Tension continues between June and Lily as they try to use the same area. At this moment, they are about 120 yards apart as measured on Google Earth from their GPS locations. None of the locations are together, so they are keeping their distances.
Juliet and her yearlings are still together as of 3 PM today. Juliet is foraging where Jo spent so much time in a 230 yard diameter area a couple weeks ago, and Jo is where we picked up Juliet’s collar a week or so ago. They might be deciding some things, too. Jo led her cub 1. 5 miles today. Lily and June traveled shorter distances with their cubs. Spring is typically the time we see boundaries tested and shifts in territories.
A cute video taken yesterday of a persistent Faith is posted at http://ww
Yesterday was Dot’s Day. Her full story would take a book. Dot and Donna were Blackheart’s first cubs back in 2000. They are the cubs sleeping and sitting on Lynn’s lap and getting weighed (Dot, “6 pounds”) by the den in “The Man Who Walks With Bears” on Animal Planet beginning in 2001. Dot had problems with Blackheart and Grandma Shadow as a yearling and ended up with a swollen forearm from a bite. She decided to leave their territories. At first, she settled just 3.25 miles away but now has expanded her range to 13 miles away. Dot and her first litter, in 2003, were the denned bears in the BBC’s "Wildlife On One" which used high-tech innovations to reveal the lives of newborn cubs in a den. Dot was good enough to lift her leg when Lynn placed a tiny infra-red camera underneath her with the cubs. Yet she lunged out of the den when someone approached she didn’t recognize. She has never hurt anyone. There is much to tell about her travels, and we hope to put it all together for a book chapter when we can.
Dot is one of the bears that makes us work so hard for protection. She is 11 years old and her history makes her invaluable as she puts on the years. She’s had 10 cubs and was supposed to have a litter this year. Glenn and Nancy, who know her best, say her nipples are not swollen and she is moving fast and far, so she apparently skipped this year like Donna did last year. Mating season is about to start, and her travels may be an indication of estrus. We’ll see how males respond to her in the next couple weeks. She is one of the bears that adores One-eyed Jack, and he has a habit of tracking her down during mating season.
We got this email from Representative Phyllis Kahn who is an ally of the research bears. As you saw in her testimony at the legislature, she sees the value of the science, the education, and the economics to Minnesota from these bears and is doing her best to protect the study. She wrote,
“Yesterday, the omnibus game and fish bill (SF 943) passed off the House floor with my amendment giving moderate protection to radio collared bears. The will now go to conference committee. Please urge the members of the committee, Governor Dayton, and the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources to support this language in the final bill.
Members of the conference committee are:
Gov Mark Dayton 651-201-3400
From our perspective here at the Research Center, a word of support from Commissioner Landwehr or Governor Dayton would probably assure that the amendment survives this committee. We’ll see if the power of Team Protect, Lily’s army, and T. R.’s blogs can make a difference by emailing and calling the members of the conference committee above.
Also, T. R.’s Facebook for registering your comments to protect the research bears is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-Minnesotas-Research-Bears/160331730697185. T. R. will bring your comments to the officials.
Calls, letters, and emails from Minnesota residents to their state representatives and state senators are needed. To find your local legislators, here is a legislator finder http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/.
If you haven’t already signed the petition to make the black bear Minnesota’s state mammal, the petition is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/BlackBear-MNState-Mammal/.
There is fierce competition for the top spots to win support for the International Wolf Center at http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/411543539-international-wolf-center?src=twitter. You are keeping us in the big money ($100,000) in 10th place, 500 votes ahead of 11th place. It is scary to think where we will get enough votes to stay in the money. Each person can vote only once. There are only 4 days to go. Voting ends May 25. Spread the word!
Thank you for all you are doing toward protection. Thank you so much.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
PS: As of this moment (5:06 PM CT), June has moved a quarter mile away from Lily, Hope, and Faith. We’ll see in the future what this means in terms of territory ownership.