Victoria's glowing eyes behind Jo! - March 14, 2012Record high temperatures are being set all over the region this week—some breaking records set over a century ago. Duluth was 33 F above the average for this day at 66 (68 by one report). International Falls set a record at 56. The high temperature for Ely was 66 F, beating the old record of 51 and the average high of 32F. We saw the first mosquito—a month earlier than usual and over 2 months before they usually become common.
Jewel's family snoozes - March 14, 2012The heat raised havoc with Jewel’s Den Cam. Between the blazing hot sun and the pilot light in the equipment shed, the temperature inside rose enough to shut down some of the equipment. We had planned for the cold by thoroughly insulating the den shed. We never thought it could get too warm. Once we figured out heat was the problem, we turned off the propane and opened the door. The equipment regained function. We’ll leave the propane off for now.
Jewel paws at cam tube - March 14, 2012Jewel managed to 'rearrange' the Den Cam tube today—great view of roots hanging from the wall of her den. We're hoping she goes out to eat snow soon and nudges it back in place.
A video of yesterday's highlights in Jewel's den is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW7ku0itfXc.
Jo has been out raking - March 14, 2012We didn’t hear of Jewel or Lily coming out today, but when we checked Jo and Victoria’s den, tracks showed they had been out raking newly exposed leaves into their den, which is in a road culvert. The pictures show the raked area, the culvert den entrance, and Jo sleeping inside on the dry bedding from last fall and the new wet leaves she just raked in. We didn’t alert her by talking and tried to be quiet but we were still surprised the flash picture into the den found her still sleeping (with Victoria’s awake and glowing eyes peering over her). We can’t see her collar, so Jo has likely removed it like Jewel did.
High-stepping Herbie - March 13, 2012We haven’t heard of any bears roaming in this region, so we suspect the extent of bears leaving their dens is what we are seeing—brief jaunts to eat snow by the entrance or to rake in more bedding as it becomes available where the snow has melted away.
We put a Trail Cam (donated by a Lily Fan, thank you) at Jo and Victoria’s den to get more information on time and frequency of emergences and what they do while they are out. We hope their investigation of the new object is gentle.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center