Hope is more independent
June 17, 2010 – 10:19 PM CDT
Hope is not a cub that keeps a schedule. She is too busy exploring and foraging. This morning, we expected she would come to the feeding station about 7 AM. We waited over 3 hours before giving up. After we left, the trail cam showed she came for 9 minutes from 10:54 to 11:03 AM. We expected her for an evening feeding about 7:30 PM. We waited an hour in a gathering storm and gave up. The trail camera showed she arrived 20 minutes after we left—making us wish we’d waiting a bit longer.
On one hand we are delighted she’s showing less dependence on our supplements, and it’s happening sooner than we expected. We’re anxious to get another dropping to see what she’s foraging on. On the other hand, her independence may make it more difficult to collar her. We aren’t giving up though. We hope she will accept a radio-collar one of these days so we can monitor her travels.
Hope’s great-grandmother, 20-year-old Shadow, paid a rare visit to the field station today. It was a treat to see her and we snapped this picture of her through the window.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center