One worry has ended. One-eyed Jack is back. He was seen 4 miles away. He’s usually the first bear spotted in the study area between Ely and Tower in mid-April. This year it was July 10. This gives us hope. For the first year since we can remember, few of the big males were seen until this last week when Crackle and regal Baloo were spotted. Now Jack.
We sent Jim Stroner to try to get a picture of Jack for the update. The picture he emailed was not up to his usual standards, but it’s the best we have.
The other picture is of timid Crackle, shedding a bit more on his sides and looking very big. How can such a big bear be so skittish? But he is.
We’re waiting and hoping to hear of sightings of Shylow, Big Harry, V-dot, and Pete. These are the males that ignore us and accompany the radio-collared females during mating season. Where they’ve been is a mystery. Each year, they mysteriously disappear in late August, leaving us to wonder how they are until the next spring. This year they kept us in suspense too long.
A big thank you to Team Bear and the many participants in the drawing to build Honey’s refuge pen. With the surprise anonymous donation of a $1,000 at the end, you gave over $4,000, nearly enough to build the pen from donations of Lily fans alone. You can imagine the start we got when the $1,000 surprise put the thermometer over $650,000—another landmark. Congratulations to Jane Leuer for winning the grand prizes and to Peggy Sperides, Debbie Johnson, Sydney Landreneau, Karen Bohannon, and Laura Mastronardi for winning the token prizes.
Thank you, too, for your support in ordering the 3-DVD set of the full-length BBC version of “The Bear Family & Me” at http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=841&category_id=8 .
200,122 votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park! That’s over 25,000 votes today. Amazing! To vote, go to http://www.livepositively.com/#/americasparks/leaderboard and vote over and over.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center