires education of the public and officials.
There’s so much more to bear behavior than the simplified version usually put forth as ‘educational’ material. We’re trying to provide a better understanding of bear behavior. Aside from our long-term studies, the bear-human interface is the probably the least studied area of bear biology despite its importance to bear management.
Three more BBC documentaries will be released from here in 2011 but they will surely be countered by sensationalized programs that demonize bears to grab viewers and ratings. Sensationalized programs that appeal to our fears seem to grab audiences and are put forth on TV much more readily than programs like Bearwalker.
We’re also putting together information on bear behavior for publication in scientific journals. The public tends not to read these, but they do carry scientific weight in fighting policies intended mainly to protect agencies against liability problems. We keep trying. The need is great. The job is almost overwhelming. Each day seems too short.
We posted another video from our May 18 time with Lily and Hope. These bears continue to bring joy to our hearts and remind us why we do this work—just as Laurel reminds us of the continuing need for education.
Thank you for your contributions.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center