Jewel and cubs - July 23, 2012A great day with the Bear Course group! Half of the group is from the UK and half from the US. Three of the 8 are major volunteers for the Bear Center and/or Research. Today, we checked on Jewel, Juliet, and Lily. Jewel and cubs were feeding on red raspberries (Rubus sp.) and ant pupae in an old clear-cut but then switched to eating wild calla (Calla palustrus) in a marsh. How they avoid problems with oxalic acid crystals from the calla harming their intestinal tissues we don’t know. We believe bears hold more unsolved medical mysteries than anyone has even thought much about.
Herbie - July 23, 2012Scats from Juliet and her cubs showed they were eating mainly wild sarsaparilla berries (Aralia nudicaulis)—a forest plant—and a few ants as evidenced by a few ant heads in the scats. The pupae often are not noticeable in the droppings. In fact, we didn’t realize the importance of ant pupae in their diet until we started watching them forage.
Fern with Herbie behind - July 23, 2012The cubs were cute, of course, but the bear that stole hearts was calm, gentle Lily. Watching from a distance, participants kept remarking how beautiful Lily’s eyes were. We caught Lily resting in a dense cedar/alder (Thuja occidentalis/Alnus rugosa) swamp (heart rate 80/minute). Her eyes, facial expressions, and reactions showed calm trust as Lynn changed her GPS batteries to keep her stream of GPS locations coming to our computers every 10 minutes.
We’re hoping the Pond Cam at the Bear Center will be more reliable as Frontier Telephone Company gets on top of the problems caused by the big lightning storm of a couple weeks ago.
Lily's familiar face - July 23, 2012The LilyPad Picnic continues to get bigger. The silent auction was over twice as big as last year with over 235 items. The check to the Bear Center from the picnic this year was a staggering $15,000 compared to the amazing $10,000 from last year. What a surprise! Next year’s Lilypad Picnic is scheduled for July 19-21, 2013.
More and more people are submitting volunteer applications to work at the Bear Center or to work offsite by computer or in other ways. The Volunteer tab at www.bear.org includes a list of jobs volunteers are needed to do. Jobs include online moderating, den watching, education outreach, speakers bureau, public relations, fundraising, grounds maintenance, nature trail construction, computer assistance, graphic design, writing, and visitor relations. More job descriptions are being written. Let us know your interests, abilities, and availabilities to have on file. New volunteer opportunities will emerge as we grow and the Hope Education Building is completed. Between the Lilypad Picnic and recent donations the building fund is over $545,000, leaving $355,000 to go. Ground-breaking is tentatively scheduled for October 1st.
Thank you for all you are doing.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center