Temps are low and the snow has hardly started to melt. Lily and Jo are holding tight to their bed sites, which is common for mothers with young cubs. We’re glad to think of little Faith resting, nursing, and growing stronger by the day.
However, we expect the big males to be roaming at this time of year and this spring snow provided us with a rare opportunity to track one. We found where it had scent-marked by back-rubbing trees, straddling saplings, and stomp-walking. However, we weren’t the only ones tracking the bear. And the tracks of that ‘tracker’ were more exciting than the bear tracks. A bobcat had neatly stepped in the big ole bear tracks! It tracked the bear for about 25 feet before doubling back and continuing on its way. Bobcats are uncommon here. In fact we’ve never seen bobcat tracks near the field station before. They’re more common in deciduous forests and are fairly rare here where the forest transitions from deciduous to boreal.
We received the DNR veterinarian’s preliminary report on Jason today. It said the left knee was swollen to three times the size of the right knee. If poor Jason had an injured knee for awhile, it could explain his apparent lack of coordination and slower development while being the same size as Faith. Maybe he was just as well developed as Faith but had a hurt knee. If that’s true, no wonder he didn’t want to climb as high in trees as Faith or follow Lily as readily. No wonder he would hang back and cry when the others went off.
Jason had a number of bruises that the veterinarian attributed to bites. We don’t want to over-interpret this, but we can imagine him hanging back on the 0.42 mile trip on Friday, April 8th, and being picked up. Could that cause the bruising? One bite was across the head. We’ll know more when the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory completes their tests on tissue samples.
Several elementary school classes have sent dozens of beautiful drawings and heartfelt messages commemorating Jason. His death has been a difficult but important lesson for many.
You’ve continued to keep us solidly in 6th place in the Readers Digest contest to win money for Ely. The link to vote 10 times in a row per day is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
Please check for recently uploaded ‘bearstudy’ videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center