Today, a local Lily fan spotted a mother and 3 cubs in Braveheart’s territory and gave us a call. We raced to the spot. Braveheart was crossing a woods road. The cubs were ahead of her and running for cover to escape the danger (us). We have not had a chance to get to know them yet. We called out to Braveheart. She hurried faster at the sound of voices. Just before ducking into the woods, she paused. We said the familiar phrases (It’s me, bear, etc.) and made familiar motions. She took a step our way and finally believed us and came. Her heart rate was a little high at 90, but she paid no attention as we fitted her with the radio-collar and GPS unit. Braveheart is a jewel. We just hope she is good and keeps her collar on this time.
Braveheart makes 9 radio-collared bears at the moment—Braveheart, June, Lily, Juliet, Dot, Donna, Shirley, Sharon, and Star. You probably noticed that Hope wasn’t listed this time. We picked her radio-collar up today and are looking for another chance to get it back on her. Thank you for the fundraising event last night to obtain nuts for radio-collaring. Ironically, the nuts will be used in part to get Hope’s collar back on her. We forgot to grab a camera on our way out the door to collar her, so no pictures of Braveheart today.
Last night's picture of One-eyed Jack wasn't that flattering, so we thought we owed it to him to post a better one. He is so great, he deserves better (right).
Today we saw Pete, yet another of the males we have been hoping to see. He has a distinctive scar behind his right front leg from a hunting wound he suffered when he was two (second from right).
We continue to monitor June’s injured eye. The wound has not changed her sweet personality (left).
On our way back from visiting June we saw 24-year-old Shadow in a tree with her 3 cubs (second from left).
We hope people are noticing how much you are doing to bring benefits to the area where the radio-collared bears live—the Ely, Soudan, Tower area. The effort you are making to bring $100,000 to Soudan Underground Mine State Park is phenomenal. In the last 5 minutes, you put their votes over a quarter million—3 times the number of votes for 2nd place. No other park is making the effort you are. 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 Res
earch Institute and North American Bear Center