A lot happened today, but the most memorable thing was seeing 6-year-old bruiser Burt. We have no idea where he has been all these years. He left the area as a yearling, as is usual. Of course, we always imagined the worst. We know the average age of males in the hunting kill is 2 years old. Now, 5 years later, he turned up in the study area as if not a day had passed. Burt is the one of the cubs in the Bear Language video. He has kind of a dark face, and still does. Burt had a calm personality as a yearling. He still does. He didn’t flinch a bit as Lynn firmly stroked his head, neck, and back. His heart rate was 120, a little high, but there were no outward signs of anxiety. How can a bear be gone so long and then immediately fall into his old pattern and show immediate recognition? Later in the day, we saw him again. He had no interest in Lynn or anyone else. He was lying at the edge of a forest opening with his nose high in the air with his mouth open sniffing and looking and listening this way and that. It is mating season and he was not to be distracted. It wasn’t wariness that made him so keen about his surroundings. When he focused in a direction, he got up and went toward it rather than away.
The only females available to mate in the area are 12-year-old RC, Braveheart’s 2-year-old daughter Samantha, and June’s 2-year-old daughter Jewel. Jewel and Samantha were both seen or caught on camera in the last two days. RC was caught on camera yesterday with big Loppy who Burt would not want to tangle with. (A thank you to Lily fans who sent trail cameras a year ago to help in the search for Hope.)
We changed the batteries in Juliet’s GPS unit today and confirmed (we think) that mating is over for her this year. A couple days ago we saw that her genitals were no longer swollen. Today, she was calm, not looking around for a male, and seemed to be alone.
Jo is out of the worry zone. She moved deeper into the woods in the 2-square-mile patch of woods partially surrounded by residences.
Late this afternoon, we got confirmation that Dot does not have cubs. She was supposed to have them this year but in radio-tracking her we’ve never seen any. Today, she was seen with a male. Dot must have skipped having cubs for some reason that we will never know.
We posted another video of Lily et al from the footage shot yesterday. It is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3J1jrLeUmo. The pictures of them here are from yesterday as well.
Eagles Nest Township had its annual Rigatoni dinner this evening, and Lynn, his wife Donna, and Sue heard a lot of happy bear stories. Pat and Donna and the Boundary Waters Boys played their new song ‘Bearwalker’ and it was beautiful. They are recording it on their new album this weekend. What an enjoyable community. It would be nice sometime for Lily fans to focus their/our power on a voting contest to help this township if the opportunity ever came up. This is where the bears live. There are many eyes in this community watching for glimpses of bears, learning who they are, etc.
Indoors today, people were working on a 3 DVD set that might be of interest “Lily and Hope: Memories of 2010.” It is all the updates with the video links redirected to videos on the DVD. Watching it today brought back smiles and feelings and joy how things turned out. All the videos of the updates of 2010 are on this DVD. Two other videos in the set are the Den Cam captures from Linda Gibson that she posted to YouTube and Facebook. It was nice to see her clever subtitles and all the memories of the den videos right there.
Also, we installed the much needed microwave that Lily fans sent. Thank you so much for that and for the goodies you sent to the Bear Center. On top of that it was a beautiful day right from the start. Lynn drove slowly to the Research Center from home this morning to take in the woods in the morning light and snap some pictures of nothing but forest.
It was a day to remember.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center