3 Bear Day

 

Or a 6-bear day if you count cubs.  One benefit of the GPS units on the radio-collars is we can determine when a bear moves to a good location so we can change batteries or swap out the unit. Today was a 3-bear day; June, Jo, and Juliet. All three bears needed new GPS units and all three were in accessible locations.

 

Since moving away from the contested clover patch, June has been unreachable until today. We tried to get to her yesterday but found a logging road had been blocked. We were relieved to see she had moved to a more accessible location today. We headed out as soon as the morning showers ended. We found June foraging on peavine and ant pupae in a clear-cut while her 2 cubs rested high in a white pine. We still have not been able to positively determine the sexes of her cubs, but, when it became obvious they had no intention of coming down, we headed off to find Jo.

 

Yesterday, Jo and her lone cub were in a remote roadless area on the shore of a lake. A boat would have been the only way to reach her. Luckily she moved 2 miles to a more accessible location late yesterday. Today, we found Jo high on a hill among lush vegetation. She approached us with her cub, but the cub had second thoughts and slipped away. After we swapped out Jo’s GPS unit, she began grunting and headed off in search of her cub. We followed. Jo tracked her cub to a group of large white pines. We spotted the cub high in one of the pines, but Jo seemed confused and was grunting and reaching up a different pine. She sorted things out and finally climbed the right pine to encourage her cub down. As they headed off together, we left to find Juliet.

 

 

Juliet separated from her yearlings May 24-25 and was seen the night of May 25 with a male. It is not unusual for males to court females for a week or more, so we hoped to catch sight of her suitor. Juliet came to us from a thick brushy area at the edge of a wetland. We swapped her GPS unit while keeping an eye and ear out for a male, but saw/heard nothing. Juliet headed back into the thick brush (and likely to her suitor) while we headed back to our car as the sky darkened and rain threatened.

 

A video from today will be posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#g/u.

This evening the Bear Center staff held a farewell party for Dr. Ella Ingram. Dr. Ingram is a professor of Applied Biology & Biomedical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. She spent her sabbatical year volunteering at the Bear Center. Thank you, Ella, for sharing your energy and talents with us!

The petition to make the black bear Minnesota’s state mammal is at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/BlackBear-MNState-Mammal/.

The place to leave a comment for protection of radio-collared bears on T. R.’s Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Protect-Minnesotas-Research-Bears/160331730697185.  T. R. will pass your comments to officials.

Minnesota residents who would like to get their legislators on board for the next legislative session, almost a year away, can find your local legislators at http://www.gis.leg.mn/OpenLayers/districts/.

Thank you for all you do.

—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center