A couple days ago, someone spotted One-eyed Jack back in the study area. Today we saw him ourselves. Relief. We worry every winter that the big males will not survive hunting season. Jack is not radio-collared. The big males’ necks are too big for that. There’s no way to protect them, but they are valuable to the research. Jack is one of the most popular males during mating seasons and the most trusting male for us to accompany when he joins a radio-collared female. He lets us see the details of black bear courting, mating, and defense of females. We can routinely record data and videotape interactions that few have seen. Through the video, bears like Jack, Big Harry, and BBKing provide a window for the world to learn a little more about black bear social behavior.
We last saw BBKing in the fall of 2009 at age 12 and fear he is gone. Big Harry is around, and now Jack has shown up, although both showed up after the mating season. We suspect other areas provided more ‘fertile’ ground during mating season this year. Shylow is another male we are waiting to see this year, but we don’t usually see him during mating season. Shylow will be 9 if he shows up this year. We’re guessing Jack and Harry are in their mid to late teens.
Several times today we lifted Jack’s lip to judge the distance between his cementum-enamel margin on a canine tooth. That margin is where the cementum of the root meets the enamel of the crown, and the distance between that and the gum increases each year. The margin reaches the gum line at 4 years of age and grows beyond it each year thereafter.
The photo from today shows his big, muscular head, his bad eye and good eye, and the orangish cementum on the base of his right lower canine tooth. His teeth are still sharp, showing that he is not in his mid 20’s yet, but the cementum supports our guess that he is 17-18 years old. He was already a big bear when we met him 9 years ago in 2002. Males can grow until they are about 12 years old. Now, he has many white hairs on his back and sides.
Jack has had his troubles. A man bragged that he shot two big bears in the face with shotgun BB’s before we first saw Jack. When we first met him, his eye was running, and did so for years. In the last few years, it has healed into the opaque white eye in the picture. He also had a wound on his upper left side that appeared to be from an arrow that may still be in him. The wound, like his eye, was open and running for years. We scanned him with a metal detector and got a weak signal. One year, he was limping. Another year, in the mating season of 2008, he took a beating from the top dominant male of the area, Lumpy, but came up strong afterward, as is shown in Bearwalker of the Northwoods. The bear he was fighting with, Lumpy (as shown in the mating battle video on bear.org) also has only one eye and may very well be the other bear that was shot by shotgun BB’s. One-eyed Jack looked good today. He immediately knew us, although we hadn’t seen him since last year. It was as if no time has passed. He sat down and let us raise his lip to get a better look at his teeth.
The 8 radio-collared bears are all safe—June, Lily, Hope, Juliet, Dot, Donna, Shirley, and Sharon—although we are consulting with an eye specialist about June’s injured left eye. It was interesting to note yesterday that when Hope approached Faith, Hope grunted sweetly to Faith like only mother bears do—at least so we thought until now.
Team Bear is holding a mini drawing event (2 hours from 7 to 9 PM EST tonight, July 13th) in honor of Hope’s new collar. The drawing will be among those who donate or purchase nuts. Details are at http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=263755115498&topic=21019.
We love the quilt and the 28 people who made it! Here’s a picture. Lilypad Picnickers will see it hanging near the front of the North American Bear Center. It will be up in a couple days.
You are continuing to show that the radio-collared bears bring big benefits to the area where they live. With the support you have thrown behind Soudan Underground Mine State Park, that tiny state park has over 100 times the votes for Yellowstone National Park. Amazing the voting power you are showing as you continue to bring benefit after benefit to the Ely, Tower, Soudan area. At this point, you are on the track to win $100,000 for this little park in Soudan where four of the radio-collared bears live. 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