Three Generations
June 23, 2010 – 8:16 PM CDT
Sue started the day waiting from 6 until 8 AM for Hope. It was Hope-less. Hope had been there at 3 AM to feed , and she doesn’t make social calls. When she comes to eat, she’s working. She’s beginning to trust us, but she has no real affection for us. She has her own wild agenda to occupy her mind. She has to forage and avoid danger. When she is at the feeding station, it’s take a bite and go on alert. The feeding station is at the base of a red pine she had bedded at with Lily. The feeding site is there so Hope can feel as secure as possible while snatching bites of supplemental food. Any unidentified sound and she is up the tree. The radio-collar should arrive in a week or so, but we don’t know if she will let us put it on her. She is a wary cub that doesn’t like to be touched. And there’s no way we will risk drugging her.
Lynn caught up with yearling Jewel (June’s daughter, Hope’s aunt) in a cedar swamp and found she has grown in stature but is very skinny. On her own, Jewel is probably spending a lot of time up trees instead of foraging. Lynn loosened her radio-collar a notch thinking of the ripening hazelnuts and berries. He also removed a number of engorged ticks and offered them to Jewel. She ate all but a small one that was scarcely engorged yet. Yearlings are vulnerable to ticks after family breakup because family members groom each other to remove ticks. The deer flies are abundant now in the open areas and a few buzzed around Jewel in the swamp, causing her to react, as bears do to these hard-biting flies. Lynn snatched one off her ear and showed it to her. She ate it.
Next, Lynn found Hope’s Grandma June bedded in a cedar swamp and replaced her GPS unit so we can get another 10 days of locations. June has been traveling a lot, probably exploring possibilities for shifting her territory to make room for Lily and Jewel to establish their territories in her old stomping grounds. Today, June seemed worn out and didn’t bother to get up until Lynn bribed her with nuts so he could change the GPS unit and get her heart rate (95/min). She was resting on a nice bed of moss with no deer flies around. Surprisingly, she had no ticks, even on places she can’t reach. We don’t know how she managed that.
Last but not least was Lily. Lynn finally caught up with her to check her milk and estrus status. Her breasts have nearly disappeared except for the nipples. All the lumpiness from the clogged milk ducts is gone. She wasn’t with a male, but her swollen vulva indicates estrus. She may be attractive on and off for weeks if she is anything like RC. RC once lost a cub in May like Lily did. Lily was intrigued with the smells of Jewel and June on Lynn’s clothes. After thoroughly smelling him from the waist down, she came back and did it again. She didn’t seem thrilled about it. Something else she wasn’t thrilled about was the deer flies bothering her. She was in an open area to feed and was contending with the usual deer flies. Seeing 3-year-old Lily right after seeing 9-year-old June made it especially noticeable how narrow Lily’s head is compared to June’s. Heads get wider with age and are a good way to judge full-grown bears from those that are still growing.
Will Hope come to the feeding site tonight? Time will tell. We’re limiting her ‘human’ exposure to just a few people at the feeding site. Data shows that habituation is quite specific to a location and somewhat to individuals. In all her independent travels, Hope has been spotted only once. That was a couple weeks ago along a river a mile and a quarter from the feeding site. She has stayed away from people other than at the feeding site. She will teach us a thing or two about habituation and its limitations. Habituation is a matter of stress and accommodation to new stimuli. Depending on where Hope settles, she may or may not get used to seeing people. As more and more people move into bear habitat, bears become more and more accustomed to seeing them and ignoring them.
Did we ever think Lily and Hope’s followers would reach 99,999 at 8:14 PM on this date? The big milestone could happen any second. Did we ever think donations to reduce the Bear Center’s debt could reach $360,188? Thank you again for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, North American Bear Center