Last night I forgot to mention that it was the day of the Beaver Moon, that some sources was named because it is when beavers make preparations for winter. That was why I focused on beavers. It’s hard to be 80.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is Give to the Max Day. Scott, Judy, and Sharon will kick off the festivities tonight at 11:30 PM Bear Time (CST) on our Special Events cam here: https://bear.org/watch-us-live/special-events. The festivities continue tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Staff will continue broadcasts at the top of every hour until midnight. I get to be on with Donna, Scott, Judy, and Sharon at 7 and 8 PM.
This year all of the donations will be used towards improving the bears' enclosures. The goal of $35,000 will help us get the first phase of this project underway.
As in past years there will be hourly drawings for Golden Tickets, so if you are planning to make a donation, you may want to consider breaking up your donation in to smaller amounts to improve the chances of winning a Golden Ticket. 
Flying SquirrelThere are 24 hourly $1000 Golden Tickets and 96 quarter-hourly $500 Golden Tickets to be drawn plus one chance for the overall $10,000 Golden Ticket…more donations increase your odds!
Out the window at the WRI, northern flying squirrels are active at 19°F, but we haven’t seen tracks of raccoons on the recent cold days. This is near the northern edge of the raccoon range, while the range of northern flying squirrels extends up into northern Canada and much of Alaska.
A registrant for a course this coming summer wrote this ‘Ode to Beavers’ based on last night’s update:
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We were not planning on going in so soon, A beaver's life is a hard one indeed, Time will tell when we come out, |
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center