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Lily_and_male_cub_-_20110208_152020Lily turned over one of the cubs and it squirmed vigorously.  The brief look at the underside made us think the protuberance was too far up the belly to be a female.  So we’re back saying Lily’s new cubs are a male and a female. We couldn’t tell if it was the light one or the dark one, but we’re eating our words about leaning toward two females.  The video of the sighting can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rnSgsXxjZ8.

The nice thing this year is that we’re getting far more views than last year.  We think a lot of that is because of Hope.  The relief is that the cubs are surviving the cold.  We worried that Hope would let too much cold in, especially when the cubs were born at the beginning of the coldest weather of the year.  The official Ely lows for January 21-25 were 38, 38, 34, and 33, all below zero F, but the new cubs are doing fine.

Lily_and_Hope_-_20110208_162553People ask us if we think a third cub was born and died.  We don’t think so.  We thought a third cub might have been born from Lily’s movements and vocalizations, but we saw about the same thing the next day and believe her grunting was in response to the two cubs.  At this point, we say “we think,” but we’ll know for sure in spring when we examine the fecal plugs.  If someone ate a cub, the claws will come through.

Today, we learned another reason why some teachers keep the Den Cam on all day in their classrooms.  One teacher said she tells her students she will keep it on as long as they are good.  If one student is bad, the Den Cam goes off.  She just had to turn it off one day to show she meant it, and the children have been good ever since.  The children police themselves so it stays on.  If something happens on the screen, the children are allowed to speak out, stop working, and watch.

Another teacher tale comes from Kim Cabrera, who wrote,

“Our class of 3rd through 6th grade at-risk kids is loving the bear cam. I introduced them to it the day the new cubs were born and they are hooked! It's hard to get these kids interested in learning sometimes, but the bears hold their attention! I did a track casting activity with them and they all got to take home a bear cub track. They really got into it, too! Great to see these kids connect with the bears.”

These stories of how students are responding to real information about bears show that our dream is happening.  We are thankful to everyone who made possible the Den Cam and this learning opportunity.

On Lily the Black Bear’s Facebook page the moderators created three diaries at the request of fans.  One is the Lily the Black Bear Diary for Winter 2011 http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=19697&post=239339&uid=263755115498#!/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=19697 . 

Another is the 2011 Ted and Lucky Den Diary http://www.facebook.com/lily.the.black.bear?v=app_2373072738#!/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=19626 .

And now, a new one is for teachers and classrooms.  It’s the Classroom Den Diary 2011 http://www.facebook.com/lily.the.black.bear?v=app_2373072738#!/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=19751 .

In the Reader’s Digest contest, you made a last ditch effort in the final hours and boosted Ely one more notch to 39th place with a total of 63,230 votes.  That’s 39th place out of over 8,400 cities competing.  Thank you.

Thank you for all you do.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


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