No bear news except that Honey was up again. At 8 AM, she was in her den breathing about as slowly as one would expect—an even 3 breaths per minute. Later she was up checking for tidbits. We hope she loses a good amount over winter. Last winter she lost very little. The little bit she ate in her state of reduced metabolism was enough to keep her from losing a normal amount over winter. Her current weight of 446 pounds is heavier than any wild female that’s ever been part of our research.
Speaking about the research, a Lily fan discovered this article about our research in a 1992 issue of National Wildlife Magazine http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/1992/He-s-Just-One-of-the-Bears.aspx. The article includes Gerry, who Lynn says is the only bear that ever really liked him. It was nice to reminisce, but we’ve come a long way since then.
And we’ll come a good bit further when we learn what Lily and Hope have to show us this winter on the den cam.
A big thank you to Team Bear for the creative auctions and other fund-raising activities they come up with for Lily fans to help fulfill the missions of the North American Bear Center and the Wildlife Research Institute. We watch with gratitude as this team and all of you work toward those research and education goals. And what a difference it has made. We often think how far this group has come as people stepped forward, filled voids, formed teams, and provided structures to make Lily fans ever more effective in working for bears. There is so much talent and heart in this group.
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Team Bear
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Jill Wheaton Lindsey
Olatz Azcona Munarriz
Lis Rosenberg
Julie Houghton
Mary Patri Auldrich
Mary Verpia
Yvonne H. Thiede
Deb Kelly
Josephine O’Ryan
Carol Madorma Aldinger
Teresa Cox Fortney
Kerry Mahoney
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Sue Gottscho
Becky Hollis
Suzie Saliga
Martha Deaver
Rhonda Hennis
Lori Collins Lindsay
Kathy (Redkat) Blake
Lynne Harland
Guin Heeler
Nancy Liu
Jan Cohen
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One of the things we are relieved to see is that all is not lost for the Bear Tales book. Last spring, there were over a hundred stories in the file. Then disaster struck. The editor disappeared and, just as we had found a new editor, a miscommunication with a computer technician caused the files to be deleted. Now you have re-sent 72 of your stories and the new editor is poised to turn them into a book of simple everyday short stories that show what black bears are really like.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center