Braveheart and cubs at den - Oct 15, 2011Between 6:21 and 6:32 PM this evening, Lily moved out of the cedar swamp where she and Faith have been for 12 days and crossed a road into upland. She then kept us in suspense for over 2 hours before transmitting a GPS reading at 8:43 PM from the same rock den she and Faith tried out on Oct 3rd (see update). Today is a week short of when she entered a den last year. By 9:44 PM, she was at a bedsite 0.44 miles from the den. She manages to keep us guessing!
Braveheart also made a move. Yesterday at 3:09 PM, she stopped sending GPS signals. We assumed that her GPS batteries had expired since it was the 11th day on those batteries. We usually change them at 10 days. We assumed she was still in the same place. We were wrong. Sometime between 3:09 PM yesterday and when we saw them today at 12:25 PM, the family moved over 500 yards, made a den, and started raking bedding into it. It’s possible the lack of GPS locations was because she was in the den a lot or because the collar got turned on her neck.
a peek inside Braveheart's den - October 15, 2011As we came over a hill, we saw Braveheart and one of the cubs in the valley. The other two cubs were in the den but came out when we arrived. Braveheart hardly bothered to look at us. She was checking a sound intently in another direction and walked toward it. In the 12 minutes we were there, we managed to change her batteries and snap pictures of the den. This afternoon, the family moved 166 yards in the direction Braveheart was looking when we arrived. We don’t know what she was listening to or thinking. Will she return, or is she going to play musical dens like last year. That’s part of what keeps us in suspense glued to the computer screen each day. At this writing (9:40 PM), she seems to be moving back toward the den.
Jo is continuing her short movements as usual.
June’s GPS unit has stopped transmitting, so we need to get to her as soon as logistics will allow—hopefully tomorrow. She has been in one place for many days. It’s possible she has a den. We’re anxious to see.
There’s been a setback on the pond repair. The electrician was there to run the wire through the underground pipe and turn on the waterfalls, but he found that the pipe was broken and has to be dug up. More time. More expense.
The pond expense brings up the $100,000 you raised from Chase Community Giving. When we received the $100,000 last year, we immediately applied it to debt reduction. Chase preferred, but did not demand, that we use the money for improvements, including the pond and waterfalls repair, so as expenses occurred, we credited them against the Chase money. The remaining $27,000 of that money will go toward the pond and waterfalls repair. The thermometer never wavered because as we diverted Chase money to improvements, we credited the profits from your purchases this past year and a half to debt reduction. It all adds up to the same amount. The difference is that we are crediting Lily fans with debt reduction and Chase for the improvements and repairs. Your donations and purchases are what reduced the debt to what we see today. Thank you again.
Tomorrow is the last day of the bear hunt. Our relief will be tempered by the sting of losing Hope.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center