Faith walks away - Aug 20, 2012 On this whirlwind day, we and the Black Bear Field Course participants visited June, Juliet, Faith, Braveheart, and Jewel. The pictures of bears festooned with bright ribbons and reflective plastic strips tell the stories. We don’t believe any hunter could miss the fact that these are radio-collared research bears. The 2012 Minnesota Hunting Regulations read, “Hunters are asked not to shoot radio collared bears, with brightly-colored streamers or ear tags.” The season starts September 1.
June - Aug 20, 2012June was the hardest bear to get to. We walked for hours in the morning as her signal became ever more distant. She was on the move going the wrong way (for us... not her), and we couldn’t keep up. We had to give up. However, we ended the day with a successful attempt to reach her at her destination.
Braveheart - Aug 20, 2012Braveheart was easy. She was resting in a cedar swamp only 100-200 yards off a forest road. She yawned as Lynn approached her in her soft bed of moss. Braveheart (10) is an experienced research bear and knows the routine of exchanging nuts for access to her collar. When the ribbons and reflective plastic strips were attached to her collar and the nuts were gone, she disappeared into the swamp without a look back.
Faith is developing into super bear. She is seldom seen by the public yet is easy to work with for researchers. We tied ribbons and plastic strips to her collar without incident in exchange for some nuts, and then watched her go about her life.
Juliet - Aug 20, 2012Juliet was her usual mixture of calm and anxiety. She showed one moment of anxiety. Tying on ribbons and bolting plastic strips to her collar is not our usual routine, but she quickly understood that it was okay and let us complete the work.
Jewel - Aug 20, 2012Jewel is always the most difficult. She is skeptical of most touching and expresses that with a long nose and sharp looks. We repeatedly gave her moments to calm down before we resumed familiar routines and transcended into attaching ribbons and plastic. She now looks as gawdy as the other research bears.
Fern excused herself briefly during the process for a moment by herself. The scat she produced before returning was mainly wetland vegetation, including leaves, roots, and rootlets. There were 3-leaved Solomon seal berries (Smilacina racemosa) as well as mountain-ash berries (Sorbus americana).
Barred Owl - Aug 20, 2012We hope to remove the ribbons and plastic late in the hunting season as the bears are settling into dens.
On the way out of the woods at dusk, a barred owl (Strix varia) sat for a picture as it watched us leave.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center