Ribbons
September 11, 2010 – 9:13 PM CDT
The radio-collared bears are fine. Most are resting the day away or confining their activity to small areas.
Fully mature males and females are usually the first to settle down and hibernate. This is especially true for pregnant females, and there are 9 of those this year.
Shadow (20) is one of them. She disappeared in late August and probably went to a den. We can’t say for sure because she’s not wearing a radio-collar. But a few years ago when she was radio-collared, she denned in late August—the earliest we’ve seen.
Three days ago, Dot (10) moved to an inaccessible area, but her GPS locations show her active in a small area. That could mean she’s raking bedding into a den or that she’s foraging. Time will tell.
\Colleen (7) could be the same story. Three days ago, she moved to the vicinity of her den of last year.
Donna (10) is a similar story. Over a week ago, she moved to an area where she denned a few years ago. We’re not sure what she’s doing there because the batteries in her GPS unit have expired. We tried to check on her yesterday, but her telemetry signal showed she was still active. We’ll check on her in a week or so.
Last night, June (9) entered a den about 8:15 PM. She remained in it most of today. She has a lot of raking to do yet, so she will be out and active around the den like we believe Dot is. Two years ago, when she was last pregnant, she left her den to feed on wild calla in a nearby swamp.
Ursula (5) is becoming nocturnal. She remains bedded nearly all day. We suspect she will move to a den soon. We’ll see if she has cubs in January. She should have had cubs with her this year, but we don’t know what happened.
Jo (2) could also have cubs this January, and she’s behaving a lot like Ursula. Jo remained in a small area and was probably bedded most of the time until 4 or 5 PM. Then she began foraging.
Braveheart (8) always keeps us guessing about when she’s going to den. She lies around like she is getting ready, and then she might go off on a walk of several miles.
Lily and Hope are a mystery. They remained in a cedar swamp from about 11 PM last night until 6 PM this evening. Does that mean they are getting ready to go to a den like the pregnant bear we believe Lily to be? Or will she keep foraging like mothers do that have cubs. Will Hope’s desire to continue foraging keep Lily up later than usual for a pregnant female?
All nine of the above bears will likely have cubs. The least likely is Jo, who is only 2.
Juliet (7) and her 3 cubs (1 M, 2 F) will probably remain active for another couple of weeks or so, as is usual for mothers with cubs. Same story for Cookie and her 2 males cubs.
Jewel, June’s yearling, is too young to have cubs and is still active.
Cal is probably still 60 miles away down near Duluth. We’ll wait till we’re sure he’s in a den before flying to locate him.
Lynn checked Jo’s heart rate when he saw her active, and it was up around 84. She was nervously looking around for other bears, so it might not have shown whether she’s slowing down yet or not. The pictures Jim Stroner took tell a story, especially the picture of Jo in the bushes. It’s hard to distinguish her. She looks like a shadow. What is especially interesting about that picture is that the part of her that shows up best is the ribbons on her collar.
It is not too much to ask hunters to look for ribbons before they shoot.
We checked the deer hunting regulations today. In some areas, a buck is not a legal target unless it has an antler longer than 3 inches. If a hunter is expected to wait until he can see that, he can certainly be expected to wait until he sees ribbons on a collar. In other areas, hunters must count the points on antlers to make sure at least one antler has 4 points. Is there a double standard here? Are deer hunters supposed to be able to see that kind of detail before they shoot but officials believe they can’t make shooting radio-collared bears with ribbons illegal because it places to great a burden on the hunter to wait and look for the ribbons? Ribbons are far more obvious than a 3-inch antler or the number of points on an antler in the bushes. We very much need to make it illegal to shoot these radio-collared bears.
Last night we asked Minnesota residents to write and call their legislators in support of making it illegal to shoot radio-collared bears in central St Louis County. If you’d want to send copies of your letters to the Bear Center at PO Box 161, Ely, MN 55731, it would be nice to see what is happening.
Tonight, we ask your help in writing and calling Governor Tim Pawlenty. This can be people from all over the country or world—not just Minnesota residents. We very much want the Governor to get behind the effort to make radio-collared bears off limits to hunters. With his support, it becomes more likely that shooting will be made illegal by an order from Commissioner Mark Holsten of the DNR, which would make legislation unnecessary.
You can be most effective if you write a letter, sign it in ink, and follow it up with a phone call. Make the letters polite and factual. They say one letter and/or phone call carry 10 times the weight of an email. But there is nothing wrong with doing a letter, phone call, and email. All forms of communication should state where you live. Again, if you can send copies to the Bear Center it would help us know what is happening.
You can reach the Governor’s office at Governor Tim Pawlenty, 130 State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., St. Paul, MN 55155. The phone is (651) 296-3391. The toll free number is (800) 657-3717. The fax is (651) 296-2089. His email is
Thank you for your ongoing support.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center