Jo's location - Nov 1, 2011In the flight today, we circled Lily and found her signal coming from her den. The signal was active, showing movement. All is well there.
Jo’s GPS locations indicate she and Victoria are continuing the behavior we saw a couple days ago—checking dens. After moving over 2 miles into the heart of their territory, they appear to be bedded in one spot while venturing out to nearby locations, some of which are places where they explored rock dens earlier this year (see video http://www.youtube.com/user/bearstudy#p/u/11/KlpWV5Eci2M). It’s part of the same rock complex and within 160 yards of the den she lost fur trying to squeeze out of last fall (see update http://www.bearstudy.org/website/research/daily-updates/1040-den-dilemma-.html). It’s now November, and she’s a bit late finding a place to settle for the winter. Maybe the place where she’s focusing her efforts is the top choice at this moment. We’ll keep monitoring her movements by GPS until the batteries expire and then pay her a visit to see what she’s up to while replacing the batteries.
WR Field Station - Nov 1, 2011Still no Colleen after 3.2 additional hours of flying. Glenn and Nancy are assembling all details of her history for the best assessment of her status. More soon, but we lean toward believing she is out there and will show up next year as she did this year. This year, after not being seen for nearly 10 months, 8-year-old Colleen showed up looking quite thin on July 21, with 2 male cubs, and without her radio-collar. There is more to this bear than we realize at this time. Perhaps in 2012 we can learn the secret of her disappearance this fall.
A big thank you to all who donated to the Wildlife Research Institute thermometer on bearstudy.org this past year. Those donations made these 3 flights totaling 6.9 hours possible.
One of the pictures shows the WRI Field Station as we flew by it this afternoon. It’s the narrow building with the green roof in the center of the picture. The other picture is the patch of forest where Jo and Victoria are today.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center