When Sue left Lily, Hope, and Faith after 4 hours of observation today, she said to herself, “Faith is going to make it!”
It was an idyllic scene of play, nursing, grooming, resting, and easy foraging. Lily has her milk back. Food is everywhere, and Faith is a growing little ball of energy and initiates play with Hope and Lily.
The first couple weeks of green-up may be ‘the best of times’ as the videos we share over the next few days will show. Videos will be posted to http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u.
Sue came on the scene, the same place the family was yesterday, and found 17 scats surrounding the big red pine that is their refuge tree. They are eating well. Large-leafed aster is dropping off the menu in favor of lush green grass and new shoots of pea vine (Lathyrus spp.). With plenty of food and Lily in good health, her breasts are swollen again. Hope and Faith nurse peaceably side by side, their steady sucking motions indicating a good flow of milk. This was a welcome sight after the flaccid nipples and hesitant nursing we saw after Lily was sick. We feared what she might do if she wasn’t producing milk. Now, all seems well.
A major activity was Lily grooming Faith and Hope. Faith lay on her back with her eyes closed as Lily went over her body inch by inch delicately removing ticks with her incisors. Lily moved Faith into new positions to reach new areas while a relaxed Faith let herself be pulled and pushed without a peep or a look. Then it was Hope’s turn to be groomed with the same reaction from Hope.
A problem, though, was that Faith tried to get in on Hope’s turn, pawing and licking at Hope’s face and Lily’s face.
Faith often initiated play with Hope or Lily. She is getting more independent, exploring away from the two. At one point while Lily was grooming Hope, Faith busied herself tearing apart a rotten stump. She didn’t appear to get any food from it, but her attention span was remarkable.
Sue recorded a peaceful, gentle, playful, and, if we may say so, loving family.
June might have been doing about the same as Lily. She and her two cubs stayed within a diameter of less than 300 yards.
Jo and her cub spent periods in small areas but through the day covered over 1.1 miles. At this moment she is only 131 yards from the residential streets of the town of Tower, which is nearly as close as the shouting distance we mentioned in last night’s update when we found her 93 yards from the town of Soudan last summer. We have not heard any complaints about her, so she seems to know her limits.
Juliet and her 3 yearlings are still covering ground—over a mile and a half today. Juliet’s territory now includes the area where Jo was a couple years ago. As we write this, Juliet is passing the town of Soudan about 300 yards away in the woods. Juliet (8) has been skirting Tower and Soudan much of her life. Her dens the last four winters have been within a mile of one or the other of those towns.
Part of the study is documenting how bears adapt as more and more people move into bear habitat.
The link to show support for making the black bear Minnesota’s state mammal is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/BlackBear-MNState-Mammal/. Anyone, anywhere, of all ages, can sign it if you have an email address.
In the Readers Digest contest to win money for Ely, you still have Ely securely in 6th place (in the money) with only 2 days to go. The link to vote 10 times in a row each day through May 16 is http://wehearyouamerica.readersdigest.com/town.jsp?town=ELY&state=MN.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center