Heidi gives Holly a bottleHolly is weaning herself from her bottle. When given a choice, she takes nuts and red grapes. Today, with the bottle her only choice at the moment, she eagerly took it in front of the viewing windows.
A breakthrough today was Holly coming when called. Sharon knew she had to put Holly in her pen in preparation for plumbers entering the enclosure tomorrow morning to change the filters in the pond. The staff had lowered the pond level to help with that. Holly was nowhere to be seen. Sharon called for about 20 minutes. Then Holly appeared, entered her pen and got a reward.
BraveheartOut in the woods, Aster may be a risk-taker. At dawn this morning, she was back in the area where she and Lily met up a few days ago. On that day, Aster had trailed Lily for 2.15 miles. This morning, Aster moved deeper into Lily’s territory and ran into Lily about 5:40 AM. Over the next 4.5 hours, the two followed similar paths, meeting up at least 3 more times before parting ways. We don’t know who was following whom. Both bears should be pregnant with similar desires to enlarge their territories in preparation for raising litters. We’re surprised that 3-year-old Aster seems to be contesting a part of 7-year-old Lily’s territory. We’ll see who ends up with it.
In the neighborhood, 15-year-old RC finally made her first appearance of the year—with 3 cubs (no photos yet). She appeared at the two feeding stations she first visited as a cub with her mother Shadow back in 1999. She now includes the WRI in her travels but didn’t make it here today. She is good about bringing her cubs in for viewing. We look forward to seeing them.
Here at WRI, we were glad to see 12-year-old Braveheart again this evening. She is undoubtedly pregnant and seemed hungry. She didn’t want any competitors. A yearling saw her and climbed fast. Later, she saw him on the ground and chased him up another white pine.
For a chance to observe some of these wild bears, consider signing up for one of the vacancies in the Black Bear Field Study courses. For more information see http://www.bearstudy.org/website/field-study-courses.html.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.