Surprise and Suspense
July 23, 2010 – 9:03 PM CDT
Lily and Hope continue to cover their territory, doing fine, while other bears surprise us or keep us in suspense.
The surprise was 5-year-old Ursula showing up and accepting a radio-collar after a long absence. We collared her as a yearling but she slipped her collar shortly after leaving her den as a 2-year-old and we didn’t see her again until last summer as a 4-year-old. We collared her then, but she slipped the collar on her way to den last fall. We expected her to have cubs in January but she’s alone and shows no sign of having had cubs. She is as calm and trusting as ever. This is even more astounding considering that she is a daughter of 20-year-old Shadow who scarcely trusts anyone after longer exposure to people than any bear in the area. Such are the differences in personalities. Ursula’s brother Burt was also a trusting bear before he dispersed.
We have no idea where Ursula’s territory is. We hope her new radio-collar and GPS unit reveal something about female dispersal—uncommon as it is. Most females take over part of their mother’s territory and do not disperse.
13-year-old BBKing is keeping us in suspense. Last year, he showed up in July with a lame front leg that never healed. From all appearances, he had been shot the fall before and healed lame. This year, he is later in putting in an appearance than ever. A son of Shadow, he is Blackheart’s brother and Braveheart’s uncle. He is an older half-brother to June, Lily’s mother. BBKing is perhaps the most trusting bear where he expects to see people, but we have never been able to see him elsewhere. During the brief time we had a radio-collar on him, we could never got close enough to see him outside the areas he learned to trust people. Because most bears only learn to trust people (i.e., become “habituated”) in certain areas, it’s difficult to find a bear that will broaden its acceptance to other locations and allow researchers to walk with them and learn the details of bear life. That’s what makes bears like June so valuable.
June is a bear that allows researchers to walk with her. She is the source of much of the video on bear.org and in the Bear Center. A problem, though, is that June seems to be shifting her territory into a roadless area where she is barely accessible. It’s typical for mothers to shift away to make room for daughters to establish territories, in this case Lily and Jewel. Today, June came close enough to a road for us to give her a fresh GPS unit and collect a scat. Her shift into the roadless area is especially interesting considering that she has long used feeding sites are where she could get far more calories than she is getting in the wild. But bears’ lives are more complicated than most people realize, and her shift has to do with more than just food.
June’s scat contained mostly wild sarsaparilla berries, perhaps bears favorite berry. Other berries included bunchberry and raspberry (no blueberries). The scat also contained hazelnuts, acorns, and ants. She has been a busy bear.
We continue to be excited about the ideas so many people are submitting for teaching about bears in classrooms. This could be the most far-reaching result from the interest in Lily and Hope.
We are also excited about the Lilypad Picnic next week.
Our occasional visits to the Bear Center are also a little more exciting now that there are almost always treats. The Bear Center staff loves them. We received the list of treat donors the other day and we are most appreciative. We hesitate to name names because so many are doing so many things on so many fronts to help us and bears that we can’t single anyone out. We are just extremely happy to see things moving forward with the force of Lily and Hope’s fans behind them.
Thank you all for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center