It’s June day, and she celebrated by pigging out on raspberries and wild sarsaparilla berries with ant pupae for dessert. After a cold spring that slowed ant reproduction, the recent hot weather has resulted in a spate of bears tearing into ant colonies in logs. Reproductive rate in ants, i.e., producing larvae and pupae that bears eat, is dependent upon temperature.
Gentle June (right) is such a dear. She let us examine her eye along with giving her the 7th dose of amoxicillin today. We are overjoyed that she will likely have at least some sight in the eye while at the same time wondering how cruel someone can be to shoot a load of fine shot into the face of a bear.
We remember the early years with June and the potential she showed as a research bear in those days. She has lived up to it, providing data in her 10.5 years far beyond what anyone would think possible, and the data becomes more valuable each year in the context of her history. Long-term studies of any animals are rare and productive. No bear has been studied in such detail for as long as June.
When we accompanied Lily and family today, they were moving through unproductive swampy habitat. Lily produced a scat that showed where she was coming from, and her GPS locations showed where she was headed. The scat contained half raspberries (from a clear-cut) and half alder-leafed buckthorn berries (edges of forest openings). She ended up in another clear-cut where they presumably dove into raspberries again. The scat also contained traces of ants and wild sarsaparilla berries. Faith pictured at left.
As an aside, wolves are probably also eating raspberries now. Some years back, Lynn video-taped a pack of wolves foraging on raspberries at this time of year. Deer fawns are becoming hard to catch now, and adult deer are again in good condition after the hard, snowy winter, making them hard to catch too.
All the radio-collared bears are safe.
A Lily fan found an easier link to get to the voting site for Soudan Underground Mine State Park http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 . In 24 hours, you cast an amazing 54,704 votes, pulling more than 12,000 votes farther ahead of number 3 and pulling 5,693 votes closer to number 1.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
Happy 86th Birthday Mom! Love you! – Sue