Liz cleaning the window denTed went for a swim as the other 3 bears waited an hour in their pens, giving Liz a chance to clean dens on her 4th to last day as an intern. She says she wants to get back up to the Bear Center as much as possible next year. We enjoyed having her working hard at podcasts, bear care, and more. She said she learned a lot and much enjoyed her time at the Bear Center.
RCs female cubIn the woods, Jewel and her 3 cubs were looking great today, and RC and her cubs were a joy to watch. We especially liked one of her female cubs posing nicely on a lawn after the landowner gave us a call.
In addition to bears, today was filled with fun at dens with the course participants. 
RC's other female cubEach group has new ideas for fun. One of the participants invited the other participants to look into the deep rock den and Jewel’s den of two winters ago to give a bear’s eye view. The deep rock den is where Lily and Faith denned in 2011-12 and where Lily, Eli, and Ellie denned this past winter. Jewel’s 9-foot burrow is where she denned with yearlings Fern and Herbie in 2012-13.
One of the participants contributed data to our study on habituation by documenting reactions of bears as she jogged at 6:00 AM to 6:25 AM this morning. Bears that are calm and accepting of people at the community feeding stations all ran from the sight of her jogging in 3 difference instances. We’ll interview other joggers about their bear experiences in the community.
 Friendly toad |
 Deep rock den |
 Jewel's den |
 Jewel |
 Climbing out |
 Feather with raindrops |
 Ted swimming |
 Climbing out |
Thank you for your contributions to the food fund for volunteers for the upcoming project.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center
All photos taken today unless otherwise noted.