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Holly, Lucky, Ms Marten, Mink, Lily, Den Cams - UPDATE February 1, 2017

In this 10-minute video, Holly takes advantage of Lucky’s good will or his restful state and snitches much of his bedding. We know Holly loves her bedding. Pine MartenPine martenShe gives Lucky the eye if he even thinks about taking some. She likes to go through it to smack at Vinnie. And yesterday, she built a big mound of stolen bedding around her. Lucky became active. Holly looked innocent. Lucky acted like he didn’t notice his bedding was gone. Possession is nine tenths of the law, and Lucky is a little hesitant about taking bedding from Holly. https://youtu.be/0Uwo78mt5hA

Behind the scenesBehind the scenesMs Marten was back. I heard the thump from her jump. She was right outside the window on the roof of the bear feeder. The window was pretty clean. I sat down on my chair and grabbed the camera. She gave a little glance, but everything was normal. She would eat a little date mash and then look around warily at everything but me. I’m old hat. Three times, she jumped down and ran to the end of the deck to look around. Coming back, she got up on the railing, ran as far as the bear feeder, and jumped over onto it—about a 5 to 6-foot jump. When she left, she went to a white pine that is near the deck, headed down, and disappeared.

Behind the scenesBehind the scenesSome Lily Fans wondered how I got a video of the mink squeezing down the hole. Actually, it’s ten photos that were going to take up too much space as individual photos. Linda is talented when it comes to computers, graphic arts, and probably more. I just write the words and snap the pictures, mostly from my desk; and she puts everything together. When I send it, I copy it to 3 others to proofread to minimize my errors of text and judgment. To take the mink pictures, I braced the camera against the window aimed at the hole. When the mink appeared and started to dive down the hole, I held down the shutter button for burst mode. It snapped nine quick pictures in about a second and a half. Linda saved space by putting them together as an animated gif.

If anyone knows a good potential intern, we’re still looking. We know it’s a good thing for the interns because two are coming back from last year. For one of those, this is her third time. They each get a $1,200 stipend. https://youtu.be/fJojR8mIw9c

Interns Interns Interns
Interns educating visitors

 

Regarding the Lily-Hope reunion from a few nights ago, we heard so many explanations for the break-up and saw some quoted in a newspaper from the DNR as if everyone knew the reason except me. The DNR even talked to National Geographic Wild in the same way, convincing them to put disclaimers on all three documentaries about Lily and Hope, without a word to me. They said that Lily was too young and that everyone knows young mothers walk away from their cubs because they aren’t ready to have cubs yet. They said that something was wrong with Hope, so Lily didn’t want to invest more energy in her. They said that Lily knew that if she abandoned her single cub she could mate and have a bigger litter the next year and maximize her reproductive success. They said Lily would probably kill Hope if she saw her again. We tested all of the above by reuniting them. You saw the result in the video. What we learned is that Lily came in heat and was torn. We strongly suspect that one nursing cub (Hope) didn’t stimulate production of enough prolactin to prevent ovulation. Bears around here usually have two or three cubs per litter. We learned that 82 percent of the females in Pennsylvania have their first litters when they turn three (sometimes two) and do just fine. They don’t walk away.

Regarding the Den Cams in a classroom from last night, the teacher said, “We projected the den cam on our white board each day, often for the whole day, from January up until they left the den. The bears became another member of our class. The children would speak to them when they woke up. We would stop whatever we were doing if there was action in the den!"

I haven’t given up on the Den Cams. More on this for next year. We’ll see.

Thank you for all you do.

Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center


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